2005 Commencement Speaker

Lorene Cary

Read Commencement Speech

Author, lecturer and committed social activist Lorene Cary will speak at Muhlenberg College’s 157th Commencement on Sunday, May 22, 2005. Approximately 500 undergraduates will receive their degrees during Commencement exercises, which will be held on the historic Muhlenberg quad.

Cary, who has published three novels, has appeared at more than 45 meetings, classrooms and lecture halls to promote reading—especially to young people—and to encourage the entire community to come together in meaningful discussion.

She also founded a program entitled Art Sanctuary, a national model of workshops and specialized educational programs by African-American artists for inner-city residents. Since then, Art Sanctuary has featured more than 200 artists, from novelist John Edgar Wideman to hip-hop recording artists The Roots to the legendary jazz duo Mitchell and Ruff. Art Sanctuary also features innovative education programs from citywide “read-ins” to a teen after-school project that turns elders’ oral histories into a stunning multimedia theater production.

In addition, Cary is a university lecturer and was awarded the 1998 Provost's Award for Distinguished Teaching. She has taught classes from sunday school to high school and lectured throughout the United States.

Along with the aforementioned accomplishments, Cary is an accomplished journalist and has been a contributing editor of Newsweek, an associate editor at TV Guide and has contributed essays and articles to The New York Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer Sunday Magazine, American Visions, Essence, Mirabella, and Philadelphia magazine.

For her dedication to her work, Cary has received a Pew Fellowship in the Arts and residencies at Yaddo and Civitella Ranieri in Italy. Her service awards include the Philadelphia Award for 2002; the Rector’s Medal from St. Paul’s School; the Advocate Community Development Corporation's Award for Urban Excellence; Philadelphia Historical Society Founder's Medal for History in Culture; and the American Red Cross Spectrum Rising Star Award for Community Service.