The World Is Waiting for You: Graduation Speeches to Live By from Activists, Writers, and Visionaries

by Tara Grove (Editor), Isabel Ostrer (Editor)

Overview

Inspiring commencement speeches from Wynton Marsalis, Toni Morrison, Gloria Steinem, and others: “The perfect gift for grads-to-be” (O, The Oprah Magazine).
 
“The voices of conformity speak so loudly. Don’t listen to them,” acclaimed author and award-winning journalist Anna Quindlen cautioned graduates of Grinnell College. Jazz virtuoso and educator Wynton Marsalis advised new Connecticut College alums not to worry about being on time, but rather to be in time—because “time is actually your friend. He don’t come back because he never goes away.” And renowned physician and humanitarian Paul Farmer revealed at the University of Delaware his remarkable discovery—the new disease Empathy Deficit Disorder—and assured the commencers it could be cured.
 
The prescient, fiery feminism of Gloria Steinem sits parallel to that of celebrated writer Ursula K. Le Guin, who asks, “What if I talked like a woman right here in public?” Nobel Prize–winning author Toni Morrison sagaciously ponders how people centuries from now will perceive our current times, and Pulitzer Prize–winning author Barbara Kingsolver asks those born into the Age of Irony to “imagine getting caught with your Optimism hanging out” and implores us always to act and speak the truth.
 
With eighteen rousing graduation speeches, The World Is Waiting for You speaks to anyone who might take to heart the advice of Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards—“life as an activist, troublemaker, or agitator is a tremendous option and one I highly recommend”—and is the perfect gift for all who are ready to move their tassels to the left.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781620970904
Publisher:	New Press, The
Publication date:	04/01/2015
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	426,533
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.60(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Tara Grove is the education editor at The New Press. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and lives in New York City. Isabel Ostrer is a recent graduate of Harvard University and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. They both went to college to figure out how they could make the world a more humane place to live.

List of Contributors/Speech Locations
Anna Quindlen – Grinnell College, 2011 (Grinnell, Iowa)
Wynton Marsalis – Connecticut College, 2001 (New London, Connecticut)
Barbara Kingsolver – Duke University, 2008 (Durham, North Carolina)
Marian Wright Edelman – Muhlenberg College, 2008 (Allentown, Pennsylvania)
Noam Chomsky – American University of Beirut, 2013 (Lebanon)
Toni Morrison – Rutgers University, 2011 (New Brunswick, New Jersey)
Gloria Steinem – Smith College, 2007 (Northampton, Massachusetts)
Tony Kushner – Vassar College, 2002 (Poughkeepsie, New York)
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – Kalamazoo College, 2009 (Kalamazoo, Michigan)
Paul Farmer – University of Delaware, 2013 (Newark, Delaware)
Martha Nussbaum – Connecticut College, 2009 (New London, Connecticut)
Oliver Stone – UCLA, 2009 (Los Angeles, California)
Paul Hawken – University of Portland, 2009 (Portland, Oregon)
Isabel Wilkerson – Bates College, 2014 (Lewiston, Maine)
Howard Zinn – Spelman College, 2005 (Atlanta, Georgia)
Cecile Richards – Barnard College, 2014 (New York, New York)
Theodore Shaw – Wesleyan University, 2014 (Middletown, Connecticut)
Ursula K. Le Guin – Mills College, 1983 (Oakland, California)

Table of Contents

Learn Not to Listen Anna Quindlen 1

Be In Time Wynton Marsalis 13

How to be Hopeful Barbara Kingsolver 25

To All My Children Marian Wright Edelman 39

Who Will Defend The Earth? Noam Chomsky 47

The Pursuit of Meaningfulness Toni Morrison 53

Go the Distance Gloria Steinem 61

The World Is Waiting For You Tony Kushner 73

Allow Hope But Also Fear Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 91

On Empathy and Reason Paul Farmer 99

Not for Profit Martha Nussbaum 119

Know Your History Oliver Stone 133

The Earth is Hiring Paul Hawken 143

Make This World a Better Place Isabel Wilkerson 151

Against Discouragement Howard Zinn 161

Listen to Your Mother Cecile Richards 171

Don't Wait to Change the World Theodore M. Shaw 181

A Left-Handed Commencement Address Ursula K. Le Guin 193

Contributors 199

Permissions 207

Editorial Reviews

"The perfect gift for grads-to-be."
-O, The Oprah Magazine

From the Publisher

03/01/2015
Grove (education editor, the New Press) and Ostrer (recent Harvard Univ. graduate) present 19 college and university commencement speeches from the 21st century by a diverse selection of authors and notable figures—Howard Zinn, Barbara Kingsolver, and Wynton Marsalis, to name but a few—with one well-chosen outlier from the 1980s. The focus on current addresses ensures that readers comprehend context regarding these troubled times, but a bit more historical perspective may have been useful. While compilations of inspirational commencements abound, greater breadth in this volume could have enhanced the speakers' messages of hopefulness by showing readers that, despite the urgency of today's woes, this is not the first crop of graduating classes to face an uncertain future. A few contributors do include that viewpoint, and nearly all successfully bring it around: "it" being their narrative and "around" meaning moving from bleak realities to luminescent possibilities, just as a graduation speech ought. VERDICT This collection runs the gamut with speeches ranging from inspiring to bleak with a few loopy or boring for good measure and accuracy.—Jewell Anderson, Savannah Country Day Sch. Lib., GA

Library Journal

2015-01-19
A collection of recent graduation speeches meant to inspire, edited by New Press education editor Grove and recent Harvard grad Ostrer. A great deal of importance is placed upon graduating from college, that day of pomp, of endings and beginnings, and colleges have become very competitive in seeking out luminaries to deliver those rousing speeches to the graduates. With nearly 2,000 speeches to be given every year—and that's just the private, four-year institutions—it's a tall order to put together a speech that lives on after the mortarboards launch skyward. The ones that do transcend, though, can be powerful calls to take heed of what came before. With a mix of speeches from journalists, scientists, musicians, novelists and others, the forms of inspiration found here run the gamut. Thoughts from recognizable names are recognizable in content but also offer few surprises: Oliver Stone speaking about treating the mind like a garden, for example. Toni Morrison, speaking of a time when "the language at the feet of the Statue of Liberty has been paved over," attempts to close the imagination gap required to move that notion from an impossibility to an inevitability. Tony Kushner says "hope grapples endlessly with despair," and it rings true. Reading the speeches from before 9/11 and after is both heartbreaking and uplifting, and the tonal shifts are apparent. The contributor list is impressive and includes Anna Quindlen, Barbara Kingsolver, Noam Chomsky, Gloria Steinem, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Howard Zinn, Ursula K. Le Guin and Bryan Stevenson. Not all the speeches break new ground, but they are uplifting in their overarching focus: There is important work to be done in this world, regardless of the large and small events of our lives.

Kirkus Review