LCA Virtual Class Day 2020

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

VIRTUAL CLASS DAY CELEBRATION MONDAY, JUNE 1, 2020

2020

Princeton University’s LEWIS CENTER FOR THE ARTS

A Note from Tracy K. Smith Chair, Lewis Center for the Arts

I join the faculty and staff of the Lewis Center for the Arts in extending an especially warm welcome to the graduating students in the class of 2020.

Today’s Class Day ceremony is a celebration of your commitment, throughout your time at Princeton, to asking the big questions in creative and arresting ways. Who are we? What do we mean to one another? What have we gotten right? What are we getting wrong? What shape might our collective future take?

This year in particular, Class Day is a celebration of the ways that art brings people together—and the ways it brings each of us into closer contact with our own quiet thoughts, our own hopes and preoccupations. If ever the world has needed bright, young, creative people helping us to look at the world and ourselves with more courage and compassion, it is now. My colleagues and I are grateful to have worked with and learned from you, and we’re eager to see what each of you does using all the remarkable tools at your disposal.

The Lewis Center for the Arts is home to Princeton’s Programs in Creative Writing, Dance, Theater, Music Theater and Visual Arts, as well as the interdisciplinary Princeton Atelier. Our students come from every corner of the university, and they marry their scholarly interests to deep and rigorous creative work. Faculty and staff hold a special place in our hearts for the Class of 2020, who helped us inaugurate the Lewis Center’s newest physical space—the Lewis Arts complex, which opened in the fall of 2017.

Artists are no strangers to change, challenge and upheaval. We dive into uncertainty with the desire to make headway, to find new kinds of sense, to startle ourselves out of anxiety and into new and sometimes unsettling forms of clarity. Each of you has risen to that occasion time and again during your time at Princeton. And this spring, in a time of global uncertainty, glaring injustice, and grave loss, your commitment to paying attention, staying present, and being honest and vulnerable has helped to keep our community intact. Witnessing you bring your independent work to fruition in one of the strangest semesters in living memory has been a source of hope and continuity for more people than you may realize. Thank you for keeping at it, and helping to make this time more livable and more joyful for all of us.

Princeton University’s LEWIS CENTER FOR THE ARTS

2020

PROGRAM IN CREATIVE WRITING

Jhumpa Lahiri, Director of the Program in Creative Writing

Congratulations Class of 2020 Certificate Students!

Serena Alagappan David V. Babikian Sarah K. Barnette Liana T. Cohen Robert Cody Cortes Yousef M. Elzalabany Arianah F. Hanke Nathaniel Hickok Matthew T. Igoe E Jeremijenko-Conley

Somi S. Jun Eunice Lee Scooter Liapin Allegra E. Martschenko Liza Milov Abigail B. Minard Rasheeda Saka Destiny Salter Peter C. Schmidt Grace C. R. Searle

Alexandra M. Spensley Emilie G. Szemraj Khanh K. Vu Heather D. Waters Jacob D. Wheeler Alice Xu Cooper G. Young Kevin J. Zou

Senior Awards

The Theodore Weiss Award This award was established in 2004 in memory of Professor Weiss, distinguished poet, founder and editor of the Quarterly Review of Literature, and Professor of English and Creative Writing. Presented annually to a promising young poet or, in exceptional circumstances, a fiction writer.

Somi S. Jun The Theodore H. Holmes ’51 and Bernice Holmes Poetry Prize Established as part of a charitable trust created in 1999 by Bernice Holmes, this prize is in memory of her brother Theodore H. Holmes ’51. Presented each year to a single talented poet who is also an undergraduate student of Princeton University.

Grace C. R. Searle Outstanding Work by a Senior Award This award was created to honor one or more outstanding seniors for distinctive achievement in Creative Writing.

Serena Alagappan Nathaniel Hickok Pria M. Louka David V. Babikian

Audrey A. Spensley Robert Cody Cortes

Cooper G. Young Sergio M. De Iudicibus

Samuel Shellabarger Memorial Prize in Creative Writing This fund is awarded annually to a senior who, in fulfillment of the senior thesis requirement, shows great promise of future literary excellence.

Alexandra M. Spensley

2020

Princeton University’s LEWIS CENTER FOR THE ARTS

Joyce Carol Oates Award This prize was established in 2014 in the name of Joyce Carol Oates, Roger S. Berlind ’52 Professor in the Humanities, Emeritus; Professor of Creative Writing, Emeritus. The prize is awarded annually to a promising young fiction writer or, in exceptional circumstances, a poet.

Jacob D. Wheeler Edmund Keeley Literary Translation Award This prize was established in 2016 in the name of Edmund Keeley, Charles Barnwell Straut Class of 1923 Professor of English, Emeritus, Professor of English and Creative Writing, Emeritus. The prize is awarded to a promising young translator.

Eunice Lee

PROGRAM IN DANCE

Susan Marshall, Director, Program in Dance (on leave 2019-20) Rebecca Lazier, Associate Director of the Program in Dance,( Acting Director 2019-20)

Congratulations Class of 2020 Certificate Students!

Sarah Anne Betancourt Sofia Bisogno Peyton Cunningham Jorina Kardhashi

Aleksandra Kostic Abigail Kostolansky Serena Lu Marshall Dylan Schaffer

Tsjum Jhor Kai van der Horst Cooper Young

Senior Awards Francis LeMoyne Page Class of 1922 Prize for Outstanding Achievement in the Creative Arts This award was established in 1972 by the Trustees of the LeMoyne Page Foundation in memory of Francis LeMoyne Page, Class of 1922. Awarded annually to one or more members of the junior or senior class to honor distinctive achievement in the Creative Arts.

Sofia Bisogno Outstanding Senior Creative Thesis Award This award was created to honor one or more outstanding seniors for distinctive achievement in Dance.

Sarah Anne Betancourt Aleksandra Kostic Tsjum Jhor Kai van der Horst Sofia Bisogno Abigail Kostolansky Cooper Young Peyton Cunningham Serena Lu Jorina Kardhashi Marshall Dylan Schaffer Ze’eva Cohen Senior Award This award established in 2014 honors the Founding Director of the Program in Dance and is awarded to a student who began the study of dance in college and underwent an extraordinary transformation as an artist while contributing to the Dance Program.

Jasmin Capellan Gabriela Oseguera Serra

Princeton University’s LEWIS CENTER FOR THE ARTS

2020

PROGRAM IN THEATER

Jane Cox, Director, Program in Theater

Congratulations Class of 2020 Certificate Students!

Tessa Rose Bernstein Albertson Jonathan Lee Alicea Hannah Jayne Chomiczewski Milan Renée Eldridge Jaclyn L. Hovsmith E Jeremijenko-Conley Nicholas Judt

Jenny Kim Carol Lee Kateryn Lina McReynolds Alexandra Palocz Richard Peng Marshall Dylan Schaffer Hannah Marlena Semmelhack

Allison Marie Spann Abigail Teagan Spare Katja Anita Stroke-Adolphe Tsjum Jhor Kai van der Horst Chamari Marquis White-Mink Jianing Zhao

PROGRAM IN MUSIC THEATER

Stacy Wolf, Director, Program in Music Theater and Princeton Arts Fellows

Congratulations Class of 2020 Certificate Students!

Rose Carolyn Arbittier Hannah Jayne Chomiczewski Milan Renée Eldridge Reed Sawyer Hutchinson Jenny Kim

Jonathan Andrew Makepeace Kateryn Lina McReynolds Richard Peng Billie Anna Runions Calvin James Rusley

Allison Marie Spann Abigail Teagan Spare Carl Sun

Senior Awards Outstanding Work by a Senior Award This award was created to honor one or more outstanding seniors for distinctive achievement in Theater and Music Theater.

Tessa Rose Bernstein Albertson Jenny Kim Hannah Marlena Semmelhack Jonathan Lee Alicea Carol Lee Allison Marie Spann Rose Carolyn Arbittier Jonathan Andrew Makepeace Abigail Teagan Spare Hannah Jayne Chomiczewski Kateryn Lina McReynolds Katja Anita Stroke-Adolphe Milan Renée Eldridge Alexandra Palocz Carl Sun Jaclyn L. Hovsmith Richard Peng Tsjum Jhor Kai van der Horst Reed Sawyer Hutchinson Billie Anna Runions Chamari Marquis White-Mink E Jeremijenko-Conley Calvin James Rusley Jianing Zhao Nicholas Judt Marshall Dylan Schaffer Award for creative and community leadership in Theater and Music Theater Program Jenny Kim Award for senior thesis that expanded our sense of community Rose Carolyn Arbittier Award for collaborative spirit in the senior theater season Hannah Marlena Semmelhack

Princeton University’s LEWIS CENTER FOR THE ARTS

2020

Francis LeMoyne Page Class of 1922 Prize for Outstanding Achievement in the Creative Arts This award was established in 1972 by the Trustees of the LeMoyne Page Foundation in memory of Francis LeMoyne Page, Class of 1922. Awarded annually to one or more members of the junior or senior class to honor distinctive achievement in the Creative Arts.

The Proposing Team of Macbeth: Tessa Rose Bernstein Albertson, Milan Renée Eldridge, and Abigail Teagan Spare Music Theater Award To a senior who has demonstrated a commitment to and significant accomplishment in developing, re-imagining, or creating new work in music theater.

Richard Peng Tim Vasen Award In honor of former Program in Theater Director Tim Vasen, this award is presented to a senior who has demonstrated dedication, passion, risk-taking, and significant accomplishment in the making of theater throughout their years at Princeton.

Chamari Marquis White-Mink

PROGRAM IN VISUAL ARTS

Martha Friedman, Director, Program in Visual Arts Pam Lins, Associate Director of the Program in Visual Arts

Congratulations Class of 2020 Certificate Students!

Sebastian Benzecry Julian Axel Castellon Christina Maria de Soto Nazenin Elçi Tom Hoopes

Janette Tong Lu Estibaliz Matulewicz Roland Mounier June Ho Park Gabriella Pollner

Irene Ross Katherine Evelyn Schneer Yunzi Shi Elizabeth Wallace Charity Young

Congratulations Class of 2020 Practice of Art (PA) Students!

Milan Renée Eldridge Abigail Hack

Tsjum Jhor Kai van der Horst Ivy Xue

Senior Awards Lucas Award in Visual Arts This award was established in 1998 by Herbert L. Lucas, Class of 1950 and was amended in 2004 to recognize excellence and the quality of a body of work by graduating seniors in painting, sculpture, photography, film, and media.

Elizabeth Wallace Sebastian Benzecry Abigail Hack* June Ho Park Ivy Xue* Julian Axel Castellon Gabriella Pollner Nazenin Elçi *indicates Practice of Art students Yunzi Shi Milan Renée Eldridge*

Princeton University’s LEWIS CENTER FOR THE ARTS

2020

Jim Seawright Award in Visual Arts Established in 2009 in honor of Jim Seawright, Professor of Visual Arts, this award is presented annually to a student whose work exemplifies exceptional originality or innovation in any media in the Program in Visual Arts.

Janette Tong Lu

GUEST SPEAKER

Thelma Golden, Director and and Chief Curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem Thelma Golden is Director and Chief Curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem, where she began her career in 1987 before joining the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1988. She returned to the Studio Museum in 2000 as Deputy Director for Exhibitions and Programs, and was named Director and Chief Curator in 2005. As Director, Golden is leading the effort to build a new home for the Museum, designed by architect Sir David Adjaye OBE. Golden was appointed to the Committee for the Preservation of the White House by President Obama in 2010, and in 2015 joined the Barack Obama Foundation’s Board of Directors. She also serves on the Board of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Crystal Bridges Museum. She was a 2008 Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute and a recipient of the 2016 Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence. In 2018, Golden was awarded a J. Paul Getty Medal.

LEWIS CENTER SENIOR AWARDS Presentation of Awards: Tracy K. Smith, Chair of the Lewis Center for the Arts The Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts The prize is presented annually to one or more graduating seniors who have demonstrated excellence or the highest standard of proficiency, in performance or execution or in the field of composition in the following general areas: music, theater, dance, painting, sculpture or photography.

E Jeremijenko-Conley Tsjum Jhor Kai van der Horst The Toni Morrison Prize The prize honors the late Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize Laureate and Robert F. Goheen Professor in the Humanities, Emeritus, goes to one or more graduating seniors whose individual or collaborative artistic practice has pushed the boundaries and enlarged the scope of our understanding of issues of race. This prize honors work in any form that, in the spirit of Morrison’s, is “characterized by visionary force and poetic import.”

Jenny Kim Destiny Salter

LEWIS CENTER FOR THE ARTS Chair Tracy K. Smith Executive Director Marion Friedman Young

LEWIS CENTER PROGRAM DIRECTORS Michael Cadden, Acting Director, Princeton Atelier, Spring 2020 Jane Cox, Director, Program in Theater Martha Friedman, Director, Program in Visual Arts Jhumpa Lahiri, Director, Program in Creative Writing Rebecca Lazier, Associate Director, Program in Dance (Acting Director AY 19-20) Pam Lins, Associate Director, Program in Visual Arts Susan Marshall, Director, Program in Dance Paul Muldoon, Director, Princeton Atelier Stacy Wolf, Director, Program in Music Theater & Princeton Arts Fellows For more information about the Lewis Center for the Arts or upcoming events, visit: arts.princeton.edu