CLASS DAY CELEBRATION
MONDAY, MAY 29, 2023
Berlind Theatre at McCarter Theatre Center
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
A Note from Judith Hamera Chair, Lewis Center for the Arts
Welcome to the Berlind Theatre in the McCarter Theatre Center, where we gather with family, friends, and members of the Lewis Center for the Arts community to celebrate a milestone in the lives of our student artists. Every Class Day is the culmination of both the usual demands of an undergraduate career at Princeton – the challenges, achievements, resilience, and resourcefulness – and those unique to each specific class. Our LCA Class of ’23 has shown us what it means to think deeply about, and creatively negotiate, art making in radically different contexts: from a global pandemic to its long, waning aftermath. You’ve pressed us to become a more genuinely welcoming place, and you’ve surprised us, challenged us, and partnered with us in so many wonderful ways. On behalf of the LCA faculty and staff, hearty congratulations to you. We can’t wait to see what you’ll do next!
Land Acknowledgement
The Lewis Center for the Arts is working to create a living land acknowledgement, one that is embodied in its consideration of—and engagement with—the past, present, and future. As we continue this work, we acknowledge that this building sits on land considered part of the ancient homelands of the Lenni-Lenape peoples and that this campus was built on this land with no recorded consultation with the Lenni-Lenape peoples. We acknowledge that learning about history and making this statement isn’t enough. Equally important is our ongoing work to understand past harms; build awareness in present relationships and actions; and bring imagination, creative problem-solving, and community-building to the future of our programs. We are taking actions towards these goals within our curriculum, pedagogy, and programming. We invite you to learn more about the Native American and Indigenous Studies Initiative at Princeton: indigenous.princeton.edu.
2023 Princeton University’s LEWIS
THE
CENTER FOR
ARTS
Princeton University’s LEWIS CENTER FOR THE ARTS
PROGRAM IN CREATIVE WRITING
Congratulations Class of 2023 Certificate Students!
Priyanka Aiyer, Abigail Anthony, Beatrix Bondor, Ngan Chiem, Allen Delgado, Noa Greenspan, Yunxia Hallowell, Chaya Holch, Mel Hornyak, Sheherzad Jamal, Cassandra James, Danielle Jenkins, Conner Kim, Sophie Lockwood, Alexis Maze, Luca Morante, Nimrah Naseer, Megan Pan, Magdalena Poost, Mina Quesen, Grey Raber, Oyinkansola Sangoyomi, Meera Sastry, Ashira Shirali, Hana Widerman
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.
Sheherzad Jamal
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.
Priyanka Aiyer
Outstanding Work by a Senior Award
This award was created to honor one or more outstanding seniors for distinctive achievement in Creative Writing.
Shelby Kinch
Ashira Shirali
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.
Noa Greenspan
2023
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.
Ngan Chiem
Mel Hornyak
James Richardson Award
This prize was established in 2023 and is awarded annually to a student whose poetry speaks to Professor James Richardson’s work and to the spirit of his legendary course entitled “Life Is Short, Art is Really Short.”
Hana Widerman
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.
Megan Pan
PROGRAM IN DANCE
Congratulations Class of 2023 Certificate Students!
Naomi Benenson, Becca Berman, Leah Emanuel, Jonathan Golden, Kyle Ikuma, Gianni Pacheco, Anastasia Poverin, Amanda Gabrielle Roxas-Chua Qua, Heather Samberg, Lucy Ann Sirrs, Camryn Stafford, Emma Wang
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.
Naomi Benenson, Leah Emanuel, Jonathan Golden, Gianni Pacheco
Outstanding Senior Creative Thesis Award
This award was created to honor one or more outstanding seniors for distinctive achievement in Dance.
Becca Berman
Camryn Stafford
2023 Princeton University’s
Princeton University’s
LEWIS CENTER FOR THE ARTS
Sustained Community Achievement Award
Lucy Ann Sirrs
Emma Wang
PROGRAM IN THEATER
Congratulations Class of 2023 Certificate Students!
Eliyana Abraham, Julien Alam, Anna Allport, Kaelani Burja, Sarah Grinalds, Katie Hameetman, Mel Hornyak, Cassandra James, Jenni Lawson, Gaea Lawton, Elliot Lee, Reed Leventis, Alexis Maze, Regan McCall, Aliha Mughal, Asher Muldoon, Emily Murray, Megan Pan, Rosemary Paulson, Magdalena Poost, Angelica Qin, Kate Short
PROGRAM IN MUSIC THEATER
Congratulations Class of 2023 Certificate Students!
Eliyana Abraham, Kaelani Burja, Julia Elman, Cassandra James, Jenni Lawson, Gaea Lawton, Elliot Lee, Halle Mitchell, Asher Muldoon, Kate Short, Matthew Weatherhead
Senior Awards
Award for creative and community leadership in Theater and Music Theater Program
Kaelani Burja
Magdalena Poost
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.
Mel Hornyak
Elliot Lee
Most Exciting Newcomer Award
This award was established in 2022 to honor a graduating senior who discovered theater later in their college career, and whose passion, talents and enthusiasm for theater crafts have energized our community and enhanced our theater making season.
Sarah Grinalds
Emily Murray
2023
Outstanding Outstanding Contribution to Theater
Julien Alam
Outstanding Contribution to the Music Theater Season
To a senior who has demonstrated a commitment to and significant accomplishment in developing, re-imagining, or creating new work in music theater.
Halle Mitchell
Tim Vasen Award for Talent and Citizenship
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.
Reed Leventis
Senior Prize
Eliyana Abraham, Julien Alam, Anna Allport, Kaelani Burja, Julia Elman, Sarah Grinalds, Katie Hameetman, Mel Hornyak, Cassandra James, Jenni Lawson, Gaea Lawton, Elliot Lee, Reed Leventis, Alexis Maze, Regan McCall, Halle Mitchell, Aliha
Mughal, Asher Muldoon, Emily Murray, Megan Pan, Rosemary Paulson, Magdalena Poost, Angelica Qin, Kate Short, Matthew Weatherhead
PROGRAM IN VISUAL ARTS
Congratulations Class of 2023 Certificate Students!
Priyanka Aiyer, Maggie Chamberlain, Allen Delgado, Annabel Dupont, Eliana Camille Derby Gagnon, Angeline Marsh, Rachel Qing Pang, Ari Faith Riggins, Eloise Cameron Schrier, Yoko
Urano, Tan Vu, Wendi Yan
Congratulations Class of 2023 Practice of Art (PA) Students!
Lola Constantino, Tai Serene Jeffers, Lane Marsh, Nemo CAPN, and Adewunmi Titilayo
Obafemi Sodimu
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.
Lola Constantino, Tai Serene Jeffers, Lane Marsh, Nemo CAPN, Rachel Qing Pang, Ari Faith Riggins, Eloise Cameron Schrier, Adewunmi Titilayo Obafemi Sodimu, Yoko
Urano, Wendi Yan
2023
Princeton University’s LEWIS CENTER FOR THE ARTS
Princeton University’s
LEWIS CENTER FOR THE ARTS
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.
Annabel Dupont
LEWIS CENTER STUDENT AWARDS
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.
Elliot Lee
Lane Marsh
The Toni Morrison Prize
This prize that honors 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.”
Cassandra James
Camryn Stafford
Action Based Community Engagement Award
The prize is awarded to the student or students whose contributions to the Lewis Center embody a commitment to “interrogating that which is accepted or understood in an attempt to break into the territory of the unknown or under-explored.”
Angelica Qin
Amanda Gabrielle Roxas-Chua Qua
2023
LEWIS CENTER FOR THE ARTS
Chair
Judith Hamera
Executive Director
Marion Friedman Young
LEWIS CENTER PROGRAM DIRECTORS
Paul Muldoon, Director, Princeton Atelier
Yiyun Li, Director, Program in Creative Writing
Susan Marshall, Director, Program in Dance
Rebecca Lazier, Associate Director, Program in Dance
Jane Cox, Director, Program in Theater
Stacy Wolf, Director, Program in Music Theater & Fellowships
Elena Araoz, Producing Artistic Director, Theater and Music Theater Season
Jeff Whetstone, Director, Program in Visual Arts
Pam Lins, Associate Director, Program in Visual Arts
For more information about the Lewis Center for the Arts or upcoming events, visit: arts.princeton.edu
