2018 commencement speakers Giulia Heyward, Miles Iton, and Leen Al-Fatafta.
Agents of Change Activist Alumni Make Their Mark on the World BY A B BY W E I N G A RT E N ’0 0
Maya Lilly’s one-woman show about climate change, Still Time, was—in many aspects— ahead of its time 17 years ago. So was its creator. A visionary artist and activist who transferred to New College from The Juilliard School, Lilly ’98 performed her theatrical thesis in the College Hall Music Room in 2003. The piece was a profound call to action on the environmental crisis—which, alongside racial and social justice in America—has become the foundation of Lilly’s work as a producer, director and actress in TV, film and theater. 6
New College of Florida | nimbus
In 2020—as global warming led to unparalleled natural disasters, and the COVID-19 pandemic and civil rights protests erupted simultaneously—everything Lilly had been working toward seemed to come full circle. The interconnected causes she had devoted nearly two decades to amplifying became the focal points of the cultural conversation. “From the time I learned about climate change, I wasn’t like a lot of people who wouldn’t do anything about it; for whatever reason, my spirit is not like that. My spirit is like, ‘This is the reason I’m here—to do something,’” said Lilly, who earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies and theater at New College, and the Morris K. Udall Undergraduate Scholarship for turning theater into activism. “For me, it felt almost prescient that this issue was going to hit a crisis point in my lifetime. It felt like I had the onus of responsibility to make people act on it.” Lilly has spent her life inspiring people to act. She worked for 12 years in California as a film, TV and digital media
