HANOVER — In a speech that emphasized the transcendent power of the arts, world renowned musician Yo-Yo Ma urged students to use their influence wisely before performing a short cello piece for the crowd of 11,000 that gathered on the Dartmouth College green on Sunday for the school’s annual commencement ceremony.
“Each one of you sitting out there today is going to be powerful,” said Ma, a 19-time Grammy winner whose work has focused on music as a means of bridging divides. “Promise yourself that when you find your power, you will use it thoughtfully, with restraint, and with good intention. …Do not abuse your power ever.”
In an apparent reference to the class action lawsuit filed last fall against the college, accusing three tenured professors of sexual harassment and assault, Ma said, “You have witnessed abuse of power. You’ve seen it on this campus.”
He then encouraged the crowd to value the arts as one antidote to the ills of society.
“Culture resists reduction and constantly reminds us of the beautiful complexities that humans are made of, both individually and collectively,” said Ma, who also received an honorary doctor of arts degree during the ceremony. “The stories we tell, the music we make, the experiments and buildings we design, everything that helps us to understand ourselves, to understand one another, to understand our environment: Culture. … It’s culture that inspires deep learning and curiosity, that makes us want to seek the universal principles that drive everything.”
At the close of his speech, Ma played Song of the Birds, by Spanish cellist Pablo Casals, who he said taught him to think of himself as a human being first. The crowd broke into cheers and applause when Ma announced that he would perform.
Dartmouth College President Philip Hanlon reiterated on the theme of the arts in his valedictory address to the 1,900 students earning graduate and undergraduate degrees.
“The arts have been alive at Dartmouth since the very first days of the college,” Hanlon said, highlighting various arts-related achievements through the years, including the recent $50 million, three-year renovation of the Hood Museum. “For me, the arts at Dartmouth opened my eyes to entirely new ways of thinking.”
Not only do the arts make our lives richer, they promote essential 21st century skills such as creativity, Hanlon said.
“Never relinquish your paint brush … or any other creative tool at your disposal,” he said.
In a welcome speech, two students representing the Native American population graduating from the college this year also emphasized the value of culture.
Describing Dartmouth’s belated efforts to honor the Native American traditions that pre-date the college on this parcel of land, Poli Sierra-Long said, “The very things that were meant to be stripped from indigenous peoples — our cultural identities — only made us stronger and this place better. It is the diversity of indigenous knowledge and backgrounds that truly makes Dartmouth valuable.”
Shelbi Fitzpatrick added, “As we and this institution embark on our next chapters, we must remember that if we are willing to learn from one another and deal honestly and justly, we can enhance our communities, at home, abroad and here at Dartmouth.”
Sarah Earle can be reached at searle@vnews.com or 603-727-3268.
Dartmouth College 2019 graduates from the Upper Valley
KianaShurtleffAmirkiaee, Woodstock; Annaka Rose Balch, East Thetford; Anders Bando-Hess, Sharon; Flora Gillian Carole Cullen, Etna; Anthony Frank DiPadova III, Newport; Matthew Louis Kersey, West Lebanon; John Patrick Kotz, Lyme; Owen Pierce O’Leary, Hanover; Peter Bennett O’Leary, Norwich; Tyler Glenn Searles, Quechee; Alyson E. Young, Meriden; Zoe Tong Yu, Hanover.