Media contact: Priscilla L. Hunter, 312.344.7805 or Micki Leventhal, 312.344.7383
Chicago, May 2003 - Columbia College Chicago undergraduate commencement ceremony will be held at 2:00 p.m. Sunday, June 1 at the UIC Pavilion, 1150 W. Harrison Street. Three outstanding individuals whose life work and example embody the college's ideals and spirit will share this year's commencement address, announced Columbia's president, Dr. Warrick L. Carter. There will be over 1,600 Bachelor of Arts diplomas awarded.
The three distinguished individuals to be honored at the undergraduate ceremony are:
Russell Simmons, hip-hop pioneer, entrepreneur and philanthropist, Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa
Tony Kushner, playwright, Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa
Lois Weisberg, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, Doctor of Letters, Honoris Causa
Russell Simmons, CEO and chairman of Rush Communications, one of the largest African-American-owned media conglomerates. Over the last twenty years, he has brought Hip-Hop to every facet of media and pop culture: in music with Def Jam Recordings; in film with Simmons Lathan Media Group; in television with HBO's "The Def Comedy Jam" and "Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry;" on Broadway with the critically-acclaimed stage production "Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam on Broadway;" in the fashion industry with the Phat Farm and Baby Phat clothing lines; in magazine publishing with OneWorld Magazine; and in the financial services industry with the RushCard.
In 1995 he and brothers, Danny and Joseph, founded Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation, a non-profit arts foundation, dedicated to providing disadvantaged urban youth with significant exposure and access to the arts, as well as providing exhibition opportunities to under-represented artists and artists of color. Following the historic Hip Hop Summit Simmons organized in June 2001, he founded the Hip Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN) to harness the cultural relevance of hip-hop music as a catalyst for education advocacy and other societal concerns fundamental to the well-being of at-risk youth throughout the United States.
Tony Kushner gained international prominence and won critical acclaim with the first part of Angels in America, Millennium Approaches (1991). In 1993, it won both the Pulitzer Prize for drama and the Tony Award for best play. The second part of Angels in America, Perestroika (1993) won a second Tony for best play (1994). In the fall of 2003, HBO will present a 6-hour film version of Angels in America, directed by Mike Nichols. Kushner's work has been produced at theaters around the United States and in over thirty countries around the world. Kushner's latest play, Homebody/Kabul, will open at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater this June, and is being adapted for film by Mia Nair. Caroline, or Change, a musical he is writing with composer Jeanine Tesori, will open in the fall of 2003 at the The New York Shakespeare Festival, directed by George C. Wolfe. He is also collaborating with Maurice Sendak on an American version of the children's opera, Brundibar, to premier in the spring of 2003 at ChicagoOpera Theater.
Lois Weisberg, Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, serves as a member of Mayor Richard M. Daley's cabinet and supervises the municipal department charged with making the arts accessible to all and promoting the City of Chicago to a worldwide audience through its many distinguished and diverse arts and cultural attractions. Among her many initiatives as cultural commissioner have been the establishment of the Chicago Cultural Center as the nation's first free municipal cultural center; creation of Gallery 37, Chicago's pioneering arts education program; and development of the Chicago Sister Cities International Program into a municipal program maintaining relationships with 23 cities in 22 countries. As head of the agency that operates the City's Office of Tourism, Weisberg has established Chicago as a national model in cultural tourism through programs that range from sending Chicago artists around the world as goodwill ambassadors of the city, to numerous public art exhibitions. In 1999, she spearheaded the public art exhibition Cows on Parade.
She is the founder and a member of the Board of Friends of the Parks, a citizens' parks advocacy organization. As the founder and chair of South Shore Recreation, a bi-state citizens' group, she played a leading role in saving passenger service on the Chicago South Bend and South Shore Railroad.
To be honored at the graduate ceremony Saturday, May 31 at Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Congress:
John Edgar Wideman, the only writer to have been awarded the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction twice--once in 1984 for his novel Sent for You Yesterday and again in 1990 for Philadelphia Fire. Weidman has won the Rea Award for the short story, the American Book Award for Fiction, the Lannan Literary Fellowship for Fiction and the MacArthur Award. Other honors include the St. Botolph Literary Award (1993), the DuSable Museum Prize for Nonfiction for Brothers and Keepers (1985), the Longwood College Medal for Literary Excellence and the National Magazine Editors' Prize for Short Fiction (1987).
Henry Fogel is the retiring President of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He is also the chairman of the Illinois Arts Alliance and a vice-chairman of the Board of the American Symphony Orchestra League. He is a member of the Seaver Conducting Awards Panel and a record reviewer whose writings are published in Fanfare. He is also a contributor to Contemporary Composers, published by St. James Press in Chicago and London.
Columbia College Chicago is the country's premier visual, performing and media arts college. To learn more visit www.colum.edu.