"I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS," WROTE MAYA ANGELOU.
GROWING UP, I ALWAYS WONDERED, WHY WOULD A CAGED BIRD SING?
WHAT DOES IT REALLY MEAN TO BE
CAGED? SIMPLY, BEING CAGED IS ABOUT
CONFINEMENT, WHETHER LITERALLY OR FIGURATIVELY.
WHEN I WAS LITTLE, I WAS REALLY SHY.
I WAS NOT COMFORTABLE SPEAKING TO PEOPLE AT ALL.
WHEN THE TIME CAME TO SPEAK, I WOULD JUST FEEL TRAPPED.
THAT CHANGED WHETHER MY PARENTS HELPED ME FIND MY VOICE.
THEY REFUSED TO ALLOW ME TO BE CAGED IN ANY WAY, SO WHEN THERE
WAS AN EVENT AT SCHOOL, I WOULD HAVE TO SPEAK.
IF THERE WAS A PLAY AT CHURCH, I WOULD HAVE TO ACT.
MY DAD EVEN HAD ME IN THE CAR REPEATING EVERY SENTENCE I WOULD
HEAR ON THE NEWS SO MY VOICE WOULD NEVER FEEL CAGED AGAIN.
THE CAGED BIRD SINGS OF HOPE. MOST FORMS OF CONFINEMENT ARE
NOT AS MANAGEABLE AS SHYNESS. I THINK OF MY ANCESTORS WHO WERE
ENSLAVED WHERE I AM FROM IN MISSISSIPPI.
THEY WERE CAGED, AND YET THEY SANG.
THEY SANG SPIRITUALS SUCH AS "WADE IN THE WATER" AS THEY
WORKED TO COMMUNICATE THAT THE WATER WAS A MUCH MORE DISCRETE
ROUTE OF ESCAPE FOR THOSE FLEEING TO THE NORTH.
MY ANCESTORS WORKED AND SANG IN THE FIELDS SO ONE DAY I COULD BE
FREE IN THE PURSUIT OF MY DREAMS.
WHEN I BEGAN LOOKING AT COLLEGES, I THOUGHT HARVARD WAS
NOT POSSIBLE FOR ME. IT TOOK MY MOM WHO HAD BEEN A
GUIDANCE COUNSELOR FOR OVER 25 YEARS TO CONVINCE ME THAT I WAS
ENOUGH. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
WE HAD NOT COME THIS FAR AS A FAMILY AND AS A PEOPLE FOR ME TO
SHY AWAY FROM CHASING THE DREAMS MY ANCESTORS WERE NEVER ABLE TO
PURSUE. BECAUSE OF HER ENCOURAGEMENT, I
WENT FROM CONSIDERING NOT SUBMITTING THE HARVARD
APPLICATION TO BEING THE FIRST BLACK MAN ELECTED STUDENT BODY
PRESIDENT IN HARVARD COLLEGE'S 386-YEAR HISTORY.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) THE CAGED BIRD SINGS OF
RESILIENCE. THROUGHOUT THIS PANDEMIC, ALL OF
US HAVE BEEN CAGED. QUARANTINE, MASKING, VACCINES,
AND CONTACT TRACING HAVE DEFINED THE LAST TWO YEARS OF OUR LIVES.
WE WERE CAGED, AND YET WE SANG. WE SANG THROUGH OUR VIGILANCE TO
COVID-19 PROTOCOLS. WE SANG THROUGH A YEAR OF
VIRTUAL LEARNING WITH OUR CLASSMATES SCATTERED ACROSS THE
GLOBE. WE SANG FOR THIS MOMENT IN THIS
HISTORIC THEATRE SO COLLECTIVELY WE COULD SOAR INTO THE WORLD AS
GRADUATES OF HARVARD, AS GRADUATES OF TRUTH.
THE CAGED BIRD SINGS OF EQUALITY.
TODAY, AS WE GO BEYOND HARVARD'S GATES TO PURSUE OUR DREAMS, THE
ONLY WAY FOR US TO TRULY FLY FREELY IS FOR US TO UPLIFT THOSE
IN OUR COMMUNITIES WHO ARE STILL CAGED.
TODAY, I THINK OF THEM. TODAY I THINK OF THE BLACK
INCARCERATED MAN WHO WROTE ME A LETTER FROM A FLORIDA
PENITENTIARY WHO WAS JAILED FOR 15 MONTHS WITHOUT BAIL BEFORE HE
WAS CHARGED WITH A NONVIOLENT DRUG OFFENSE.
HE TOLD ME TO KEEP GOING SO THAT ONE DAY I COULD HELP PEOPLE LIKE
HIM. THIS WORLD EXPECTS BLACK MEN TO
END UP IN PRISON OR IN A WORSE SITUATION ENTIRELY.
THERE ARE SO MANY DREAMS THIS MAN WOULD RATHER BE CHASING THAT
HE CANNOT BECAUSE HE IS CAGED. BUT INSTEAD OF WRITING TO
SOMEONE WHO WAS LEGALLY QUALIFIED TO REPRESENT HIM, HE
WROTE TO A BLACK MAN WHO REPRESENTS THE SHARED DREAMS OF
OUR PEOPLE. AS WE GRADUATE, WE MUST SEE
OURSELVES IN THOSE WHO ARE CAGED.
WE MUST USE OUR TALENTS TO HELP THEM.
BUT MOST OF ALL, WE MUST BE WILLING TO BE PROXIMATE ENOUGH
TO HEAR THE TUNE OF THEIR SONG. AND WHEN WE QUESTION WHY ANYONE
WOULD HAVE ENOUGH JOY TO SING WHILE CAGED, THEY WILL TELL US
THAT THEY SING SO THOSE WHO FLY FREELY WILL HEAR THEIR STORY.
I, TOO, KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS.
"THE CAGED BIRD SINGS OF FREEDOM."
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)