Watch Lynda Barry’s Graduation Speech; Give a Shout Out to the Teachers Who Changed Your Life

The Uni­ver­si­ty of the Arts’ most recent grads are lucky ducks to have had a speak­er as engag­ing as car­toon­ist and edu­ca­tor Lyn­da Bar­ry deliv­er­ing their commencement’s keynote address.

Speak­er Bar­ry was also made an Hon­orary Doc­tor of Fine Arts, an award that occa­sioned the ill-fit­ting tam seen in the video above, as well as a new title—Doctor Nursey—conferred by pre-kinder­garten­ers with whom she works at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Wis­con­sin. (Pre­vi­ous alias­es include Pro­fes­sor Chew­bac­ca and Pro­fes­sor Old Skull)

Bar­ry kept things live­ly by mix­ing in some tried and true mate­r­i­al from oth­er pub­lic appear­ances, includ­ing her Fil­ipino grandmother’s belief in the aswang, a poem set to music (here “Cot­ton Song” by Harlem Renais­sance poet, Jean Toomer) and the sto­ry of the col­lab­o­ra­tive car­toon, “Chick­en Attack by Jack.”

This last anec­dote con­tains a strong indict­ment of con­tem­po­rary society’s screen addic­tion, and it is heart­en­ing to see the graduates—members of the last gen­er­a­tion to pre-date the Internet—listening so atten­tive­ly, no one tex­ting or tweet­ing as the cam­era pans the crowd.

When Bar­ry exhort­ed them to shout out the names of their three most inspir­ing teach­ers on the count of three, most did!

For me, this was the most thrilling moment, though I also appre­ci­at­ed the advice on the best time to sched­ule oral surgery, and a bliss­ful untruth about Ever­green State Col­lege’s appli­ca­tion process cir­ca the mid-70s.

Not your typ­i­cal com­mence­ment speech… those lucky, lucky ducks!

Read­ers, we invite you to get in the spir­it and cel­e­brate the Class of 2015 by “shout­ing” the names of your most inspi­ra­tional teach­ers in the com­ment sec­tion below.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Lyn­da Barry’s Won­der­ful­ly Illus­trat­ed Syl­labus & Home­work Assign­ments from Her UW-Madi­son Class, “The Unthink­able Mind”

Join Car­toon­ist Lyn­da Bar­ry for a Uni­ver­si­ty-Lev­el Course on Doo­dling and Neu­ro­science

John Waters’ RISD Grad­u­a­tion Speech: Real Wealth is Nev­er Hav­ing to Spend Time with A‑Holes

Robert De Niro Tells Grad­u­at­ing NYU Arts Grads, “You Made It… And You’re F*cked”

Ayun Hal­l­i­day is an author, illus­tra­tor, and Chief Pri­ma­tol­o­gist of the East Vil­lage Inky zine. Con­grat­u­la­tions, grad­u­ates, espe­cial­ly the mem­bers of NYC’s most fresh­ly forged the­ater com­pa­ny, Ras­cal Arts. Fol­low her @AyunHalliday


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Comments (15)
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  • David Klein says:

    Janet Heller, Eas­t­on Area High School, Eas­t­on, Pa. my Hon­ors and AP Eng­lish teacher 77/78 and 78/79.

  • Ayun says:

    Liz Ulen! Barow David­i­an! The per­fect­ly named Dwight Con­quer­good!

  • kasa says:

    Jen­nifer Putzi! Ray­mond Williams! Varun Beg­ley! Sharon Zuber!

  • Karla Keffer says:

    Mary Capone­gro! Robert Gross! David Ost!

  • Lisa Giordano says:

    Dru Over­wijk! M.A. Knoke! Toni Lay­den-Rodgers, Patri­cia Lare­do! Eric Mar­tin­sen! Mr. Seff!

  • Julie B says:

    Claire Van zant!

  • Claire says:

    Dr. Robert Scrip­ko! Lau­ra Cos­ta! Rachel Heck­er!

  • DebbiePee says:

    MRS. CARLETON! DR. DONALD ROEMER ! DONALD OLIVER!

  • Traci Burns says:

    KEVIN CANTWELL! MRS. PAT JENKINS! MRS. WATSON!!!

  • Lisa Cook Sem says:

    MARY BROWN, AP ENGLISH @ JERSEY VILLAGE HS IN HOUSTON! ANN CVETKOVICH @ UT AUSTIN! AND MY WONDERFUL, GLORIOUS DRAMA TEACHER FROM MIDDLE SCHOOL WHOSE NAME ESCAPES ME, EVEN THOUGH SHE CHANGED MY LIFE! I WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER YOUR SMILING FACE! THANK YOU!

  • Brigitte Albert says:

    Rose­mary Lud­vigsen at W.A. Porter C.I. in the six­ties. She taught French and Ger­man and she was a won­der­ful teacher, mak­ing the lan­guages come alive for us!

    Lionel Scott at same high school. Eng­lish teacher who took class­es to the the­atre, made us famil­iar with writ­ers from the ancients to the con­tem­po­rary, taught us crit­i­cal think­ing, all the while shar­ing his pas­sion­ate ded­i­ca­tion to the arts.

    Mr. Col­houn, Latin teacher who had a wicked sense of humour and who gave us a glimpse of life in ancient Rome while instill­ing a rig­or­ous approach to learn­ing.

    Thank you!

  • Karen says:

    Peter Davies! Sue Ann Loudon! Steven Edelglass!Tom Leab­hart!

  • Carmela Courney says:

    Mrs. Gould, Mr. St Mar­tin, Mary Hipp, George and Marg,Mom and Dad, Kim­ber­ly, Elsie Dil­lard, Jean Cavendish, Mar­i­lyn and Sali, my sib­lings, Mar­garet, Dako­ta, Mar­cia and Den­nis, Arlene High­horse, Cindy, Riva, Karen G., Mary, Samual Whit­field. Thank you to ‘s who­ev­er sent this video to me today. It woke me out of a dul­drum.

  • Peg Duncan says:

    Brigitte — good choic­es! I agree — we were tru­ly for­tu­nate. Hope all is well with you.

  • Peg Duncan says:

    Brigitte – good choic­es! I agree – we were tru­ly for­tu­nate. Hope all is well with you.

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