{"id":1479,"date":"2012-05-26T07:47:30","date_gmt":"2012-05-26T11:47:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transy.edu\/1780\/2012\/05\/affrilachian-poet-bianca-spriggs-gives-transylvania-graduates-address-to-remember\/"},"modified":"2020-07-14T13:57:37","modified_gmt":"2020-07-14T17:57:37","slug":"affrilachian-poet-bianca-spriggs-gives-transylvania-graduates-address-to-remember","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transy.edu\/1780\/2012\/05\/affrilachian-poet-bianca-spriggs-gives-transylvania-graduates-address-to-remember\/","title":{"rendered":"Affrilachian poet Bianca Spriggs gives Transylvania graduates address to remember"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n
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Poet Bianca Spriggs ’03 speaks to the Class of 2012. <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

LEXINGTON, Ky.\u2014Transylvania University President R. Owen Williams conferred the Bachelor of Arts degree to 241 students Saturday in a commencement ceremony on the steps of historic Old Morrison.<\/p>\n

Bianca Spriggs, a renowned Affrilachian poet and 2003 Transylvania graduate, gave a unique commencement address in front of hundreds of spectators, presenting a poetry reading accompanied by graduating senior Caleb Ritchie on keyboard. Spriggs put out a call to seniors to submit responses to questions about their four years at Transylvania\u2014what they would take with them to their careers and how they\u2019ve grown as people. She used some of those responses in her presentation.<\/p>\n

Spriggs, a history major and studio art minor at Transylvania, is in the doctoral program for creative writing at the University of Kentucky and has had an active career including writing, teaching, performance art and filmmaking. She earned a master\u2019s of arts in English composition\/creative writing at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.<\/p>\n

She was named one of the Top 30 Performance Poets by TheRoot.com, a daily online magazine providing commentary on the news from black perspectives. She is recognized as a Cave Canem Fellow from the Brooklyn-based national writer\u2019s center that focuses on African American poets and writers, and she is the creator of The Swallowtail Project, a traveling creative writing workshop designed for incarcerated women throughout Kentucky.<\/p>\n

Spriggs talked to the students about measuring time not in minutes and hours, but rather in non-traditional ways like how many fortune cookies you\u2019ve cracked open, lines you\u2019ve stood in, daydreams you\u2019ve had and sandwiches you\u2019ve made with the perfect ratio of peanut butter and jelly. She concluded by saying, \u201cIn this time, in this life, let us count on you, the most precious time capsule of them all.\u201d <\/p>\n

Graduating senior Ashley Howe, a German studies and history double major from Danville, Ky., gave the student address. Her presentation, titled \u201cGem\u00fctlichkeit,\u201d was about finding comfort in discomfort and the preparation she got from Transylvania to be able to tackle seemingly insurmountable issues in the world outside the campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cGem\u00fctlichkeit is a (German) word best used when describing coziness\u2014an environment or state of mind marked by cheerfulness, calmness and a sense of belonging or social acceptance,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat I have come to respect most about my class has been our eagerness to pervade discomfort\u2014to move away from Gem\u00fctlichkeit\u2014and this is a quality that makes us Transylvania graduates unique.\u201d<\/p>\n

Howe was very active at Transylvania, serving as an Admissions Ambassador, Student Orientation Leader, German Club president, officer in Delta Delta Delta sorority, senator in Student Government Association and runner on the cross country and track teams. She is a member of several honor societies, including Omicron Delta Kappa Leadership Honorary, Phi Alpha Theta History Honorary and Delta Phi Alpha German Honorary. She will be attending Washington & Lee University School of Law to pursue a juris doctorate degree.<\/p>\n

Facts about the Class of 2012<\/strong><\/p>\n