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At Concord Academy, a sudden change in commencement speakers raises questions

Porsha Olayiwola, Boston's poet laureate, was initially asked to speak at Concord Academy's commencement ceremony. She says "politics" led to the announcement of a different speaker.

By Ross Cristantiello

April 18, 2024

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In early March, Concord Academy announced that Porsha Olayiwola, poet laureate for the city of Boston, would be the school’s 2024 commencement speaker. But about one month later the prestigious private school announced a new choice for speaker, reportedly catching Olayiwola off guard. 

School officials say the decision was made because Olayiwola’s talents were better suited for a different type of programming at Concord Academy. But she sees it a different way. 

“I didn’t have any proof as to why they removed me, but I had an educated guess, which is my politics,” Olayiwola recently told The Boston Globe. 

Neither Olayiwola nor Concord Academy officials responded to requests for comment Thursday. 

Olayiwola has been an outspoken supporter of progressive movements such as Black Lives Matter in the past, and has been active on social media amid the war in Gaza. She frequently reposts content on her X account advocating for Palestinian rights. 

In late October, a coalition known as Writers Against the War on Gaza published a “statement of solidarity” with the Palestinian people. In it, the group accuses Israel of being an “apartheid state” attempting to “conduct genocide” against Palestinians as part of an “ethno-nationalist project.” Olayiwola is listed as one of hundreds of writers who signed on in support of the statement. 

Olayiwola and Tyler Tsay, her booking agent, told the Globe that they received no clear explanation from the school about the switch-up. But from their perspective, the decision was made by school leaders, administrators, or other stakeholders.

“If the students truly requested Porsha to begin with, it should have been the students’ decision to change the speakership, not the administrators at CA,” Tsay told the paper. 

In response to the Globe article, Head of School Henry Fairfax sent a short letter to the Concord Academy community on Wednesday regarding the change of commencement speakers. He acknowledged that Olayiwola was initially chosen for the honor, but is instead being replaced by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Alexandra Berzon. 

“After naming Porsha as the speaker, she and I met to discuss how she could best engage our community. During that conversation, it became clear that an all-school assembly, a speaker series, or similar programming, would be a better opportunity to engage with our students,” Fairfax wrote. 

Fairfax was contacted by a Globe reporter on April 5, according to the letter. He shared the information about the aforementioned interaction with the reporter and characterized the situation as a misunderstanding. 

“I was surprised to learn that Porsha had come away from our meeting with a different understanding,” he wrote. 

In the initial announcement regarding Olayiwola’s selection, Fairfax praised her as an “inspiring speaker who combines artistic expression and civic engagement.” Members of the class of 2024 collaborated with school officials in the process of selecting Olayiwola, he added. 

Olayiwola had visited Concord Academy multiple times before and bonded with students, per the Globe. School officials told her in January that the senior class had chosen her to speak at their commencement ceremony. 

Olayiwola, a Chicago native who now lives in Jamaica Plain, is a celebrated writer who “uses afro-futurism and surrealism to examine historical and current issues in the Black, woman, and queer diasporas,” according to her website. She is an Individual World Poetry Slam Champion who founded the Roxbury Poetry Festival and has served as artist-in-residence at Brown University, Brandeis University, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Olayiwola earned her MFA in poetry from Emerson College. She is the author of “i shimmer sometimes, too,” a collection of poetry. 

Tsay and Olayiwola told the Globe that Berzon is an “excellent choice” for commencement speaker and that they do not want this saga to “diminish her contribution to the graduating class.”

The saga is reminiscent of the University of Southern California’s recent decision to cancel Muslim student Asna Tabassum’s valedictorian speech. USC officials said that the move was made because of “substantial” security risks in a recent update. Pro-Israel members of the USC community have accused Tabassum of antisemitism, while her defenders have said that the university is using security concerns as a pretext for stifling pro-Palestinian sentiments. 

“We cannot ignore the fact that similar risks have led to harassment and even violence at other campuses,” Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Andrew Guzman wrote.