Pulitzer Prize-Winning Playwright

Previous  |  Next

Suzan-Lori Parks '85 Took Her Cue from Five College Professor James Baldwin

When playwright Suzan-Lori Parks ’85 returned to Mount Holyoke in 2001 to receive an honorary doctorate and give the commencement address she told a memorable story. One day in high school, a "very stern" English teacher advised her not to study English. "You haven’t got the talent for it," the teacher said. Rather than let the remark stop her, she took it as a challenge. "It forced me to think for myself."

Since graduating cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, Parks has become a major force in avant-garde theatre. She has garnered many awards, including two Obies, a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant," and a Pulitzer Prize for drama.

It was the Five College Consortium that opened the door to Parks's playwriting career. When the esteemed African American playwright and novelist James Baldwin taught a course at Hampshire College, she was one of only 15 students to be admitted to the class. She had considered herself a novelist, but Baldwin advised her to consider writing plays. She took his suggestion and made the leap.

To the class of 2001, Parks said:

"Be bold. Envision yrself living a life that you love. Believe, even if you can only muster yr faith for just this moment, believe that the sort of life you wish to live is, at this very moment, just waiting for you to summon it up. And when you wish for it, you being moving toward it, and it, in turn, begins moving toward you."