Each year, faculty in the Departments of English and Music nominate students to serve as the class poet and musicians for the School of Liberal Arts Undergraduate Diploma Ceremony.
This year’s student poet is Kathryn Evans. Kathryn is originally from the Bay Area in California. She received a Bachelor of Science with a double major in mathematics and English, and a minor in teaching, learning, and training. She has served as a TA for the class “Thinking with Poems,” is a member of Phi Alpha Delta pre-law fraternity, and a College Scholar. Outside of Tulane, she interned with the Louisiana Capital Assistance Center and was an investigative intern with Orleans Public Defenders.
After graduating, Kathryn will pursue her Juris Doctor at the University of Georgia School of Law as a Distinguished Law Fellow. She ultimately hopes to become a public defender and a capital defense attorney.
Dreams Do Come True
I was scared at first to have the world at my feet.
This unfamiliar place had a new sound & weight in the air–
Humidity that made it hard to breathe, but then
I learned to slow down.
To inhale & exhale when the time was right.
& to clap & dance along with a second line because joy exists
Even for just a moment in the hardest times.
& slowly the faces of smiling strangers
Who I passed by on the street became friends
Ushering me through Uptown
& down to the Fly through Audubon to watch the sunset
Until the cicadas sang.
Then it was time for card games
& daiquiris until the night turned back into day.
& eventually the Spanish moss on cypress trees became comforting,
Letting the sunlight slip through & warm my face.
& the rumble of the streetcar carried me
Until I was back on campus being greeted by the bead tree.
& then I found myself surrounded
By true friendship, unconditional love & genuine happiness.
I never knew that life could feel like this.
Like having a flower crown from a Mardi Gras float
Land perfectly on my head.
Like sitting in the sun at Jazz Fest
Until my shoulders slightly burn.
Like being stuccoed in hope after seeing a man in court
Who was never given a first chance
Finally get a second shot at life, at freedom – at love.
The world is at my feet again
But I’m not scared this time.
I’m ready for whatever is next
Because I finally know what it means to call a place home.
& I know that no matter what, even if I leave New Orleans
New Orleans will never leave me.
This year’s student musicians are Hadley Magaziner and Paul Butts.
Hadley is originally from Long Beach Island, New Jersey, and is a Music major and a Strategy, Leadership, & Analytics Minor. She will attend New York University this fall to pursue a Master of Music in Vocal Performance with a Musical Theatre Concentration.
Paul Butts is a Mathematics, Physics, and Music triple major originally from Nashville, Tennessee, and plans to return there after graduation.
As their song, Hadley and Paul chose “Always,” written by Irving Berlin, but, fittingly, elected to perform the legendary Ella Fitzgerald’s adaptation.