A major Grammy Award-winning musician and composer. A renowned TV actress. A documentary filmmaker who also happens to be a Gator alum. UHD’s fall lineup for its 50th Anniversary President’s Lecture Series was truly remarkable —and firmly rooted in the arts. If you missed some or all of it, don’t fret. Links to the conversations are below.
The fall 2024 series kicked off on Sept. 18 with “Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month: What’s Your Next?” The panelists did not hold back as they discussed topics relevant to Hispanic heritage, ranging from representation in media and entertainment to entrepreneurship to the immigrant experience. Annie Gonzalez, known for “Gentefied,” “Shameless,” and “Flamin Hot,” shared how her relationship with her single mom shaped her identity and helped her tell her own story. Author of “Brown Enough,” actor, podcaster, and storyteller Christopher Rivas delved deeply into personal identity within Latin American culture. As Co-Founder and CEO of the LA-based brand Kids of Immigrants, Daniel Buezo talked about his own entrepreneurial journey and commitment to social impact, providing valuable lessons on leadership and community engagement.
It was a homecoming of sorts for UHD alum and award-winning documentary director, editor, and producer Bradford Thomason when Art Professor and Director of the O’Kane Gallery Mark Cervenka interviewed him on stage for “Butterfly in the Sky” as part of the President’s Lecture Series on Oct. 2. Thomason not only attended UHD but worked many years with Cervenka in the gallery.
For 23 seasons, American children garnered a love of reading from the PBS Kids series “Reading Rainbow.” It was the most-watched PBS program inside classrooms. Last spring saw the release of Thomason’s documentary “Butterfly in the Sky, which chronicles the journeys of the broadcasters, educators. and filmmakers who believed television could inspire a lifelong love of reading with “Reading Rainbow.” During the President’s Lecture, Thomason spoke to his work as a director and editor in the film industry—and how his experiences at UHD shaped his career.
On Friday, Nov. 8, President Blanchard joined his cousin, eight-time Grammy Award-winning composer and trumpeter Terence Blanchard, for “A Conversation with Terence Blanchard.” It was an intimate and authentic conversation about their relationship growing up and living in southern Louisiana.
Terence choked up while revealing his father’s disappointment that his son chose jazz as his career. Only later would the elder Blanchard confess that he was wrong and happy that Terence had not taken his advice. Terence would go on to create the soundtrack for every Spike Lee movie since 1991, as well as the music scores for such powerful films as “The Woman King,” “Harriet,” and “One Night in Miami.” He made history in 2021 as the first African American composer to premiere an original opera at the Metropolitan Opera with “Fire Shut Up in My Bones.”
That’s a wrap on the Fall 2024 50th Anniversary President’s Lecture Series: three superb conversations surrounding culture, the arts, and higher education. The 2025 series will kick off in February with a President’s Lecture for Black History Month.