New Haven's Henry Seyue Reads Hughes' 'I, Too' At Jefferson Lecture

NEW HAVEN, CT —This year’s National Endowment for Humanities’ Jefferson Lecture Wednesday in Washington, D.C., will include New Haven resident and UConn student Henry Seyue reading the Langston Hughes’ poem, “I, Too,” during the event.

The Jefferson Lecture, the highest honor the federal government bestows for distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities, will be given by Andrew Delbanco, president of The Teagle Foundation and Alexander Hamilton Professor of American Studies at Columbia University, and will focus on the question of reparations.

Presented at President Lincoln’s Cottage historic site and museum in Washington, D.C., at 6:30 p.m. The lecture is free and open to the public and will stream online at neh.gov.

As an alum of Yale’s Citizens, Thinkers, Writer’s Program, a Knowledge for Freedom program funded by the Teagle Foundation, Henry was selected to participate in this year’s event.

The New Havener graduated from the Metropolitan Business Academy in 2018 and matriculated at Benedict College, where he served as a Legislative Lead for Save the Children Action Network and was the school’s first Frederick Douglass Global Fellow. Seyue is now a third-year Political Science and Economics major at UConn, where he currently serves as the assistant editor for the UConn Political Review and as an administrative assistant in UConn’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion. Seyue interned in the D.C. office of U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and is pursuing his Master of Public Policy along with this bachelor’s.

Knowledge for Freedom is one of the Teagle Foundation’s signature programs, bringing local high schoolers onto a college campus for a summer session delving into texts including Socrates and Frederick Douglass (among many others). It is a way to engage them in discussions about civics, ethics, what it means to be human and part of society – and get them excited about learning. KFF scholars also receive a year of mentoring and guidance through the college application process.