Rutgers Newark Names Queen Latifah As 2018 Commencement Speaker

NEWARK, NJ — She was born in Newark, grew up in East Orange and has earned a Grammy, Primetime Emmy, Golden Globe, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, three NAACP Image Awards, two BET Awards and two Teen Choice Awards.

And in May, Queen Latifah will add another milestone to her diverse list of accomplishments: keynote speaker at Rutgers.

On Wednesday, Rutgers University-Newark announced that Latifah will be the featured guest at the 2018 commencement ceremony on May 14 at the Prudential Center in Newark. Latifah will receive an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree during the ceremony.

“Queen Latifah is inspiring to us as students because she always projects herself through her work as a strong woman,” said RU-N undergraduate Adebimpe Elegbeyele, who served on the commencement selection committee that helped guide Latifah’s selection. “She shows young women that we can do that too and young men that they need to respect that.”

Lyneir Richardson, executive director of The Center for Urban Entrepreneurship and Economic Development at Rutgers – Newark, said that Latifah has been a longtime supporter of Newark and its amazing arts community.

• See related article: Newark's Diverse Arts Scene Generates Big Bucks For City, Study Says

“She is an inspiring role model of excellence for Rutgers-Newark,” Richardson said. “I have seen, up close, her creative spirit, entrepreneurial drive and deep-rooted connection to inclusive urban community revitalization."

According to a Rutgers statement:

“At the age of 21, [Latifah] organized and became CEO of Flavor Unit Records and Management Company based in Jersey City, New Jersey. By 1993, the label had 17 signed artists. In 1995, her label won its first Grammy for a song she composed, ‘U.N.I.T.Y.,’ which became an anthem rallying young women to self-love and mutual support, demonstrating the ways in which Queen Latifah leverages her talent to pursue the proverbial ‘double bottom line’ of doing well and doing good by drawing attention to issues of social importance. More recently, she co-starred in the acclaimed comedy ‘Girls Trip,’ which was chosen by Time magazine as one of its top 10 films of 2017.”

But that’s not all, Rutgers says:

“Queen Latifah founded a scholarship foundation for low-income youth and has worked to mitigate home foreclosures in disadvantaged neighborhoods. These were just some of the reasons why she received Newark Beth Israel Medical Center’s Community Award in 2013. Queen Latifah also has been an effective advocate for international initiatives such as ‘Let Girls Learn,’ the campaign started by former First Lady Michelle Obama, that strives to provide support to 62 million girls around the world who do not have access to education. She is currently the spokesperson for the American Heart Association’s ‘Rise Above Heart Failure’ initiative. Other causes she has supported include the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Save the Music Foundation.”

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Main photo courtesy of Rutgers Newark