Sign Up<\/a><\/p>\nShe credited Penn for introducing her to the idea of pursuing a career in the arts and academia \u2014 recalling the \u201cdynamic experience\u201d she had in the English and Africana Studies departments at Penn, which helped forge her professional life.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really grateful for my ability to grow and evolve with this institution over time,\u201d Tillet added.<\/p>\n
On Friday evening, 1987 College graduate Sara Lomax discussed her journey as a black woman who became a media entrepreneur and president of Philadelphia\u2019s only black-run radio talk show.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During the event, she emphasized that \u201cit\u2019s really important, especially in a city like Philadelphia, for everyday, average, regular Black people to have access to information and resources that they might not know.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an interview, Lomax attributed her ability to overcome the challenges she faced as a black leader to her belief in herself. She expressed that Penn offered her the opportunity to explore different aspects of herself, adding that the University \u201cbuilt a level of confidence in\u201d her.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, a lunchtime panel featured Rommen in conversation with the founders of various Penn art organizations \u2014 including 1994 College graduate Raqiba Bourne, 1989 College graduate Lolita Jackson, and 2004 College graduate Carlos Andr\u00e9s G\u00f3mez.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The panelists discussed their experiences with building art communities on campus and called for more institutional support for such organizations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn order to receive funding and recognition, you have to have experience and exposure,\u201d Bourne said during the event. There is a circular \u201cconundrum,\u201d however, because \u201cin order to have experience and exposure, you need funding to receive recognition.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
In an interview, G\u00f3mez \u2014\u00a0co-founder of the Excelano Project \u2014 described his connection to the performing arts community as \u201ca really important anchor\u201d during his time at Penn. He added that it directly contributed to how \u201cmeaningful\u201d his experience with the University was.<\/p>\n
After initially facing rejection when attempting to create the club, G\u00f3mez reflected that he believed the project was \u201ca very unlikely long shot.\u201d He emphasized that \u201cthe spirit of challenge and constructive provocation\u201d has always been at the center of the club.<\/p>\n
He expressed hope that \u201cExcelano remains a foil in a world that is increasingly disconnected, lonely, divided, and where humanity is being outsourced to large language models,\u201d referring to the dawning age of artificial intelligence.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bourne founded African Rhythms \u2014 a dance group that existed at Penn for 27 years but has not been active since 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She explained that she started the group to \u201cfoster a sense of belonging,\u201d emphasizing the importance of individuals engaging with the arts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Art, she said, is \u201coxygen in life\u201d and \u201chas a way of reaching your heart and your soul in ways that data sets can\u2019t necessarily touch.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re at a place where people don\u2019t think it\u2019s okay to be learning and making mistakes and growing, and art is one of the best places to do that,\u201d Bourne added.<\/p>\n
Attendees were required to purchase a ticket \u2014 priced at $75 for alumni or guests and $25 for current students. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Penn Alumni hosted its triennial weekend of programming to celebrate careers in the arts and media.\u00a0 The Oct.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70],"class_list":["post-309634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}