Musician, author James McBride commencement speaker at Delaware State University
Delaware State University’s May 12 commencement ceremony will feature author, screenwriter and musician James McBride as the keynote speaker.
McBride will speak to around 600 graduates as well as to their families, friends and supporters who gather with them at the Alumni Stadium site on campus.
James McBride ’s memoir, “The Color of Water,” resided on the New York Times bestseller list for two years and is considered an American classic that is read in schools and universities across the United States.
His debut novel Miracle at St. Anna, a story of the Buffalo Soldiers in World War II and their interactions with the Italians during that conflict, became a 2008 feature film by Spike Lee. McBride also wrote the screenplay adaptation of his book for the movie.
His novel, Song Yet Sung, is a story of an escaped female slave in 1850, who desperately eludes a skilled slave catcher through the swamps of Maryland’s Eastern Shore. His latest novel “The Good Lord Bird,” about American revolutionary John Brown, is the winner of the 2013 National Book Award for Fiction.
McBride is a former staff writer for the Washington Post, People magazine, and The Boston Globe. His work has appeared in Essence, Rolling Stones, and The New York Times.
McBride got his start in journalism in 1980-81 as a writer for the News Journal.
James toured as a saxophonist sideman with jazz legend Jimmy Scott, among others. He has also written songs (music and lyrics) for Anita Baker, Grover Washington Jr., Purafe, Gary Burton, and even for the PBS television character “Barney.”
He received the Stephen Sondheim Award and the Richard Rodgers Foundation Horizon Award for his musical “Bo-Bos” co-written with playwright Ed Shockley.
McBride studied composition at The Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio and earned a Master’s Degree in Journalism from Columbia University in New York at age 22. He holds several honorary doctorates and is currently a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University.
