The Class of 2021 — and the entire College — have been counting down the days until Commencement 2021, which takes place tomorrow, on April 29. Throughout the month, we have highlighted some of the most memorable moments from the past four years to celebrate our soon-to-be graduates.
On February 1, 2021, English and Africana studies major Asha Futterman ’21 launched Barnard’s celebration of Black History Month by sharing how her three years as a student-researcher with the Barnard Center for Research on Women (BCRW) helped lay the foundation for her to participate in Chicago’s Rebuild Foundation’s Reading the Black Library Youth Fellowship during the summer of 2020. The spring before, in May 2019, Futterman collaborated with activist and BCRW Researcher-in-Residence Mariame Kaba to host the Radical Black Women of Harlem: A Walking Tour, where Futterman highlighted historic Black women who helped to radically change Harlem — from the College’s own Zora Neale Hurston ’28 to activist-scholar Pauli Murray.
“I loved [the tour] so much because I learned about history and radical organizing that was centered in the place where I lived,” said Futterman. “It was really powerful to understand that so many women who have done amazing things, that still impact my life years and years later, may have lived right around the corner from me.”
