Thank you, Madam President. What do you call- I
don't know the formality. (laughter) Faculty squad, thank you for having me. (laughter) Class of 2017, what up though? (cheering) I wish I knew the roots of
these skinny digit splinters, these protruding lips
that chap in the winter, this bulbous nose that makes
me sniffle through prose, I must be a dead ringer for
someone's dead finger ring. Fingering piano keys for
the ease of a track by track played back to the way back before the back of the bus days of lore folk. Wheels spinning, spokes
straining the chain, choke to revoke speech. Preachers, single room
schoolhouse teachers before speech therapy. Teach to reach parody. Hilarity is a hairy peach
pit or a barren beach. With no blood loss to the belly of leech how easy to reach lineage. How skinny is the tree bearing
fruit with root in the sands. See, effortless connection. But this texture is composed of more complex erector set pieces. Erected and speechless in the
image of an image reflected my mis-es is the visage
I present and protect. But of what? Assuming I'm a dance,
then the choreographer must have these same skinny hands. This is for anyone who has ever gone to sleep hand outstretched, reaching for something that hits deep. This is for anyone who
considers herself matter too diffuse to be held
and too bound to scatter. This is for the nomads who
thought they had it right, now bartering with a snowman
for his corncob pipe. This is for the boys and
girls kept in mint condition. This is for anyone who will listen. I wrote that piece here in 2003. It's called Nomad and
it's from a rap adaptation of Jean Toomer's Cane called Sweeter Than, that Elmo-Terry Morgan and Marsha Z. West, may she rest in power, and
all of the academic saints at Rites and Reason Theater, poured, what in hindsight,
must have been ... Yeah, give it up for Rites and Reason. (cheering and applause) They poured, what in
hindsight, must have been a truly massive amount of money on the blind faith that a 21 year old reluctant theater
concentrator had any idea how to transform one of the greatest and most underappreciated
works of American fiction into fully realized play. And reciting those words
again now, it kind of sucks. Right, I mean, like, a little bit. (laughs) A little bit that my me-sis
is the visage that I present. What the hell, dude? (laughs) you're, like, 21, what
do you know about it? (laughs) Hitting the block like a hammer
hitting the nail on the head and came from a city
where Hammer made hits and kept people fed,
and fighting for fet-ti we hitting the block
with hammers and headed into the gritty and
ready (…) they did by committee decided whether to ride it another (…) like
it's early retirement. I am who they admiring, which (…) cue the violin. I wrote that just to stunt. There's not reason ... (laughs) (cheering) Literally, no reason for
that to be in this speech. (laughs) Daveed Diggs was born on January 20th. (laughter) January 20th, 2015, four
days before his 33rd birthday at approximately 9:40
p.m. when he strutted down a fake staircase at the
Public Theater in New York singing a song his friend
had written for him to sing, playing a man who would
have beat him savagely for singing it, had he been
born in similar circumstances roughly 224 years prior. (snapping) That snapping is really weird to me. (laughs) I hear that's a thing here
now, and do it if you must, but you can also clap or
cheer like a normal person. (laughs) (cheering) (applause) I ain't trying to, like,
restrict your way of expreessing yourself, or whatever. (laughter) About two years and four
months later, he has done what two years and four months
ago would have felt to him like a life's worth of things, two films, two (…) on popular TV shows, two tours, produced a
pilot for a major network that was picked up,
appeared on late night shows as a guest on a couch and as a performer, attended countless red
carpets and cocktail parties and award shows, and probably
too many speaking engagements, and if he's being honest, he
shouldn't be here right now because he's in the last
two days of pre-production for another thing he is
cramming into a life that feels too short because it didn't
start until he had already lived nearly 33 years. And then my eyes is peaking
back out from the mirror looking bloodshot, plus
they carry baggage now. The traveling, it don't stop, wrapped in every venue
from the White House to the Dope Spot, old enough to know all that experience don't
show he know a (...) thing. Got a hot damn singing that she love him, he should probably find a rock but she don't apply no pressure. She a diamond, too. We've been out here shining
on these overstuffed times like they wasn't the
most violent, eyes open, eye opine, something about
how the world is blind if that weren't the case,
it would be just fine, but I feel like I'm being
watched most of the time. These kids (…)
Twitters who are suddenly my fans and I do it to
myself because I do it for the Gram and the whole
fans (…) push Grams but I don't post those pics, I'd rather keep their hands clean. I don't see them often no more. I got a doctor on tour
saying not to talk anymore. Mouthpiece the only piece that still don't got a lock on the drawer. I use it till only a whisper left and then fall to the floor, and I think it's this
sentiment that there are only so many words one has the
opportunity to say that has him here, taking an
opportunity to say something to what feels like a very
expectant group of young people (laughter) about to enter a new phase in their lives. But the problem is that he
really doesn't have anything useful to say, because
he has only been around for two years and four months. (laughter) So I will speak for him. (laughter) I don't think I'm the
guy you invited to speak. I don't think I'm the guy getting an honorary doctorate tomorrow,
although I did ask if I could choose what department said
doctorate was given in, I asked if it could be in Engineering. (laughter) (cheering) I was told it could not. (laughter) Pre-Hamilton, the only
post-graduate interaction I had with the University was in
the form of laughable letters and calls from the annual
fund to donate money- (laughter and cheering) to donate money that I did not have. By the way, I used to work
for the calling center here. Do we still call- yeah. (cheering) Do we still call dead people? (laughter) Is that a thing that we do? Because this is the thing I remember most from working there, is
reading the little scripts to whoever answered the phone,
only to have that person tell me that the man or woman
I was calling for was dead. (laughs) In hindsight, this could
have also been seen as a good tactic to
get us to stop calling. (laughter) Although, it never worked. We always called again. (laughter) I'm not throwing shade, this
is just how the game go. (laughter) People don't get asked to do these things, list of accomplishments do,
and then we sort of struggle to give context or justification
to these accomplishments that mostly feel like accidents. I'm much older and less
interesting than Daveed Diggs. I am far less sure of myself,
although not according to that article that ... (laughter) apparently I said I
was really charismatic. (laughter) But I will tell you what I know and maybe you'll find it useful. I sat right over there in 2004. (cheering) I think. (laughter) Although, memory is a funny thing. Daveed Diggs made this very heartfelt speech
at the Tonys and it was broadcast to millions of
people, and it was a speech about his dad wearing rainbow tights. And my Mom recently sent me
a picture of the actual event he was referencing, and Pops was for sure wearing navy blue sweatpants (laughter) and I had on a rainbow tank top, so ... (laughter) Daveed Diggs is also a liar. (laughter) Anyway, in 2004 I sat somewhere
here or someplace else after either walking or not
from a classroom or Green or something, I'll be honest with you, I don't remember Commencement. (laughter) Not because I was drunk, although I hope at least some of you are, (laughter) because this talk is probably better. (laughter) Yeah? Lit section, I heard you. (laughs) Just flasks in the robe. (laughter) I don't remember the Baccalaureate speech or the performances. I don't remember being handed my diploma. Sidebar about the diplomas, though, are they still in Latin? - [Crowd] Yep. - That's a thing, so do
yourself a favor, and get an official translation of
your diploma, because I know from experience that when
applying for a job as a substitute teacher, the
clerk of the district office is neither amused nor impressed
with your framed gibberish. (laughter) That is so real, it took, like, four weeks for me to get the little- anyway. I don't remember these
things, not because they were unimportant, quite the contrary. I was the first kid on my
father's side of the family to graduate from college. I had accomplished a thing that- (cheering and applause) I had accomplished a thing
that my mother had rearranged and rededicated her
whole life to facilitate. In fact, I remember at some
point after graduating, my mother saying to me, "Well you made it. "I'm done nagging you now." (laughter) She was not. (laughter) Daveed Diggs' mother is also a liar. (laughter) She's for sure gonna see this,
and then nag me about that. (laughter) I had gotten to what I had
always imagined was an endgame in terms of my formal education. I mean, I'd been in school
as long as I could remember, and it was done. It was a big deal. But it was another birth,
and nobody actually remembers the circumstances
of their birth. We have to be told them. I'm told I was born in two hospitals, that my Mom went into
labor and went with my Dad to Highland Hospital in
Oakland as was the plan. But when the doctors there
refused to allow her to have a natural childbirth,
they picked up and drove to Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley saying, "You can give us a room, or we can "have this baby right here in the lobby." (laughter) Daveed Diggs' parents are gangsters. (laughter) And so, here you all are, being born, maybe with a little more
agency than last time. (laughter) And I actually think it is
imperative that you keep alive the story and the
circumstances of this birth. That you were born into
a time in our country that feels different than
any I have lived through. I was on a boat with Sonia Sanchez the day after our last election,
and I'm gonna pause there and repeat that, because
that is the coldest name drop you ever heard. (laughter) I was on a boat (laughter) with Sonia Sanchez. (laughter) That makes it sound like it
was a two person sailboat and we were just drinking
mint juleps, and she's, like, telling me about the Black
Arts movement and the Civil Rights Movement, and
I'm talking to her about clothes from Zara fit funny or whatever. (laughter) But we were actually on a
massive cruise ship with, like, thousands of people, and we were about to do this performance. And a bunch of artists my
age were in the green room having psychotic breaks about
the fact that the trajectory of our country had overnight
gone from one of hope to one of hate. And finally, someone had the
good sense to talk to the living legend sitting calmly in the corner about what she thought of the whole thing, and Sonia shrugged and said
that she had watched them kill Martin and Malcolm and Kennedy, that she'd lived through Reagan. She said, "This is how it goes in America. "Three steps forward and
two steps back always." She said, "You just put your
head down and keep fighting." And we all stopped whining. You're being born into a
time where our country is as divided as it has ever been. Where there are no easy answers, where there is no certainty
about how to get a job or what constitutes a family,
where the news is fake but more real than the alternative facts, where science is ignored
but the globe warms anyway. Where Mezcal may be the
most popular alcohol in the country, but we're building a wall along our Mexican border. (laughter) Where gender is false,
but women still earn disproportionately less than men. Where race is false,
but black boys are still disproportionately gunned down by police, brown boys sitting on his
knees with his eyes shut, hands behind his head, fingers folded, pinkies up saying he ain't
even do nothing, what you want? They through him on the ground when he called them all punks, retro
blue and white Jordan's tongues out over the black jeans
cuffed just the right amount so that they bunch by
the caves how he liked. Just ran out of boxer briefs,
so he wearing tighty whities and the white t-shirt and
the breeze catch it just so, pushing it tight against
his chest, and the red hole is getting wider as the blood
is seeping through the fabric and pulling on the ground,
he looks down automatic and the dark pavement
gets darker when it's wet. He's losing balance slow,
but his hands on his head so his face hits first
and his eyes go dead and the air is sucked out of
the world with his last breath. Time has made a choice
of what to keep and what to throw away. Everything ingrained
comes to a point so sharp could cut a piece of day
and it bleeds on the ground, keep your knees on the
ground where they belong. Keep your knees on the
ground where they belong. Just a couple weeks
before I moved to New York to start rehearsals for
Hamilton, I was riding my bike from my apartment in LA to pay rent. My landlord wouldn't accept
checks, so I had to take cash to a nearby check cashing spot
that did free money orders. And a police car comes careening
around the corner, and two officers jumped out and pulled
me off my bike and threw me against a fence of my neighbor's house, grabbing my hands and
cuffing them behind my back. One-twenty-seventh of a second
between when the trigger squeeze and the bullet hits
my back, we are this close. His breath is hot upon my neck. My hands are folded on my head. I'm doing everything he says. I know how this goes. My nonchalant demeanor is
normally meaningless, but if I live today, I know that
this will be the reason why. The badge he thinks gives
him his power lets me know that actually at this moment
he is every bit as scared as I. He's been trained that I'm
his enemy in an institution whose motto is to protect and serve. If this is what I can expect
for protection, then having that as a motto seems a bit absurd. He never questioned who
he was in service to, and let's be honest, man, a
motto's really just some words. I know the pen is mightier
than the sword, but can it stop a bullet, homey? I'm just not sure. It's just hot. Los Angeles, summertime
is a scandalous ripening of desires and fires
that we have bottled up. It ain't no water, so
cool our heads, (…) my sweat is popping. If there's a positive
motto, what is it since Rodney King on the TV, the
LAPD is more a monster than man and I managed with it. My pride doesn't want to let me succumb. I could die just a couple
of steps where I reside, and I am not the only one. I exhale and keep my voice low. "Yes, you can search me. "No, I do not have any
weapons you should know about. "My backpack is gym
clothes and rent money. "Sir, may I go now?" And another part dies in
politeness, at least not the part that can write this. But it's only so many times
I can bite this tongue, and I'm not the only
person who feels like this. This is what you're being born into. And honestly, thank God it is y'all. These times, in many
ways, defy explanation. What these times really need
are people who challenge all explanations, who never thought outside the box because they
never accepted the premise that there was a box. And I know firsthand that
the survival of things like Spring Weekend or, like, the
Interracial Dating Forum, is that still a thing? (laughter) If you survive those
things, then we are breeding these kinds of people. Our world desperately needs you now. We need your new ideas,
because our old ones have made a big mess of things. If you're like I was,
you're a little nervous in this moment. You know that a lot of people
sacrificed for you to get to this point, and you feel like you owe them a great success story. But also, if you're like
I was, you also have no idea what you're going
to do after tomorrow. Maybe you have a timeline in your head, some date by which you are
supposed to be successful. Let me tell you how that went for me. (laughter) I went to London for a
week with the track team, then I moved back home
with my mom for longer than I'd like to admit. I did a bunch of plays
you've never heard of. I started substitute teaching. I got a place in Fruitvale
in Oakland with one of my best friends from here
at Brown who had moved to the Bay area because he
didn't fit in anywhere else. I decided I needed to
try to live in New York. I couch surfed in New
York for nine months, often sleeping on the Subway. I auditioned 10 to 12 times
a week booking nothing. I ran out of money. I used my Mom's frequent
flier miles to move back home. I did a bunch more plays
you've never heard of. I designed rap curriculum
for Bay area middle schools. I feel in love several times. One of those times prompted
a move to Los Angeles. I landed a commercial agent. I auditioned for a lot of commercials. I booked one. It was a McDonald's commercial
that I booked the same week as I had also agreed to
do a reading at a theater in Berkeley and had said I
would attend my best friend's bachelor party in Vegas, which
means I spent most of that week riding overnight Greyhound
buses, except for the seven hours I spent in Vegas doing Molly. (laughter) (applause) I started a band called
Clipping that nobody liked. I toured a lot. I did a bunch of workshops and readings. My friends, Lynne and
Tommy, who I had met due to a clerical error during
a substitute teaching gig asked me to be in a musical. I went to New York to be in
a musical, and Daveed Diggs was born on January 20th, 2015, four days before his 33rd birthday
at approximately 9:40 p.m. And I don't feel successful,
and neither does he, if he's being honest. But we know he has trouble with honesty. (laughter) So the best advice that I
can give to those of you who are worried about the when
of the rest of your life, is stop tripping. (laughter) I'm sure you will all have
long lists of accomplishments and multiple rebirths. Some of you will have
accomplishments that are asked to speak at colleges or other
prestigious institutions. (laughter) Dope, do that. (laughter) They all add up to a pretty silly speech. But the work for you and
I and us, all, in this is the day to day. It's the stitching together
of a nation divided. It is in the honest effort to
understand the circumstances that the people around us were born into. It is in the box-less thinking. So remember the circumstances
of your Commencement. Take note of the world you were born into. Tell and retell your birth
story, and by all means, forget this speech. (laughter) You are destined for
much, much greater things, and I am so excited to witness it. Thank you so much for
having me, class of 2017. (applause) (cheering)
Always forget how poetic this guy really is. Genuinely incredibly lyricist.