Raymond-Givens
2020-12-16T02:57:24.672Z
Halfway through the interview with Dr. Raymond Givens, two young boys materialize through the slightly-pixelated Zoom virtual background displaying the stoic face of the rapper Biggie Smalls. The little one pops cheerfully through the famous rapper’s mouth, waving a tiny green toy at the camera, and the taller one comes running through the rapper’s tilted plastic crown, grinning cheekily and tugging at his father’s surgical scrubs. Givens, smiling at his sons and not at all fazed by the distraction, smoothly introduces his six-year-old, Lucas, and his two-year-old, Nicholas, pausing momentarily to swoop Nicholas into his lap and put his arm around Lucas’ shoulder. Givens gently corrals them out of the room, apologizes for the interruption, and without missing a beat, returns to the discussion of his efforts to change the name of Bard Hall.
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2019-02-07T11:05:34.813Z
In honor of Black History Month, Spectator is publishing a series of profiles on notable black alumni scholars, activists, leaders, and more whose stories we have previously overlooked and failed to cover. The first article in the series features Raymond Brown, CC ’69, who came into the national spotlight during the 1968 protests as the leader of the Student Afro-American Society, a group that led the community—and inspired the nation—in protest against Columbia’s involvement in the Vietnam War and gentrification of Harlem. Brown is also a calligraphy-writing, yoga-practicing grandfather to a two-year-old boy.
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