With over a thousand speakers invited to campus, Yale students have the opportunity to hear from some of the most distinguished individuals in the world. From Martin Luther King III to Paul McCartney, here is a guide to the most notable speaker events of the last year and a sneak peak into the upcoming speaker events of the 2023-24 academic year. 

On Monday August 21st, 2022, more than 2,000 first-years sat on Cross Campus and listened as President Salovey,  Dean Pericles of Yale College and the annual Class Day speaker addressed the incoming students for the Yale College Opening Assembly. Marking the beginning of their Yale careers, it is bookended by Commencement weekend of their senior year. This time it was American poet and essayist and president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation,  Dr. Elizabeth Alexander ’84. 

 “Class day speakers are not exclusively Yale alumni, or Yale College alumni, but very often, they are. Generally, the feedback is that it’s meaningful to students to hear from people who have walked these hallways before them. And Dr. Alexander, who was our speaker in 2023, is a wonderful example of that,” said Alison Coleman, Director of Special Projects in the Office of the President and lecturer in English. 

Previous Class Day speakers include current U.S. President Joseph Biden, author Chimamanda Adichie, Secretaries of State John Kerry and Hillary Rodham Clinton and actor Tom Hanks. 

Additionally, Yale held its annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration last January, and invited Martin Luther King III to address the student body. Previous speakers on this day include but are not limited to activist Angela Davis in 2020, human rights activist Diane Nash in 2017, and former president and CEO of NAACP Rev. Cornell Williams Brooks LAW’90 in 2016. 

“Last year, our speaker was Martin Luther King III. That was a historic event for the university because both his mother and his father had spoken at the University in similar events. He was continuing a really important tradition,” said Assistant Vice President of University Traditions Heather Calabrese. 

In his address, King urged listeners to become active participants in politics, highlighting the importance of representing underrepresented groups. 

“The ability to listen and learners produce both leaders who want to remain relevant in a changing society,” he said. “As I conclude my remarks this evening, I want to challenge us to … choose … healing action. Together we can graze a new path to a better future and a more peaceful world [with] love and justice.”

In addition to events and ceremonies organized by the University, distinguished individuals are invited to speak through fellowships and organizations, such as the Poynter Fellowship in Journalism, the Schwarzman Center-sponsored speaker series and the Chubb Fellowship. 

According to their official website, the Poynter Fellowship in Journalism aims to introduce a cultivated look at topics of interest by inviting speakers with multifaceted perspectives and experiences, specifically from the media industry.ome of its previous speakers include cultural critic Roxane Gay, film director Tan Pin Pin, former White House Press Secretary Jay Carney and 2022 Pulitzer Prize Winner Salamishah Tillet.  

Schwarzman Center speakers 

All throughout the year, the Schwarzman Center hosts conversations with musicians, entrepreneurs, writers, and more—some of this past year’s speakers including Kamilah Forbes, Zibby Owens ’98, Daryl Roth and Bryce Dessner. 

According to the center’s executive director, Rachel Fine, the Schwarzman Center aims to foster dialogue between Yale students, faculty, staff, and members of the New Haven community. Conversations and artist talks are “essential in contributing to the free exchange of ideas on campus,” said Fine. 

Notably, singer Paul McCartney spoke to thousands in front of a sold-out Woolsey Hall event at the Schwarzman Center on February 16, 2023. McCartney reflected on his songwriting experiences detailed in his book “The Lyrics: 1965 to the Present” with the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and editor of his book, Paul Muldoon. 

“I love the thought that people are listening to what you do, are digesting it, are finding meanings in it, and then they take the baton and do their own thing, whatever it is,” McCartney told the audience. “But you’ve inspired them. It’s one of the best things.”

Speaker events can also take the form of smaller, more intimate conversations between the speaker and students, such as the “College Teas” The Teas are hosted by heads of College and feature distinguished lecturers and usually a treat of some kind.  

Specifically administered by the Timothy Dwight College, the Chubb Fellowship visiting lecture program has invited numerous national and international leaders to campus. 2023 Spring Chubb Fellow, Anderson Cooper, shared his professional and college experiences with a small group of students over dinner last Spring.. Previous fellows include Grammy Award-winning violinist Hillary Hahn, U.S. figure skater Michelle Kwan and actor-producer Morgan Freeman. 

According to recent graduate and current Woodbridge Fellow Yasmeen Abed ’23, these “smaller, more localized” environments allow students to engage directly with speakers and foster skills to communicate respectfully through discourse and disagreement. Abed also highlighted Yale students’ opportunities to hear from student experts within their own community. 

Both Calabrese and Coleman urged students to take advantage of Yale’s speaker events and spaces for open dialogue and emphasized the importance of student input in bringing speakers to campus. Calabrese’ piece of advice for new students, however, also advocated for the opposite side of the coin. 

“Pick and choose. Don’t be overwhelmed by all the options and the possibilities. You don’t have to go to every lecture. You don’t have to go to every event, either,” said Calabrese. “My advice would be, new students, mix what you love and know with what you don’t know, or what’s a mystery to you. But pace yourself too, and don’t have FOMO.”

“Our commitment is presenting as many diverse viewpoints and perspectives as possible. We believe in free speech… We try to be very careful to not put a specific institutional filter or expectation on invitations to speakers,” Calabrese said. 

On Aug. 29, the Schwarzman Center welcomed clown duo Bill & Fred for two performances, free to the public. Their first performance, “The Grannies” ran from noon to 12:30 p.m. at Beinecke Plaza and included free ice cream for the first 150 guests. They performed their second act, “Bill & Fred’s Adventures,” in the Dome, from 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. that evening. 

The Schwarzman Center was initially built in 1901 and was renovated from 2016 to 2021.