MK Asante ’04 to deliver keynote speech at Lafayette’s 190th Commencement

Photo by Lee Steffen, © MK Asante Productions LLC

By Stella Katsipoutis-Varkanis

MK Asante ’04—a bestselling author, award-winning filmmaker, recording artist, and distinguished professor who the Los Angeles Times calls “One of America’s best storytellers”—will deliver the keynote address for Lafayette’s 190th Commencement ceremony for the Class of 2025 May 24.

“It is my honor to welcome distinguished alumnus MK Asante home as our Commencement speaker,” says Nicole Hurd, president of Lafayette College. “He has an extraordinary gift for inspiring others through language, music, and storytelling, and we are eager to have him back on campus to help empower our graduates as they begin an exciting new chapter of their own life stories.”

Asante is the author of five books, including the 2013 bestselling memoir Buck: A Memoir and the 2024 award-winning memoir Nephew: A Memoir in Four-Part Harmony. Buck was praised by Maya Angelou as “a story of surviving and thriving with passion, compassion, wit, and style.” It is a multiyear Washington Post bestseller and the recipient of numerous literary awards, and is currently being adapted into a major motion picture.

Asante is the co-writer (with Phil Collins) of the official Monday Night Football anthem, “In the Air Tonight,” performed by Grammy-winning artists Chris Stapleton, Julie Blackman Santana, and Snoop Dogg. He also co-wrote the intro films to the 2021 NBA Finals broadcast on ABC, which was directed by Academy Award-winning director Spike Lee.

Yale University, Vanderbilt University, and Harvard University are among the many higher education institutions where Asante has delivered distinguished lectures. He has toured in more than 50 countries and was awarded the Key to the city of Dallas. Asante is featured in A Changing America, a permanent video exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Hailed by CNN as “a master storyteller and major creative force,” Asante has published essays in The New York Times and USA Today. He also has been featured on the Today show and The Breakfast Club. Asante’s inspirational story “The Blank Page” is featured in the No. 1 New York Times bestseller Chicken Soup for the Soul.

Asante studied at SOAS University of London, earning a Bachelor of Arts from Lafayette College and an MFA from UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television. He was appointed Distinguished Professor-in-Residence at MICA Business School in Gujarat, India, and he is currently a tenured professor of Cinematic Arts and Sciences at Morgan State University, where he is the recipient of the Distinguished Achievement Award.

“I am honored to return to Lafayette, a treasured institution that has played a profound, pivotal role in my personal and professional journeys,” Asante says. “I embrace the opportunity to inspire a new class of innovators on the same campus that inspired me and so many others.”