AlumnaeAwards
FARAH JASMINE GRIFFIN ’81
Award for Lifetime Achievement The Award for Lifetime Achievement was established in 1991. It is given to an alumna who has either demonstrated a lifelong dedication and commitment to helping empower those who have struggled with challenges and societal barriers or who has had a significant impact on an institution or community. Dr. Farah Jasmine Griffin ’81 is a celebrated academic who has literally written the book on the African American experience through the lens of art and music. She is the author or editor of eight books including Who Set You Flowin?: The African American Migration Narrative (Oxford, 1995), If You Can’t Be Free, Be a Mystery: In Search of Billie Holiday (Free Press, 2001) and Harlem Nocturne: Women Artists and Progressive Politics During World War II (Basic Books, 2013). Farah received her B.A. from Harvard and her Ph.D. in American Studies from Yale and is now Chair of the African American and African Diaspora Studies Department at Columbia University, where she also serves as the William B. Ransford Professor of English and Comparative Literature. In addition to academic writing on the arts, Farah has contributed through collaboration on various endeavors, most recently as a consulting producer on the A+E Studios and ITV Studios America forthcoming adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, which will explore the African American community and vibrant music scene of the 1920s in New York City. Past credits include working with composer and pianist Geri Allen and director and actor S. Epatha Merkerson on two theatrical projects: “Geri Allen and Friends Celebrate the Great Jazz Women of the Apollo,” with Lizz Wright, Dianne Reeves, Teri Lyne Carrington and others, which 24
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premiered on the main stage of the Apollo Theater in May 2013 and “A Conversation with Mary Lou” featuring vocalist Carmen Lundy, which premiered at Harlem Stage in March 2014 and was performed at The John F. Kennedy Center in May 2016. Her forthcoming book, Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature will be published by W.W. Norton in September 2021. Farah is an active community volunteer focused on issues of education, poverty and gender equity especially as they impact women and children. She currently sits on the board of The Brotherhood/Sister Sol, an organization that provides comprehensive, holistic and long-term support services to youth in Central Harlem. In April 2021 Farah was awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in the General Nonfiction category. No stranger to accolades, Farah also received the Baldwin Distinguished Young Alumna Award in 1996 and is a 125th Circle of Achievement winner. She has also given back to Baldwin as a founding member of the National Board of Advisors (NBA) and through her willingness to return to campus to speak to current students.
BINNEY CONNELL WIETLISBACH ’81
The Alumnae Award The Alumnae Award was established in 1967 to honor Rosamond Cross on her 25th anniversary as Head of School. It is given annually to an alumna who has distinguished herself in her field of endeavor and whose life reflects a dedication to the principles of The Baldwin School.
