Actor Colman Domingo delivers Temple University's 2026 commencement address, recounting his journey from West Philadelphia row houses to San Francisco's Tenderloin while working at Barnes Noble. He honors friend Rochelle Horowitz, an organizer who aided Bayard Rustin, and cites James Baldwin's view of love as mirroring light. Domingo urges graduates to embrace their softness, guard their integrity, and act as "angelic troublemakers" who build community with kindness, asserting that character is the true legacy they must spread to the world. [Automatically generated summary]
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A Lifetime of Learning00:15:06
And 9 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, only on C-SPAN.
Actor Coleman Domingo gave the commencement address to 2026 Temple University grads, reflecting on his time as a Temple student and the impact it's had on his life and career.
He emphasized the importance of love, courage, resilience, and integrity and received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from the university.
This is about 30 minutes.
By the authority vested in me by the Board of Trustees, I am pleased to confer upon you, Coleman Domingo, the degree of Doctorate of Humane Letters, honoris causa, with all the rights, privileges, and responsibilities pertaining thereto.
Congratulations.
So congratulations, Dr. Domingo.
I now invite you to address the graduating class and our guests.
Tea for Temple U. That's right.
How are you doing?
Hi, y'all doing.
If you're from West Philly, how you doing?
Good morning, Temple.
Thank you to President John Fry, Robert Stroker, Jeff Yerkin, and everyone who has made this honor possible.
Thank you to the students who I met with just yesterday when I was a little bit hoarse, actually.
And I felt like that conversation brought life into my body again.
They had hope in their eyes, questions in their hearts, and a robust energy to be the future that we all desire.
Those conversations really just made me think about my journey here, honestly.
Especially when I was met with some of my college buddies later that evening, who I've known for 40 years.
40 years.
So I was looking at that bridge of where I was and where I am now.
And when I tell you, when you take that journey, you take it with the people that are in this room, you're going to be friends forever.
You're going to fall in love.
You're going to fall out of love.
You're going to bury loved ones.
You're going to eventually start retiring from the work that you chosen when you started here.
And then you'll come together on a beautiful night down at one of my favorite restaurants.
And you're just the same, but different.
But it's just a beautiful, beautiful journey.
So I'm just reminded of that today.
Now, I have some prepared words, but I'm a storyteller and I like to go off book sometimes.
So bear with me.
But This afternoon is not only to the graduates, the families, the aunties who ironed the grounds, the fathers that made you hit those books, the cousins who took the bus across town, the grandmothers who said a prayer before you left the house, the uncles who gave you a couple dollars to get a new pair of sneakers for the first day of school.
This day also belongs to you.
I come from West Philly.
West Philly, born and raised.
From row houses that held more love than square footage, from front porches where stories traveled faster than the breeze.
From Samuel B. Huey School to Sarah Jr. High School to Overbrook High School to the halls of Temple University.
Though it took me a long time to get my degree, I am proudly Temple made.
Now, I learned a lot here at Temple.
I learned a lot out by the trucks in front of SAC, where most of my friends hung out.
I partied more than most people have partied at Temple University.
I know how to pump the keg.
I know how to dance with the black fraternities and the white ones.
My friends will let you know that's the truth.
We really had a good time here.
And maybe that good time kept me from getting my degree, but I learned a lot.
And I learned how to be a human and how to be a part of community.
I learned how to bring joy into every room that I'm a part of.
I learned how to set a table, prepare a table, invite folks in.
I learned a lot.
I have a lifetime of friends that I met at the Student Activity Center.
And I'm going to talk about them a little bit today.
That's why I invited them here.
I met my best friend Guy, Tally, at an audition for MTV's Remote Control.
And he was with a bunch of folks.
They were a very diverse group.
And they, and of course, I was kind of shy.
I just came from, I didn't want to be shy anymore.
I wanted to be something else.
So, and then I know that's why you come to this school.
I wanted to go somewhere where I was going to meet people from all over the world.
So I pushed myself to go into places and spaces.
And I went there and I was shy.
And Guy was the center of this whole event.
And a whole lot of, he's a tall, dark-skinned brother.
He had a lot of little white people around him.
And I was fascinated.
Who is this guy?
But he was just filling the room with light.
And then he invited me over.
He was like, hey, who are you?
Again, I'm going to give you a few lessons here.
Sometimes it takes someone to draw you in.
He drew me in and said, come with us.
Hey, my fraternity is having like a rush thing.
Come by.
And I knew I wanted to be a part of community.
And he invited me in.
And it was truly wonderful.
And I met a whole lot of people that I carried with me for the rest of my life.
Then I joined the African American Student Union.
And I learned a little bit more about myself, things that I had questions about, things that I didn't know, because I also wanted to know how to navigate this world.
And so all my building blocks were coming from here at Temple, being involved in community.
I worked at Barnes Noble Bookstore that used to be downtown on like a, you know, on like 15th and Walnut.
And I was always taking care of the self-help section and the travel section.
So that'll tell you a lot.
I wanted to wander and be in the world.
And also I wanted to learn how to become a person because I just thought I didn't have all the tools.
And I know I was gaining all those tools while I was in school.
And that was also part of my journey.
And then after, you know, some, I was working like a couple jobs.
Now, anyone will tell you I always keep a lot of jobs.
Yes, you see me on television and film all the time because I like to keep a job.
And that started when I was, you know, here.
I was working so hard, my grades were suffering, and I just thought I'd take a break.
My mom said, you can always go back to school, so take a break.
Well, I took a break and I moved to San Francisco with Guy Talley.
Guy, I owe you a lot.
Guy, he said, hey, there's three of us living in a studio apartment in the Tenderloin districts of San Francisco.
You should be the fourth.
Well, when you're 20 years old, that sounds like a good idea.
And I did.
And I moved to San Francisco, and that's where I began my career as a stage performer.
And I learned a lot.
So my journey has always been, because I didn't have the degree, I started to use everything as my school.
And I would go to rehearsals that I wasn't even called for because I was learning by people who did it before me.
And I also wanted to have a practice of the culture as well.
And I implore you to do that.
Your education will not end today.
I think it's a jumping off point.
So you can learn some more.
You can be in every room that you're in, whatever your chosen profession is.
And even if you have an idea of what your chosen profession is, part of my journey has been being open to what is possible, to something else that may spark your attention or imagination while you're on that journey.
You are here at Temple University to gain a whole lot of tools for your life.
And I'm going to tell you something that this artist, Joy Carlin, told me when I was a young artist in San Francisco.
And I happened to be on a panel with her because I was actually a young artistic director.
And someone raised their hand and said, oh, hey, Ms. Carlin, I've been in class doing this.
I've been learning this.
I've been in this school, this university, studying, studying, studying this one thing that I've been wanting to do.
Do you have any advice for me?
And she said something that I think changed me and cracked me wide open.
She said, oh, it's great.
I love that you've been studying all of that towards your profession.
Now, I want you to live because you need life too.
You need to have an interest in arts and sciences and travel.
You need to fall in love.
You need to fall out of love.
You need to move somewhere.
You need to do something strange.
You need to try something.
You need to exist and be.
And most importantly, you need to be curious.
Be curious.
Be curious in other people and other cultures, other ideas, people who don't think like you do.
That has been my entire career.
I play a lot of characters, one in particular that's out right now.
That's not a plug for it, but you can go see Michael in movie theaters right now.
But I'm saying that to say I'm attracted to characters that I feel that I'm curious about, and I feel like I'm not like them at all.
For me, it's trying to find the bridge of our humanity.
In every character that I play, it could be Victor Strand, it could be Ali in Euphoria, it could be Danny in the four seasons, it could be Mist in the color purple.
I am all of those men.
All of those men live in and could live inside this body.
For me, that's part of being the human experience and being a human being and believing that we're all alike.
And I think that energy, hopefully, and I've chosen this career path as a creative in a way that I feel like I can change the world a little bit, just a little bit.
And I think if that's all we can do is move the needle little by little, then we're making a difference.
We're making a greater difference.
I want to inspire you to look forward, but I also want you to look back at the table that's been set for your success.
I think about my mother today.
My mother, I was the first in my family to go to college.
And I didn't get in here easily either.
I was in a program that I don't even know if they have anymore called Special Recruitment and Admissions Program.
That was a program because I didn't exactly have the grades.
Now, remember, I'm a creative mind.
I wasn't so great at math and things like that.
But I came into Temple and you're with the special recruitments and admission program.
And then eventually you can get out of that.
You got to take some specialty classes, you know, to get your grades up and then matriculate.
And with that, I was like, wow, I had the opportunity to go to college and to be the first one in my family to go to college.
And it was meaningful to me.
Because, like Maya Angelou says, when I walk on stage, I'll walk in with hundreds and thousands of people behind me.
And there are hundreds and thousands of people behind you and generations.
And they're watching you.
Today, they're watching you because you did it.
You put in the work.
You put in the effort.
You woke up.
You showed up.
You showed out.
And then you showed up and showed out.
Can I give some love to Jennifer's high heels today?
Sister, you did that.
She showed up and showed out.
She put that shit on.
Sonia Sanchez, who taught here, she said, I shall become a collector of me and put meat on my soul.
I hope to inspire you to do that today.
I know that that's been part of my journey.
To be a collector of me, it's representations of yourself and people and community, who you see, who you want to advocate for, who you believe is a reflection of you.
Stand Up and Believe00:12:46
And you can make and reframe a reflection of the world together.
And truly, that will put meat on your soul.
I want to also give you a quote from one of my favorite writers, James Baldwin.
Because I don't just want to inspire you with some words to get out of here and make a new life for yourself and go get that career you want.
I want to talk about love.
Because you're going to need love out there.
You're going to need it to sustain you when times are tight, when the doors are closed, when it seems like there are no opportunities, where you have missteps.
Love.
He said, the longer I live, the more deeply I learn that love, whether we call it friendship or family or romance, is the work of mirroring and magnifying each other's light.
Gentle work.
Steadfast work.
Life-saving work.
In those moments when life and shame and sorrow occlude our own light from our view, but there is still a clear-eyed, loving person to beam it back.
In our best moments, we are the person for another.
Find some words that encourage your soul always.
Find that.
Put that in your toolbox and take it with you.
I played a character.
Wow, not a character.
I played a human being who made an incredible impact in the whole world named Bayard Rustin.
He said, we need in every community a group of angelic troublemakers.
I have a couple angelic troublemakers in the house with me today.
My friend, Rochelle Horowitz, an 84-year-old rubber rouser.
She has become my Jewish mama.
She also organized transportation for Bayard Rustin when they were organizing the March on Washington for jobs and freedom.
Rochelle Horowitz and I have become such close friends and family.
And our text feed is spicy and it's interesting and it's weird and it's philosophical and it's loving and it's trying.
But the beautiful thing is, I love that we become friends because of her experience and what she's experienced, but also she's willing to grow and change.
And I have an impact on her and she has an incredible impact on me.
And I feel, I don't know, a bit more a part of the world.
I encourage you to have friendships with people with generations ahead of them and some behind you because we can all learn something from each other.
Now, I'd like to, I stayed up one night and I decided to write a love letter to Temple University and to Philadelphia.
I hope you don't mind if I share it with you.
Philadelphia, a city that teaches you how to stand your ground and still keep your heart open.
And standing here with you at Temple University, I feel the electricity of that same grit, that same tenderness, and that same refusal to be small.
Temple is not for the faint of heart.
Temple is for the called.
Called to wake up before sun and chase a dream that doesn't yet have a name.
Called to work two jobs and still show up to class with your head held high.
Called to believe that education is not just a ladder, but a light.
You did not arrive here by accident.
You arrived here by insistence.
Insistence that your story matters.
Insistent that your mind is worthy.
Insistence that where you start does not dictate where you finish.
And I know something about insistence.
I know about being told no in rooms that smelled like expensive cologne and low expectations.
I know about auditioning for a life that no one could quite picture for me.
I know about the long walk home after disappointment when the city lights felt like questions instead of answers.
But here's what Philadelphia teaches you and also Temple University for you to keep walking.
You keep walking past the doubt.
You keep walking past the fear.
You keep walking until the dream catches up with you.
Graduates, the world you're stepping into is complicated.
I will not lie to you.
It is loud.
It is sometimes unkind.
But it is also waiting.
Waiting for your particular voice, your particular vision, your particular brand of courage.
Because courage is not the absence of fear.
Courage is showing up any fucking way.
Courage is saying, I belong here before anyone hands you a seat.
Courage is building the table when no one offers you a chair.
And make no mistake, you are builders.
Builders of family that will look different because of you.
Builders of communities that will be kinder because of you.
Builders of futures that right now exist only in your imagination.
Do not underestimate the power of your imagination.
It is the first place that freedom lives.
I want you to remember something as you leave this campus.
Your softness is not a liability.
Your tenderness is not weakness.
In a world that rewards sharp edges, I want you to be the velvet.
Be the listening.
Be the one who remembers that people are not problems to be solved, but stories to be understood.
I believe in my heart that this is how we change the world.
Not with volume, but with depth.
Temple has given you knowledge.
Philadelphia has given you resilience.
Life will now ask you for your integrity.
Guard it.
Guard your integrity like it's the last dollar in your pocket.
Guard your integrity like it's your grandmother's recipe.
Like it's the only map you have when the road gets foggy.
Because there will be moments, oh my God, there will be moments when it will become easier to shrink than to shine, easier to agree than to question, easier to blend than to stand tall.
Stand tall anyway.
Stand tall for the kid you used to be who dared to imagine this day.
Stand tall for the people back home who see you as proof that possibility is real.
And when you forget who you are, and you will, trust me, because we all do.
Come back to your breath.
Come back to your body.
Come back to the quiet voice inside you that says, keep going.
You know what that voice is?
That voice is older than fear.
That voice is wiser than doubt.
That voice is yours.
Graduates, success is lovely.
Awards are shiny.
Titles are impressive.
But character, character is the legacy.
Be the kind of person who answers the phone when someone is in trouble.
Be the kind of person who tells the truth when it's inconvenient.
Be the kind of person who makes the room.
I always tell people, I don't want to be at the party.
I want to be the party.
Make every room at every table you sit at love.
Because you did not climb this mountain alone and you are not meant to stand at the top by yourself.
So I leave you by saying this: go out into this world as your whole self, your Philly self, your temple self, your complicated, brilliant, unstoppable self.
And when they ask you, will you learn to be this resilient, this compassionate, this ready, tell them, I'm temple-made, baby.
My sincerest congratulations to the class of 2026.
May you get out into this world and make it your own.
We believe in you.
We're waiting on you.
Make a difference.
Be the difference.
Be in community.
Spread as much love as you can because that's exactly what we need.
We need your ideas, your imagination.
We need you to build houses where there were none.
We need you to take part.
We need you to stand up.
We need you to sometimes put your body in places where they are uncomfortable and make a difference and move the needle on this whole world.
God bless you.
I'm so proud to be a part of you.
Thank you.
Sunday on C-SPAN's Q&A, Supreme Court of the United States Justice Neil Gorsuch will discuss his children's book, Heroes of 1776, which highlights the signers of the Declaration of Independence and other lesser-known revolutionaries who risked their lives, liberty, and...
and property in the fight for independence from the British.
Heroes of 177600:01:06
The Brits were coming in on Philadelphia, and so Congress retreated to Baltimore.
And it needed to get out word desperately that the Declaration had been made.
It was the rallying cry for independence.
And you have to remember, things were dicey then.
Only about 40% would identify themselves as patriots.
There were loyalists.
There were people who wanted to stay out of it.
They needed to get the news out, and so they went to the local printer who would always publish printed by M.K. Goddard at the bottom of the newspaper.
Why M.K., for probably pretty obvious reasons, didn't want to disclose that it was a woman.
But when it came to the Declaration, she printed her whole name, printed by Mary K. Goddard in Baltimore, Maryland.
Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, Sunday night at 8 Eastern on C-SPAN's Q ⁇ A. You can listen to Q ⁇ A and all of our podcasts on our free C-SPAN Now app or wherever you get your podcasts.
And now, actor Hugh Jackman gives a commencement address to Ball State University graduates in Muncie, Indiana, encouraging them to trust.