LZ Granderson In The Common Ground Family

After a stressful rescheduling, the prominent journalist/activist/all around awesome guy LZ Granderson came to Saint Mike's for 24 hours of engagement and activity on March 28th. He didn't just give a lecture to a packed McCarthy ("Dare You To Move"). He attended meals with faculty and students, gave talks in several journalism classes, and spent the night in Burlington with the E-board of Common Ground. The larger population of Common Ground was lucky enough to attend the pre-lecture dinner with LZ and meet him in person.

Common Ground Crew with LZ

I can say that in all honesty I have never met a more down to Earth celebrity (if one would call him that). He could have done what most visiting speakers do and spent his free time in his hotel or eating food on the club budget. But he insisted that we fit as much activity into his time in Vermont as possible. As he said to Mark, Common Ground's adviser, "I'm here for the students."

His lecture had many layers and was a mix of his own experiences and excerpts from articles he had written for CNN and ESPN. He covered LGBT rights, sports, the Trayvon Martin shooting, passion, and sexual stereotypes in his 1.5+ hour talk. He spoke about life as an openly gay sports writer, a black man, a partner and father, a Christian and an ex-youth pastor, and a person who always tried to love rather than hate.

I had the good fortune of going to the famous breakfast restaurant Sneakers (in Winooski) with LZ and some members of CG. Seeing the personal side of someone who is definitely successful enough to sleep in on a Thursday morning instead of getting up early to hang our with some college kids was a fantastic experience.

I took a lot away from my experience with LZ. One particularly relevant thing he said to us was his advice for aspiring journalists and writers: "Just write."




PS: You can check out the CCTV video of LZ's visit here.