Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton ’69 returned to Wellesley College on Saturday, Nov. 1, to celebrate the second annual summit of the Hillary Rodham Clinton Center for Citizenship, Leadership and Democracy (HRCC), titled “We the People: Finding Common Purpose.”

The one-day summit featured two conversations and three panels, with Clinton moderating the first conversation with playwright and actress Anna Deavere Smith, best known for her roles in The West Wing and Nurse Jackie. During the 40-minute conversation, titled “Civics, Storytelling, and the Arts,” the women discussed the role of theater and language in bridging divisions, covering topics from Clinton’s 1969 graduation speech to President Donald Trump’s compelling oral rhetoric.

The summit began promptly at 10 a.m. Following brief remarks from Patricia Berman, Tracy Gleason, and Heidi Johnson—the HRCC’s Co-Faculty Directors and Program Director—President Paula Johnson entered the stage to introduce Clinton and Smith. 

Johnson described Clinton as a woman who has “spent her life defending the rights of women and girls,” as well as a “fierce defender of democracy.” She went on to contextualize the sociopolitical power of Smith’s work, Fires in the Mirror, explaining that it took place in Crown Heights “following the deaths of a Black boy and Jewish student.” 

“I grew up in the neighborhood next to Crown Heights, and my family and I lived through the resulting conflict and violence,” Johnson said. “Professor Deavere Smith and her work had a profound impact on me and all those who saw her performance. She deepened our understanding of the Black and Jewish populations who were caught up and impacted by those tragic events.”

As Smith and Clinton—dressed in an azure blue suit—walked on stage, the audience rose in a standing ovation. Clinton opened the conversation by reflecting on the role of language in building collectivity.

“‘We The People: Finding Common Purpose’ [is] a theme that is always relevant, but seems particularly urgent now,” Clinton said. “[I am pleased] to have the great delight of interviewing someone … who has been an inspiration for so many of us, with her ferocious attention to the words people say, what they mean, the connections among people that are sometimes hard for people themselves to see [but] that she can draw out in pursuit of a common humanity.”

Smith then discussed how, in a time of polarization, theater fosters connection in four key ways: “aesthetics, narrative—oratory being part of narrative—emotional camaraderie, and commerce.” 

Smith honed in on narrative, emphasizing how oratory—the act of speaking formally in public—is a powerful artistic expression. As an example, she pointed to Clinton’s 2022 tribute to former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright ’59, recalling how Clinton’s eulogy captivated the audience at the National Cathedral.

“That hall is very difficult for speech … but you were extraordinary,” Smith said. “When you finished your eulogy, everybody went, ‘she is so good’ because you have the resonance of an actor … That’s all around us in politics.”

In returning to the theme of the summit, Smith reflected on how language—and theater—affects the way people see, understand, and relate to one another.

“I have a choice when I look at you, Secretary Clinton, to see you as an ‘it’ or a ‘you’,” Smith said, drawing a sound of collective agreement from the audience. “I grew up in a segregated city, Baltimore, Maryland. I was an ‘it’ for a very long time, and equally as problematic, I was taught to think of everybody who wasn’t like me as an ‘it.’”

Theater, Smith continued, instead brings people into an “I thou” relationship, emphasizing a common humanity.

At one point, Clinton asked Smith how she came to see individuals as “thou” rather than “the other.”

Smith pushed back: “One of my students suggested that I not use the expression ‘the other,’ … but rather ‘one of me elsewhere,’” she said. 

The discussion of oratory then shifted to the power of Trump’s speech and how it resonates with America.

“The current president is actually a great orator. Forget about this, that [the content of his speech]. How he speaks [makes] you go, ‘Oh my God. He said this. It’s going to happen,’” Smith said. “That kind of speech is about making the present real. That’s what theater is.”

Clinton took the lead for the remainder of the conversation, reflecting on her own relationship with political speech. She noted that politicians once labored over their words to hold “themselves accountable so that they would say things they believed to be true.” However, due to the rise of virality and quick hits on social media, this type of speech has become rare.

“There’s something about Trump’s way of communicating that has captured the zeitgeist that people feel. If you read it, it’s incoherent … but in the moment, it appears sincere and authentic,” Clinton said. “That is one of the big problems, connecting what you’re saying about oratory speech, with where we are in democracy.” 

Clinton also explained that, as a woman, she lacked access to the same oratory training that male politicians—such as her husband and Barack Obama—received. Smith replied that if she could have coached Clinton in oratory, she would have had her begin by listening to her own 1969 Wellesley graduation speech.

“Who was that girl who got up there and criticized the graduation speaker and talked about integrity, respect, and trust?” Smith said. “Let’s go back and let’s spend some time with her.”

Appearing slightly surprised, Clinton elucidated that the speech no longer even felt like her own, saying that “that’s a very interesting analogy.” She explained that her graduation speech was less a reflection of her personal voice than a collective one of her class.

“I stayed up all night because my classmates had things they wanted to add. Even a poem that one of my classmates handed me at four or five o’clock in the morning, saying, ‘Can you work this in?’ Sure,” Clinton said. “I felt like I was their voice more than my own, and ‘I’ was trying to be the ‘we.’”

Notably, Clinton recalled how, following major backlash to a 1993 speech in which she discussed humanity’s “meaning of life,” she “had to learn how to say ‘I’ instead of ‘we.’”

Ultimately, however, she returned the conversation to the necessity of finding common values.

“Here we are trying to define ‘we, the people,’ trying to ‘find a common purpose,’ trying to understand how to better communicate our common values and not allow us to be polarized. So give us a call to action,” Clinton said, calling Smith to give the final word.

Smith responded quickly, emphasizing the humanities’ need for the ‘we.’

“If liberal arts education is going to survive, and it’s under attack right now, it has to get into the ‘I thou’ project. It has to go back to that,” she said.

Context of Clinton’s visit 

On the morning of Nov. 1, security funneled attendees through the right-most door of Alumnae Hall’s vestibule, where guests then passed through metal detectors, and the few permitted bags were inspected by U.S. Secret Service agents.

The heightened security measures marked a contrast from the first annual summit, allegedly due to the assassination of Charlie Kirk in September. 

Another stark contrast from the first summit was the lack of demonstrations. During the HRCC’s inaugural summit in 2023, numerous protests broke out, with students even entering Alumnae Hall during Clinton’s speech. 

Ahead of the second summit, The Wellesley News found that the student population held mixed reactions toward Clinton’s visit, and at 7 a.m. on Nov. 1,  the Chief Justice sent an all-school email titled “Honor Code Council Statement,” reminding students of demonstration policies. 

However, while the Wellesley Chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America previously circulated an Instagram post on Oct. 4 urging students to “buy a ticket to the We The People: Finding Common Purpose Summit and don’t go,” there was no physical demonstration—unlike on Oct. 25, when BlackRock co-founder Susan Wagner ’82 visited Wellesley.

Still, Alumnae Hall was noticeably empty on Nov. 1, with nearly no attendees seated in the back portion and second floor of the auditorium.

As of Nov. 3, it is unclear when Clinton will visit the college next. Clinton denied the Wellesley News’ request for an interview.

Contact the editors responsible for this story: Jessica Chen and Noufeesa Yahyaoui