I received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts degree from State University of New York/Empire State College a few weeks ago. It was the closing of a circle moment, as I had completed my undergraduate degree there in 1990 after two abbreviated attempts at completing my BA or BFA, first at Queensborough Community College straight from high school in the early 1970s, where I spent two years as President of the Black Student Union, bringing notables such as Dick Gregory, Labelle, Ornette Coleman, and Milford Graves to campus, and starting a BSU campus news and literary publication. But going to class? Nope. I was too busy doing interesting real world things and doing them on campus. I next left the School of Visual Arts after two exciting years in the mid-1970s to join the CCF/CETA Artists Project, completing my Harlem, USA project while working at two community based institutions, including Studio Museum in Harlem under CETA. When I decided to go to grad school I couldn’t apply, as I’d never finished my undergrad work. Enter SUNY/Empire State College, a college for working adults that gives advanced life experience credits in whatever areas of expertise and knowledge one had acquired. Painter Vincent Smith had told me about it. It was a godsend that allowed me to finally complete my undergrad career and then successfully apply to grad school at Yale. Once I got to Yale, I juggled the ocassiona exhibition and residency, and other professional activities, but I didn’t leave. By then I realized I could juggle both an academic and a professional career.