John Waters’s Viral Commencement Address Will Be Published in Book Form

John Waters’s 2015 commencement address to the graduates of the Rhode Island School of Design will be published as a book.

The director and self-described “filth elder” and “people’s pervert” gave a popular speech on the work of making transgressive art, like his films Hairspray and Pink Flamingos. Urging the students to consider themselves insiders who can change the mainstream rather than outsiders who operate on the fringes, he told them, “It’s time to get busy. It’s your turn to cause trouble. But this time in the real world. And this time, from the inside.”

The book version, which will be illustrated, will be published by Algonquin Books, an imprint of Workman Publishing, in spring 2017.

[WSJ]