Iyanla Vanzant Visits Dillard University

Capacity crowd greets Iyanla Vanzant

Love yourself, revolve and evolve: That was the ad- vice from noted author, life coach and TV personality Iyanla Vanzant on March 9.

Lawless Chapel was lled to capacity to hear the nal speaker of this year’s “Brain Food” series who hosts “Iyanla, Fix My Life” on the OWN network. A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., the lawyer also is author of 15 books, with ve of them New York Times bestsellers. Her latest is “Forgiveness: 21 Days to Forgive Everyone for Every- thing.”

Vanzant entered the stage singing Beyonce’s “Love on Top” and said she was speak- ing directly to the younger generation. She said young people must evolve their minds and stand for change, noting youth have power and need to use it wisely.

Social media, for exam- ple, is a powerful tool, but Vanzant cautioned: “Let’s not do things on get Twit- ter followers or ‘likes.’ Let’s do it because we want to see change.”

The speaker recalled her grandmother, who worked for the heir of the Revlon cosmetics line, coming home with stuff her boss didn’t want anymore and telling Vanzant that she hoped her granddaughter would nd white people who were just as generous.

“Well, I wonder if they ever had leather cuffs at the end of their dress,” she said jokingly, implying she had been able to nd success and buy nice things without relying on the generosity of others.

(Astasia Williams contrib- uted to this report.)