Easy like Lionel Richie
On a rare balmy December night, a superstar swept through Harvard. He was tall and handsome, and came with a legendary musical repertoire that even your parents knew. One doesn’t immediately associate Lionel Richie with “Harvard.” But the same sentiment applied to the award-winning artist, who remarked that when he learned he’d be visiting the University, he expected to hear the grand, sweeping sounds of Bach. But Richie heard instead the traditional sounds of Mexico as performed by Mariachi Véritas de Harvard, which ushered the legendary singer into Kirkland House’s Junior Common Room Monday evening for a special question-and-answer session and reception with Harvard College students. Richie, in town to receive the Harvard Foundation’s inaugural Peter J. Gomes Humanitarian Award, looked dapper and ageless and answered questions about his sprawling career in entertainment with a down-to-earth demeanor. Originally an economics major at Tuskegee Institute, Richie and his band the Commodores went on tour with...