A photo of a fireworks show and a concert

Photos by Maria Stenzel

“I waited 200 years for this!” So joked Lisa Zheutlin ’22 at the Bicentennial party held in the fall. (Because of COVID, it was open only to students, faculty and staff.) President Biddy Martin arrived on horseback, reenacting Zephaniah Swift Moore’s defection from Williams in 1821. The night crested to a performance from Common, the Grammy and Academy Award-winning rapper, who brought Joy Hall ’24 up onstage and pulled off an impressive “freestyle verse / at Amherst.” He rhymed Bicentennial with Arsenio, and Robert Frost with at any cost, to the delight of the crowd on Memorial Hill. The night ended with a fireworks display.

Biddy Martin riding a horse through the Amherst College quad

The Bicentennial Party: 200 Years in the Making!

A concert. A ferris wheel. A slide. A sack race. Lots of food. Horses. More music. Oh, and fireworks! Check out all the photos from the Bicentennial Party.

See the Slideshow