Latifah also offered some thoughtful words of advice for the Harvard students in attendance.

“I hope you all go out there and hustle,” she said to the audience, which whooped and cheered in response.

In addition to the sweatshirt, Latifah also received a plaque to commemorate her artistic and humanitarian achievements over the past year. These include her Academy Award-nominated performance in Chicago, as well as her continuing participation in the Lancelot H. Owens Scholarship Foundation, a program she started to provide inner-city students with access to college education.

As for her chances of acquiring a nice gold statuette to watch over her gold plaque, Queen Latifah says she isn’t too nervous. She’s happy with the recognition she’s already received for her work in Chicago, though she says that if she wins an Oscar, “that’s really gonna be the icing on the cake.”

This year, Queen Latifah holds the distinction of being the sole nominated actor of color, which comes as a disappointment of sorts following a banner year for African-Americans at the Academy Awards. In 2002, for the first time in history, two black actors took home the top acting awards. Denzel Washington won the Best Actor award for Training Day, while Halle Berry took the Best Actress prize for her work in Monster’s Ball.

But Queen Latifah preemptively eschews any race-related questions about the Oscars.

“People ask me about how I’m the only black nominee this year,” she says. “But what about the Asian-Americans and the Latinos and the other people making movies?”

However, she did comment on the Academy Awards during Cultural Rhythms. At one point in the show, after sizing up the exuberant crowd, she remarked, “This is gonna be more fun than the Oscars!”

As if there was any doubt about it.

—Staff writer Ben B. Chung can be reached at bchung@fas.harvard.edu.