Life lessons: John Waters’ commencement speech will become a book in 2017

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FILE - In this May 30, 2015 file photo, John Waters gives the commencement address after receiving an honorary doctor of Fine Arts degree from Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, R.I. Algonquin Books announced Wednesday, Sept. 30, that a commencement speech by the filmmaker best known for “Hairspray” will be released in book form in the Spring 2017. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Listen up young people, John Waters has some life lessons to pass on.

Algonquin Books announced Wednesday that a commencement speech by the filmmaker best known for “Hairspray” will be released in book form in spring 2017, just in time for that year’s graduating class.

“Make Trouble” is based on the talk Waters gave earlier this year at The Rhode Island School of Design. Among his suggestions: “Contemporary art’s job is to wreck what came before” and “Use technology for transgression, not lazy social living.” Video of the speech soon went viral.

In a statement issued through Algonquin, Waters called the book “the perfect graduation gift from parents to their troubled children who have been driving them crazy for years.”

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