Mayor Zohran Mamdani surprised graduates at Rikers Island 's East River Academy with an unexpected commencement address. On Tuesday (June 16), the 34-year-old mayor joined the 2026 graduation ceremony as 57 incarcerated students received high school diplomas or GEDs. Mamdani then delivered a speech focused on perseverance, education, and the ability to move forward despite difficult circumstances. "Many of you arrived on Rikers in a cloud of uncertainty and despair," Mamdani told the graduates, per Spectrum News NY1 . “The future felt very grim, indeed. And yet you did not surrender to that alienation. You were not overcome by the adversity that lay before you. Instead, you chose to continue moving forward. You chose to pursue your education, to stick with it, even on your lowest days. "If today is proof of anything, it is that you have the power to move your life forward, even when everything feels like it is pulling you backwards," he added, per the New York Daily News .…