News

Happy holidays from Wellesley!

Wellesley honors this year’s December finishers.

Lorraine O’Grady ’55 was confident from a young age that she would one day be considered a genius, no matter what the field. And she knew, too, that her importance would likely be recognized only belatedly, given the way Black women’s contributions were so often overlooked.

Artist Lorraine O’Grady ’55, who defied category, is dead at 90. She worked in collage, photography, performance, video and installation, and she dealt forthrightly with the complexities of race and gender.

A Wellesley College-led team of astronomers have discovered a new galaxy that is forming. And it looks a lot like our galaxy, the Milky Way.

Mark S. Singel reflects on the Firefly Sparkle galaxy, discovered by a team led by astronomy professor Lamiya Mowla ’13: “We are all on this earth traveling through a magical galaxy together.”

Lorraine O’Grady ’55 developed a loyal following for artworks that often proved unclassifiable. Her art critiqued racism, misogyny, and privilege, but it did so using methods that were ambiguous and occasionally even tough to interpret. She spoke frequently of wanting to use what she called “both/and thinking” that stood against Western systems.

Kellie Carter Jackson writes that Kali Gross’s new book, Vengeance Feminism: The Power of Black Women’s Fury in Lawless Times, pushes readers to take in Black women’s justified anger and fury.

The galaxy resembling Christmas lights hanging in the cosmos has space scientists, including astronomy professor Lamiya Mowla '13, feeling festive.