SUMMARY
Some 50 years into her career and at almost 90-years-old, artist Lorraine O'Grady reflects on a life of struggles to be seen as continues to has her first-ever museum retrospective at Wellesley College's Davis Museum. If that sounds like an honor delayed, much of O'Grady's career has played out with a slow burn. She looks back at her long path into art world acceptance with Jared Bowen of GBH in Boston.
View the transcript of the story.
News alternative: Check out recent segments from the NewsHour, and choose the story you’re most interested in watching. You can make a Google doc copy of discussion questions that work for any of the stories here.
WARM-UP QUESTIONS
- Where did O'Grady work in the 1950s?
- When did O'Grady become an artist herself?
- What fictional character did O'Grady create for herself?
- How did O'Grady share her multiple identities through art?
- Why did O'Grady create the Mademoiselle Bourgeoise Noire figure?
FOCUS QUESTIONS
What impact do you think O'Grady's art had on the art world?
Media literacy: Lorraine O'Grady discusses the role of racism in her career, stating, "...they could not imagine a Black intellectual or a Black female intellectual. They had not seen it. And that was because the Black middle class was being willfully ignored." What follow up questions would you ask O'Grady about these sentiments?
Alternative: See, Think, Wonder: What did you notice? What did the story make you think? What would you want to learn more about?
FOR MORE
What students can do: Learn about other unusual types of art, such as through this video about immersive art exhibitions.
This post was written by Benjamin Thernstrom, a senior at Washington-Liberty High School in Arlington, Virginia, and intern with PBS NewsHour Classroom, and edited by NewsHour's Luke Gerwe.
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