The Class of 1969 Initiative Lecture took place on Monday, April 7, 2025. This year, the speaker was Latoya Ruby Frazier, an artist and activist and 2015 MacArthur Fellow who helps spread social justice awareness through photography. She shared her experience documenting the Flint Water Crisis during her five-month visit to Flint, Michigan, a visit which developed into a three-year residence in the city.
The lecture received overwhelmingly positive feedback from the school community. Michele Poacelli, head of the English department and director of the Writing Center, said, “I was impressed with the thoughtfulness of Frazier’s craft and how incredibly layered and humanistic it was. I felt inspired and was in the presence of someone with something to teach me. Students in my Advanced Studies: Writing for Sustainable Futures class were also struck by the idea of her telling a compelling human story through those photographs. The other things I was struck by are equity and justice.” Poacelli also reflected upon ways of uplifting her own community: “For me, I have to think about how I can use the things that I have at my disposal, which are writing and teaching. How can I manipulate and leverage those art forms in order to rewrite narratives that get at justice.”
Shanuka Navaratne ’25 said, “I thought Ms. Frazier was very unapologetic and provocative, and her work is really thought-provoking. It was an exciting way of learning about photography, a field I don’t know much about. I also learned more about how corrupt many of these industrial communities are and how corporations still have a foothold in America. I always knew corruption was a huge problem, but seeing the pictures and the reality of what it does to communities really stood out. Also, the fact that uplifting stories of impoverished communities of color like them bringing the water treatment technology never get publicized. It’s always the negative ones about poverty and crime. While many issues still face these communities, looking from a two-tiered perspective, there are probably the most creative and insightful people living in these gated communities.”
Get Poolvoraluk ’25 said, “I think that Ms. Frazier was definitely a really inspiring figure, not only for her work in the environmental crisis but for these social aspects that were also involved in it. Many people who care about environmental issues don’t really understand the social aspect of what comes along with that: the people who suffer and the hidden tears are muted by louder voices. Her work that surrounded this issue really highlighted something that was often overlooked. Also, I took away from the night to have a healthy amount of skepticism. She mentioned that after Obama had taken a drink of the Flint, Michigan water, everybody thought the problem was solved, but in reality, nothing had been solved. I think you should appreciate what you see but also do a little more research to start to see the social truth behind problems.”
Students also provided critiques on what they thought would have benefited their audience experience more. Navaratne said, “Because she has a lot of background knowledge in photography and is applying that lens to her own art, it was a bit hard to understand for me. It’s not a disinterest. If anything, it made me more curious about photography and art and how they apply to history and social issues. Poolvoraluk added, “I think she failed to connect with much of the audience because most of the people didn’t have context when they were going into the Flint Michigan Water Crisis, but my class [Advanced Studies: Writing for Sustainable Futures] definitely had a lot of research that we had to do to understand the context behind the speaker. I feel that when you are an environmentalist or a person who does any work to raise awareness, you must speak to an audience that doesn’t know what your issue is because the people who do are already doing something about it.” Last but not least, Justin Oh ’25, responded, “I thought everything was interesting, but if I were looking at one specific thing, it would probably be about the beginning because it could have been shorter, talking about her own personal experience and maybe explaining the situation more thoroughly.”