Lorraine O’Grady (September 21, 1934 – December 13, 2024) grew up in Boston, studied at Wellesley College and the University of Iowa Writers Workshop. Her circuitous route to becoming an artist at the age of 45 included writing rock music critic for Rolling Stone, translation, and teaching at the School of Visual Arts. Exploring such seminal galleries as Just Above Midtown, and becoming a regular at performance nights at Franklin Furnace, she moved towards an art career. In the 1980s, she created her legendary persona, Mlle Bourgeoise Noire. Lorraine received great attention in her later years: her writings were collected, she received exhibitions at the Studio Museum and the Brooklyn Museum. Lorraine was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship at the age of 89.
This conversation with Artifacts was Lorraine O’Grady’s final in-depth video interview. It was recorded at O’Grady’s Westbeth studio in June 2024, less than six months before her death, by Artifacts Founder Steven Watson and Franklin Furnace Founder Martha Wilson.
About The Downtown Performance Series
NYU Skirball and Artifacts have teamed up to produce NYU Skirball Presents Downtown Performance, a series spotlighting the directors, performers, and artists who shaped the movements loosely defined as “Downtown.”
Inspired by the cultural history rooted in NYU Skirball’s neighboring blocks, the Downtown Performance series captures in-depth interviews with living legends of performance. The first instalment features groundbreaking directors Richard Foreman and JoAnne Akalaitis, with John Vaccaro and Richard Schechner following later this year. For more on NYU Skirball, please visit their website.
