Processing the Unbearable, Imagining the Radical
Julie Mehretu delivered the 2026 commencement address at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), speaking to the graduating class about the value of creative persistence and the courage to embrace uncertainty. She shared her personal journey from Michigan, growing up in an Ethiopian family, navigating queerness, and working as a server while pursuing an art career, emphasizing that such distances shape an artist's vision. Mehretu also offered an apology on behalf of her generation, acknowledging that the world graduates inherit is ecologically, politically, and institutionally broken, and that previous generations have failed to reimagine systems of progress and democracy.