Editor's Note

Dear Reader: With the arrival of spring — and with it, the increase of vaccinations each day, inching towards herd immunity — comes hope for a future that looks much brighter than this past year. This week, the first non-white, non-male person was made Mayor of Boston, Kim Janey, heralding a new era of Boston city politics. And, in November, Boston will elect its next mayor, from a list of contenders dominated by women and people of color. One frontrunner is City Councillor Michelle Wu ’07, who brings with her an outsider’s vision for the city, and an ambitious Green New Deal. In our cover story this week, MVE tells the story of Wu’s Green New Deal, and the history of environmental injustice in Boston that it attempts to reckon with. The story is an intimate look at the qualities that shape Wu as a person and politician; it’s also a portrait of a city charging into the future. Looking toward the future requires, too, a deepened relationship with the past. In his scrutiny this week, SJL explores the legacy of the Ku Klux Klan at Harvard, and its absence from current explorations of Harvard’s relationship to slavery and racism. The piece attempts to fill this gap in our knowledge of Harvard’s history, and ponder why the gap exists at all. But, at the same time, one can reach a point with study and research and reflection that stymies action. In the podcast “Under Review,” MNW and OGO — yes, hosted by your very chairs! — explore how Harvard responds to racism at the University: with a diversity review. In our first episode, out today, we explore an incident of police violence at 2018 Yardfest and its implications on diversity, inclusion, and policing at Harvard. You can listen to the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Our reported and introspective pieces this week are also truly delightful. CHG writes of World Puppetry Day and the unconventional life path of a Harvard-grown puppeteer. GJP and KIS profile Nina Skov Jensen, an incoming Harvard student who has painted portraits of Danish royalty and is a prominent advocate for autistic people. In his Inquiry, HRTW draws an interesting connection between finance TV personality Jim Kramer and the mistrust that fueled the Gamestop stock controversy. In the third installment of her column (wow!), SNT, contemplates self-deprecating humor and deflection. ZBRG writes an Introspection about the irony of being an English major who doesn’t usually read for fun. And in her Endpaper, NIP describes the experience of belonging and not belonging in the community from which she comes. Read this issue, contemplate the pulls to the past and toward the future — the tensions of hope and loss that define this moment — and then go outside and watch the flowers bloom. With love, OGO + MNW