Music

Bad Bunny collaborator Chuwi to perform at Wellesley College

April 20, 2026 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

Wellesley College students are looking forward to the Puerto Rican band Chuwi performing on campus as part of its Last Day of Class celebration at Munger Meadow. The event, on April 30 at 7pm, is open to members of the Wellesley College community and guests.

Chuwi has toured with Bad Bunny and their collaboration with him—WELTiTA—appeared on the superstar’s award-winning 2025 album, Debí Tirar Más Fotos.

According to The Wellesley News, Chuwi will be the first Spanish-language performers to headline the annual spring concert.

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Education

Commencement speakers revealed for Babson, MassBay & Wellesley College

March 27, 2026 by admin

All three Wellesley college—Babson College, MassBay Community College, and Wellesley College—have revealed this spring’s commencement speakers for the classes of ’26.

Babson of course is going with a couple of entrepreneurial leaders for its May 16 ceremony.

C. Dean Metropoulos, Babson ’67, MBA’68, is executive chairman and CEO of the family-owned investment firm Metropoulos & Co. and minority owner of the New England Patriots. He’ll speak at the undergraduate ceremony, recognizing more than 740 students.

metropoulos-c-dean-450x450 — C. Dean Metropoulos

Adriana Cisneros, CEO of global enterprise Cisneros, will speak at the graduate ceremony, where 540 students will receive their diplomas. The Cisneros business spans media and entertainment, consumer goods, digital innovation, global connectivity, and real estate.

cisneros-adriana-450x450 — Adriana Cisneros

MassBay, the state-owned school with a Wellesley campus, has tapped Lt. Gov. Kimberly Driscoll as its commencement speaker for the May 28 ceremony.

Wellesley College has invited Rice University distinguished fellow Ruth J. Simmons to speak at its commencement ceremony on Friday, May 15. Simmons has served as president of Smith College, Brown University, and historically Black university Prairie View A&M.

Please send tips, photos, ideas to theswellesleyreport@gmail.com

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Music

Castle of Our Skins presents multicultural string quartet at Wellesley College

March 12, 2026 by Iris Zhan

On Sunday March 8 at Wellesley College‘s Jewett Auditorium, Castle of Our Skins presented a performance lecture of Derrick Skye’s “American Mirror” String Quartet that engaged audiences in cross-cultural music traditions. Part of the Wellesley College Concert Series, the performance involved audience participation, with attendees singing and clapping to support the musicians.

Castle of Our Skins, based in greater Boston, celebrates Black artistry through concerts and education.

The event began with an introduction of Derrick Skye’s “American Mirror” by co-founder, artistic director, and violist of Castle of Our Skins Ashleigh Gordon, followed by guided demonstrations of different ornamentations and rhythms used in the two-part piece.

Castle of Our Skins performance concert at Wellesley College — Gordon opened event with a lecture about Derrick Skye and “American Mirror” (Photo by Iris Zhan)

Skye is a Black composer and musician known for integrating music traditions across cultures into his works. He passionately believes that music is a doorway to understanding other cultures and different ways of living. “American Mirror” reflects the coming together of cultures in our society, which consists of many generations and descendants of refugees, immigrants and enslaved people, and how intercultural collaborations are essential to the well being of American society. The piece draws inspiration from West African, Eastern European, Indian, and Middle Eastern music traditions as well as American genres such as gospel, jazz, and Appalachian folk music.

The piece is divided into two parts, with the first featuring Bulgarian choral influences. Gordon invited the audience to softly hum in the first part and played the exact notes to hum on her viola. She also pointed out how the cellist Francesca uses her instrument as a percussive instrument, mimicking the sounds of various hand drums like the tabla, congo, or jembe. The quartet played small sections to allow the audience to practice their participation, then returned to talking about the piece.

The second part incorporated Indian rhythmic structures, like Adi Tala, an eight-beat cycle from South Indian classical music with specific hand gestures and claps to mark time. Gordon led a live demonstration of these gestures, followed by the string quartet playing the section where the claps take place.

“We will mark the shape of the adita with our hands. So it’s a shared cultural practice highlighted in the piece all about communities coming together, cultures coming together. The Adi Tala is counted with four beats, Lahu, meaning on the fingers, and two Dru tons, which are clap and away.”

Throughout her lecture, Gordon highlighted the different rhythms and melodies influenced by gospel, folk, and Turkish traditions, followed by short performances of the highlighted sections.

After the audience learned all the musical nuances and participation protocols, the quartet played the two-part piece in its entirety, leaving the audience in awe of how everything they learned from the lecture manifested in a cohesive and mesmerizing performance. The performance was a beautiful fusion of traditional music melodies across the world, truly distinct from your average western classical chamber music performance.

‘How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance’ book debuts at Wellesley College

March 9, 2026 by Iris Zhan

Petra Rivera-Rideau, left, Vanessa Díaz — Petra Rivera-Rideau, left, and Vanessa Díaz, right (Photo by Iris Zhan)

On Monday March 2, Wellesley College Professor Petra Rivera-Rideau and Loyola Marymount University Professor Vanessa Díaz debuted their book P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance in Wellesley College’s Alumnae Ballroom.

The authors developed the first and second courses about Bad Bunny in the United States respectively. In 2023, they created the Bad Bunny syllabus, a website with resources that contextualize Bad Bunny success in relation to Puerto Rican politics. They selected a few chapters from their book to talk about how Puerto Rican resistance has shown up in every stage of Bad Bunny’s career, with each chapter assigned to a Bad Bunny song that represents that theme.

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They shared a clip of “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” where Bad Bunny reacts to himself being a subject of college courses. Professor Díaz shared how one of her student’s connections in LA is how Bad Bunny learned about the courses being taught about him.

“‘Send me your syllabus right now. I’m about to meet Bad Bunny.’ I was so weirded out, and I was like, ‘Do you mean the website or the PDF, but are you joking?’ I think to myself, it’s April 1, this is an April Fool’s joke. Students are playing a practical joke on me. She wrote back to me ‘No, I’m serious.’ And then the next thing you know, I get a video of her having Bad Bunny scroll through the Bad Bunny syllabus website and going, ‘Wow, this is amazing.’”

Bad Bunny on Tonight Show — (Photo by Iris Zhan)

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Díaz and Rivera-Rideau were inspired to use Bad Bunny as a vehicle for teaching the subject because they believe you can’t understand his evolution as an artist at all if you don’t understand Puerto Rican history. Their book “P FKN R” is a tool to motivate people to learn more about Puerto Rican history, and the role of youth and art in resistance movements on the island.

Chapters in the book (Photo by Iris Zhan)

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The first chapter they highlight is called “Soy Peor,” a song from his early career days as a SoundCloud rapper. The authors highlight that while it’s a bitter breakup song, there’s political history behind the rise in Latin trap in 2016. They interviewed De La Ghetto, another Latin trap artist, about the growth of Latin trap in the context of a debt crisis Puerto Rico inherited.

Chapter two is called “Estamos Bien” and touches on Bad Bunny’s mainstream rise to fame and how it relates to Hurricane Maria. For Bad Bunny’s first time on American TV on Jimmy Fallon, he made an effort to speak English, which he doesn’t do often, and called out Trump for his negligence of Puerto Rico during Hurricane Maria, all before performing “Estamos Bien.” The song title roughly means “we will be alright,” focused on community resilience post-Hurricane Maria. The authors elaborated on the significance of this moment at this point in his career.

“He’s not a superstar at this point. The risks he’s willing to take as a new artist really show he is going to be showing up for his homeland,” Rivera-Rideau shared.

Bad Bunny has also made a lot of statements around gender identity and advocating for LGBTQ communities, particularly in Puerto Rico. Following the brutal murder of a Puerto Rican trans woman named Alexa Negron, he shows up on Jimmy Fallon with a T-shirt that says “they killed Alexa, not a man in a skirt,” but in Spanish, cementing his reputation for advocating for LGBTQ communities on the island.

His music video for his 2018 song “Caro” is one of the reasons Rivera-Rideau made her Bad Bunny class, because about 75% of her students wrote a paper about this music video for her Latin music class. This music video starts with him getting his nails painted, a reference to when he was denied entrance into a nail salon in Spain. He swaps places with a model and the pair appear to be an androgynous couple, and the viewer sometimes can’t tell who’s who, on purpose. Later in the video, he gets kissed by a man and by a woman. For a genre like reggaeton that’s hyper masculine, it was a profound moment.

These were just some of the fruitful discussions which concluded with a book signing and celebratory cake eating.

Celebrating with a cake with their book in the frosting — Celebrating with a cake with their book cover in the frosting (Photo by Iris Zhan)

Art

Davis Museum debuts its spring exhibits

February 12, 2026 by Iris Zhan

magu davis — Museum guests inside “The Immortal Magu” exhibit (Photo by Iris Zhan)

People from across the community gathered at Wellesley College’s Davis Museum on Feb. 5 for its spring exhibition opening and reception.

As visitors came into the lobby, student workers gave out feather boas to guests in an homage to the new exhibit “The Immortal Magu” and were welcomed with remarks from Wellesley College faculty and Davis Museum staff, celebrating the significance of the Davis Museum exhibitions as part of the 150th anniversary of the college.

The new exhibits included “Only To Be There: Student Traditions At Wellesley,” “The Immortal Magu: A Sixteenth-Century Chinese Painting Up Close” and a new fifth floor with contemporary art from various artists. Guests were also invited to revisit exhibits from last semester that reopened for continued viewing this semester, including “In Focus: Wellesley College Faculty Artists,” “The Worlds of Ilse Bing,” and “Suzanne Ciani: Sound Lounge.”

The new exhibit on Wellesley College traditions contains artifacts, records, and pictures of how student traditions have evolved over time. Some traditions highlighted include Flower Sunday, hoop rolling, step singing, and marathon Monday. They also included lesser known traditions that have been discontinued such as the Wellesley fudge cake and float night. Pictures of students ranged from the 1900s to the 2010s, showcasing the longevity of some traditions.

only to be here davis — Guests viewing the “Only To Be Here” exhibit (Photo by Iris Zhan)

“The Immortal Magu: A Sixteenth-Century Chinese Painting Up Close” features a large Chinese scroll painting of Magu, a Taoist goddess associated with beauty and longevity. The exhibit includes details on the steps taken to conserve and repair the painting as well as a poem on the significance of Magu in both Chinese and English translations

ding davis — Dr. Yuhua Ding, curator of “The Immortal Magu,” talking to a guest about her work (Photo by Iris Zhan)

The fifth floor showcases a new diverse collection of 2D and 3D contemporary art across many different styles.

The Davis Museum will be doing curatorial tours of these new exhibits as well as drop-in public tours across different themes throughout the museum. You can visit the Davis Museum website to find more information.

contemporary davis — Wellesley College student observing works on the contemporary art floor (Photo by Iris Zhan)

Environment

Wellesley College lights up its Botanic Gardens

February 1, 2026 by admin

Wellesley College this past week held its annual light show at its Botanic Gardens. The exhibit highlighted how plants and gardens interact with water.

Wellesley College student Iris Zhan shared photos from the event with us (thank you!).

Learn more about the gardens, which are open to the public.

Didn’t know about the light show ahead of time? Be sure to check out Swellesley‘s events calendar and sign up for our newsletter to stay in the loop for upcoming events across town.

Wellesley College Botanic Gardens — Photo by Iris Zhan

See something? Send something: theswellesleyreport@gmail.com

Wellesley College reporters revisit Lake Waban path closure

November 19, 2025 by Bob Brown

The Wellesley News, the student-run newspaper and website at Wellesley College, has published a story headlined “No answers on Lake path closure.” The reporters take a look at the situation four years after the scenic loop was partially closed.

The News made a game effort to get an update, but ultimately was unable to pry much new information from those they reached, and was unable to reach others, including neighboring property owners to the college. The college reopened its portion of the path in 2021 after closing it during the pandemic.

The entire loop opens several times a year, usually on the q.t., other than to the college community, which gets a heads up. The openings tend to be on weekends when the path can be showcased for parents or alumni.

Some have pointed to Lake Waban technically being a Great Pond that state law appears to require public access to, but to our knowledge no formal action has been taken on this front.

Lake Waban trail hunnewell section — This section of the Lake Waban path is now off limits to the public

We once called the Lake Waban loop “Wellesley’s best walk.”

The closure of the loop is one of several changes to public access of beauty spots in the area. The increasingly gated MassHort operation at Elm Bank Reservation over the years has closed off free access to its gardens, not far from the Lake Waban loop (you can still pay to get in). Then there was the initial sledding hill ban last winter at Elm Bank. Separately, just west of Elm Bank, Natick is readying for the 2026 removal of the iconic spillway (aka, waterfall) at the Charles River Dam that has served as a backdrop for so many wedding and other celebratory photos. The town is removing the spillway to save money, avoid possible future liability, and for ecological reasons. A new, more accessible park is planned for what will become an ordinary stretch of river.

Well, at least we still have Centennial Reservation and the surrounding forest on the other end of Wellesley…

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Wellesley colleges continue to invest big time in campus upgrades

November 13, 2025 by Bob Brown

Wellesley College continues to invest in campus upgrades, and word surfaced this week that it will receive $145.2m from a bond sale by a quasi public agency called MassDevelopment. We found no word of the deal on the college or agency websites, but the Wall Street Journal and others have reported on the financial news (we have reached out to the college and will update this post if we get an update).

The private college, which is celebrating its 150th anniversary, has had its share of quality time with Wellesley town board and committee meetings in recent years regarding projects, from those involving an antenna siting to upgrades at Nehoiden Golf Course to renovations at Clapp Library. The College last year made moves to try to avoid having to go to so many Design Review Board meetings for projects it argued would barely be noticed by those off campus.

The college on Nov. 17 is set to appear before the Wellesley Planning Board for an online public hearing regarding a new Project of Significant Impact. The college seeks a special permit to build five single-story temporary dorm buildings totaling about 22,000 sq. ft. to serve as swing space for 150 student beds while existing dorms are renovated over the next 8-10 years. The project replaces Dower Hall, which is going down (Dower Hall is located on the side of campus near the College Club).

wellesley college swing space — Project location on Wellesley College campus

Separately, MassBay Community College is looking to build cybersecurity and recreation facilities on its Wellesley campus at the intersection of Oakland Street and Rte. 9 east.

This plan is intertwined with the state’s effort to dispose of 45 acres of MassBay property to use for housing, as proceeds from the project would partially fund MassBay development, which would cost tens of millions of dollars based on an early vision for such development. The emerging plan has received lots of attention in town, both by those who live nearby and fear traffic and other impacts, those concerned about the possible loss of forest land, and those bullish on more housing opportunities. An upcoming public workshop is designed to help the town share its ideas with the state for what will work in Wellesley.

Meanwhile, Babson College has a Project of Significant Impact of its own in the works, with plans to redo the executive conference center and garage in a big way.

A public hearing with the Planning Board was held in May to discuss Babson’s plans for a new Executive Lodge and Conference Center consisting of approximately 77,600 square feet of hospitality space, including guest rooms, function/meeting areas, a fitness center and restaurant space. Babson has been working its way through various town bodies, including the Zoning Board of Appeals.

babson lodge — From Babson proposal in ZBA filing

Bad Bunny collaborator Chuwi to perform at Wellesley College

Commencement speakers revealed for Babson, MassBay & Wellesley College

Please send tips, photos, ideas to theswellesleyreport@gmail.com

Please support your local online news source with a tax-deductible donation by scanning the QR code or by clicking on it.

Castle of Our Skins presents multicultural string quartet at Wellesley College

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‘How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance’ book debuts at Wellesley College

Davis Museum debuts its spring exhibits

Wellesley College lights up its Botanic Gardens

See something? Send something: theswellesleyreport@gmail.com

Wellesley College reporters revisit Lake Waban path closure

Sign up for Swellesley’s free email newsletter

Wellesley colleges continue to invest big time in campus upgrades

Please support your local online news source with a tax-deductible donation by scanning the QR code or by clicking on it.

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Wellesley in Bloom starts May 2!