Penn English professor and Department Chair Jed Esty was surprised to find a large portrait of William Shakespeare waiting in his office late last week. A group of students removed the iconic portrait from the walls of Fisher- Bennett Hall and delivered it to Esty’s office last Thursday after an English Department town hall meeting discussing the election. They replaced it with a photo of Audre Lorde, a black female writer.
The portrait has resided over the main staircase of Fisher-Bennett — home to Penn’s English Department — for years. The English Department voted to relocate and replace the portrait a few years ago in order to represent a more diverse range of writers, according to an emailed statement from Esty, who declined to be interviewed. READ MORE
