Lupita Nyong’o

Octavia Butler Saw This Coming

PUBLISHED 12/9/2025 by

The Huntington Library, located in San Marino, Calif., launches a new exhibit, Stories from the Library: From Brontë to Butler, on Dec. 13, 2025. This collection is especially renowned for its extensive archive on the personal writings and stories pertaining to science fiction author Octavia Butler, who died too soon at age 58 in 2006 due to a fall outside her home. The prolific writer and MacArthur Grant recipient leaves behind several series of novels and other works of fiction.

Janell Hobson spoke with Black feminist scholar and Butler biographer Susana M. Morris, who relied on the vast archive available at Huntington for her latest book, Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler, which came out earlier this year.

“With Octavia Butler, we get cautionary tales. We could have just listened to her.”

Lupita Nyong’o and the Value of Visibility

PUBLISHED 3/14/2016 by

This article appears in the spring 2016 issue of Ms. Subscribe today to read more from the current issue featuring cover woman Lupita Nyong’o! After appearing in North America’s highest-grossing movie of all time this winter—Star Wars: The Force Awakens—Lupita Nyong’o has turned up in an unexpected place. Not as wife to Will Smith’s doctor in […]

The Latest Issue of Ms. Is Here!

PUBLISHED 3/8/2016 by

We’re thrilled to reveal the cover of our spring 2016 issue today, on International Women’s Day, featuring the inspiring Lupita Nyong’o. In the forthcoming issue—which you can get on newsstands March 29 or in your mailbox/inbox sooner by subscribing—we highlight Nyongo’s bold turn in the Broadway production of Eclipsed, and what her stage performance means for African […]

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Storyteller

PUBLISHED 3/6/2015 by

This March, for Women’s History Month, the Ms. Blog is profiling Wonder Women who have made history—and those who are making history right now. Join us each day as we bring you the stories of iconic and soon-to-be-famous feminist change-makers. The following interview is excerpted from the Summer 2014 issue of Ms. Click here to get a copy! […]

The Fantasy of Mammy, the Truth of Patsey

PUBLISHED 3/5/2014 by

It was not lost on some that, 75 years after Hattie McDaniel became the first African American to win a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, the beautiful, poised and talented Lupita Nyong’o would become the sixth black woman to win that same Oscar—and for playing the same type of role, a slave. If we count Halle […]

While Loving Lupita, Don’t Forget Gabourey

PUBLISHED 3/4/2014 by

Like most people who have souls, I teared up listening to Lupita Nyong’o’s acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actress during Sunday night’s Oscar telecast. I admire Lupita not only for her obvious talent, but for her honesty and willingness to defend Black beauty. Her inspirational speech on the intersection of race and beauty at Essence‘s […]