Kanye West at the GSD

The Internet was awash last week with photos and discussion around Kanye West's apparently impromptu chat with students at Harvard GSD's Gund Hall on Sunday, November 17. West, who has worked with OMA on a pavilion in France and professed to "hanging around architects mostly," was in the Boston area for a concert that evening, so he stopped by GSD at the request of the school's African American Student Union.  Per a GSD statement, "the students wrote Kanye West a personal letter in response to a series of interviews Kanye delivered referencing his growing interest in design and his experiences with race as an artist in the United States."

West's off-the-cuff sound bites include: "I really do believe that the world can be saved through design, and everything needs to actually be 'architected'," and "I believe that utopia is actually possible--but we're led by the least noble, the least dignified, the least tasteful, the dumbest, and the most political." The musician gave away tickets to the first 300 students showing up at will call, brightening the day of the many students working at studio on a Sunday.