Biography:Astra Taylor

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Astra Taylor
Taylor in 2014
Born (1979-09-30) September 30, 1979 (age 47)
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Alma materThe New School
Spouse(s)
Jeff Mangum (m. 2005)
[1]
RelativesSunaura Taylor (sister)

Astra Taylor (born September 30, 1979)[2] is a Canadian-American documentary filmmaker, writer, activist, and musician. She is a fellow of the Shuttleworth Foundation for her work on challenging predatory debt practices.[3]

Life

Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Taylor grew up in Athens, Georgia,[4] and was unschooled until age 13 when she enrolled in ninth grade.[5] At 16 she abandoned high school to attend classes at the University of Georgia; at the university she studied Deleuze and Guattari under Ronald L. Bogue.[6][7]

Taylor enrolled at Brown University, where she attended classes for a year before dropping out.[8] Taylor completed a Master of Arts in liberal studies at The New School.[6]

Taylor has taught sociology at the University of Georgia and SUNY New Paltz. Her writings have appeared in numerous magazines, including Dissent,[9] n+1,[10] Adbusters,[11] The Baffler,[12] The Nation,[13] Salon,[14] and the London Review of Books.[15]

Taylor at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society in 2015

Taylor is the sister of painter and disability activist Sunny Taylor,[16] and is married to Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel.[17] She joined Neutral Milk Hotel onstage for a number of shows in 2013 and 2014, playing guitar and accordion.[18] She is a vegan.[19] She lives in New York City.[20]

Her book The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart was shortlisted for the Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction at the 2024 Governor General's Awards.[21] The book was also a finalist for the 2024 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing.[22]

Activism

Taylor was active in the Occupy movement and was the co-editor of Occupy!: An OWS-Inspired Gazette with Sarah Leonard and Keith Gessen.[23][24] The broadsheet covered Occupy Wall Street in five issues over the course of the first year of the occupation and was later anthologized by Verso Books.[25] Taylor is a co-founder of Debt Collective, a debtors' union fighting to cancel debts.[26][27][28]

Taylor has resisted the label "activist" in her writing.[29] She is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America[30] and on the Progressive International council.[31][32] She supports a boycott of Israeli cultural institutions, including publishers and literary festivals. She was an original signatory of the manifesto "Refusing Complicity in Israel's Literary Institutions".[33][34]

In 2026, Taylor endorsed Avi Lewis in that year's federal NDP leadership race.[35]

Works

Film

Writing

  • Examined Life: Excursions with Contemporary Thinkers (editor), The New Press, 2009, ISBN 9781595584472[40]
  • Occupy!: Scenes From Occupied America (co-editor with Keith Gessen), Verso Books, 2012, ISBN 9781844679409[41]
  • The People's Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age, Henry Holt and Company, 2014, ISBN 9780007525591[42]
  • "The faux-bot revolution", in A Field Guide to The Future of Work, Royal Society of Arts Future Work Centre, 2018[43]
  • Democracy May Not Exist, but We'll Miss It When It's Gone, Metropolitan Books, 2019, ISBN 9781250179845[44]
  • Can't Pay, Won't Pay: The Case for Economic Disobedience and Debt Abolition (foreword), Haymarket Books, 2020, ISBN 9781642594003[45]
  • Remake the World: Essays, Reflections, Rebellions, Haymarket Books, 2020, ISBN 9781642594546[46]
  • The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart (CBC Massey Lectures), House of Anansi Press, 2023, ISBN 978-1-4870-1193-2[47]

Notes

  1. ↑ Taylor, Astra. "Rare personal post, seizing the moment to correct the record. Today I'm officially 21 yrs wed to my favorite most special human Jeff Mangum. For some reason the Internet/Wikipedia says we got hitched in Jan 2008, but it was June 9 2005. (Don't believe what you read online & always wear a lampshade.)". https://bsky.app/profile/astra.bsky.social/post/3mnundwv5n22z. 
  2. ↑ Tortorici, Dayna, ed. (2013), "Group three", No Regrets: Three Discussions, Brooklyn, New York: n+1 Books, p. 71 
  3. ↑ "Astra Taylor". https://shuttleworthfoundation.org/fellows/astra-taylor/. 
  4. ↑ Dawson, Nick (2009-02-25). "Astra Taylor, Examined Life" (in en-US). https://filmmakermagazine.com/1357-astra-taylor-examined-life/. 
  5. ↑ Drew, Michelle. "Interview with Unschooled Filmmaker, Astra Taylor". http://citizenshift.org/node/21634&term_tid=100004. 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Cohn, Pamela (November 1, 2008). "Interview: Astra Taylor, Director EXAMINED LIFE". https://stillinmotion.typepad.com/still_in_motion/2008/11/interview-astra-taylor-director-examined-life.html. 
  7. ↑ Kaplan, Zachary; Taylor, Astra (March 9, 2015). "Digital Democracy and Direct Action". http://dismagazine.com/discussion/74702/astra-taylor-digital-democracy-and-direct-action/. 
  8. ↑ Taylor, Astra (2014-01-16). "The Unschooled Life: Astra Taylor's Story" (in en-US). PopularResistance.Org. https://popularresistance.org/the-unschooled-life-astra-taylor-story/. 
  9. ↑ "Authors: Astra Taylor". https://www.dissentmagazine.org/author/astra-taylor. Retrieved February 14, 2016. 
  10. ↑ "Astra Taylor - Authors". https://nplusonemag.com/authors/taylor-astra/. Retrieved October 26, 2014. 
  11. ↑ "Astra Taylor". https://www.adbusters.org/authors/astra-taylor.html. Retrieved October 26, 2014. 
  12. ↑ "Astra Taylor" (in en-US). https://thebaffler.com/authors/astra-taylor. 
  13. ↑ "Author Bios: Astra Taylor". April 2, 2010. http://www.thenation.com/authors/astra-taylor. Retrieved October 26, 2014. 
  14. ↑ "Astra Taylor". http://www.salon.com/writer/astra_taylor/. Retrieved October 26, 2014. 
  15. ↑ "Astra Taylor". http://www.lrb.co.uk/contributors/astra-taylor. Retrieved October 26, 2014. 
  16. ↑ Abrams, Kathryn (2011-10-01). "Performing Interdependence: Judith Butler and Sunaura Taylor in The Examined Life" (in en). Columbia Journal of Gender and Law 21 (2): 73. doi:10.7916/CJGL.V21I2.2635. https://journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/cjgl/article/view/2635. 
  17. ↑ Brown, Jake (January 9, 2008). "Jeff Mangum, Astra Taylor Married". http://www.gloriousnoise.com/articles/2008/jeff_mangum_married.php. 
  18. ↑ Jarnow, Jesse (October 14, 2013). "Neutral Milk Hotel's First Show in 15 Years Was Ragged, Glorious". SPIN. https://www.spin.com/2013/10/neutral-milk-hotel-reunion-show-tour-baltimore-ragged-glorious/. Retrieved October 26, 2014. 
  19. ↑ Taylor, Astra; Taylor, Sunaura (November 2021). "Our Animals, Ourselves" (in en-US). https://lux-magazine.com/article/our-animals-ourselves/. 
  20. ↑ Taylor, Astra (2014). The People's Platform. New York: Random House Canada. 
  21. ↑ Drudi, Cassandra (2024-10-08). "Canisia Lubrin, Danny Ramadan among 2024 Governor General’s Literary Award finalists" (in en-US). Quill and Quire. https://quillandquire.com/omni/canisia-lubrin-danny-ramadan-among-2024-governor-generals-literary-award-finalists/. 
  22. ↑ "Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing" (in en). https://www.writerstrust.com/writers-books/awards/shaughnessy-cohen-prize-for-political-writing/all. 
  23. ↑ "Read Our New Gazette" (in en-US). October 21, 2011. https://nplusonemag.com/online-only/occupy/read-our-new-gazette/. 
  24. ↑ Lim, Audrea (24 January 2012). "A Roundtable with the editors of Occupy!" (in en). https://www.versobooks.com/en-ca/blogs/news/881-a-roundtable-with-the-editors-of-occupy. 
  25. ↑ "Occupy!" (in en). https://www.versobooks.com/products/2225-occupy. 
  26. ↑ (in en) Remake the World: (Part 1), May 4, 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1L2RrpPh3w, retrieved 2021-05-14 
  27. ↑ Appel, Hannah; Taylor, Astra (2024-07-23). "'You Are Not A Loan!' Introducing the Nation's First Debtors' Union" (in en). https://inthesetimes.com/article/debt-collective-takeover-debtors-union. 
  28. ↑ "About". http://www.hiddendriver.com/about. 
  29. ↑ Taylor, Astra (2021) (in en). Remake the World: Essays, Reflections, Rebellions. Haymarket Books. ISBN 978-1-64259-454-6. 
  30. ↑ Taylor, Astra; Taylor, Keeanga-Yamahtta (2023-08-31). "You Can’t Be a Socialist Alone" (in en). https://inthesetimes.com/article/astra-taylor-keeanga-yamahtta-taylor-socialism. 
  31. ↑ Progressive International [@ProgIntl] (September 19, 2023). "Astra Taylor (@astradisastra) is a political organizer, writer and documentary filmmaker. She is co-founder of the Debt Collective @StrikeDebt. Her latest book is The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart.". https://twitter.com/ProgIntl/status/1704055249634234395. 
  32. ↑ "Council" (in en). https://progressive.international/council/. 
  33. ↑ "Letter: Refusing Complicity in Israel’s Literary Institutions" (in en). 2024-10-28. https://publishersforpalestine.org/2024/10/28/letter-refusing-complicity-in-israels-literary-institutions/. 
  34. ↑ Sheehan, Dan (2024-10-28). "Thousands of Authors Pledge to Boycott Israeli Cultural Institutions" (in en). https://lithub.com/hundreds-of-authors-pledge-to-boycott-israeli-cultural-institutions/. 
  35. ↑ "Endorsements". https://lewisisleader.ca/endorsements/individuals/. 
  36. ↑ Scott, A. O. (2005-11-18). "Sampling the Churning Mind of a Celebrity Philosopher" (in en-US). The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. https://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/18/movies/sampling-the-churning-mind-of-a-celebrity-philosopher.html. 
  37. ↑ Nussbaum, Martha (2010-01-03). "Inheriting Socrates" (in en-US). https://thepointmag.com/criticism/inheriting-socrates/. 
  38. ↑ Phillips, Charlie (2018-06-11). "What Is Democracy? review searing analysis of who's really in control" (in en-GB). The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jun/11/what-is-democracy-review-astra-taylor-documentary. 
  39. ↑ Brown, Drew (2018-09-11). "The Epic Conversation About Democracy We Need Right Now" (in en-CA). Vice. https://www.vice.com/en/article/an-epic-conversation-on-astra-taylors-what-is-democracy/. 
  40. ↑ Dougherty, Sally (December 2009). "Book Review Examined Life: Excursions with Contemporary Thinkers edited by Astra Taylor.". Theosophy Northwest. http://www.theosophy-nw.org/theosnw/reviews/examined_life.htm. Retrieved October 26, 2014. 
  41. ↑ "Occupy!: Scenes From Occupied America". 2012-01-23. https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781844679409. 
  42. ↑ Wu, Tim (July 18, 2014). "Content and Its Discontents". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/20/books/review/the-peoples-platform-by-astra-taylor.html?_r=0. Retrieved September 2, 2014. 
  43. ↑ Taylor, Astra (2019-01-14). "The faux-bot revolution" (in en). Medium. https://medium.com/field-guide-to-the-future-of-work/the-faux-bot-revolution-ebf25481d48d. 
  44. ↑ "Democracy May Not Exist, but We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone by Astra Taylor". 2019-03-22. https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781250179845. 
  45. ↑ Taylor, Jaime (2021-03-03). "Can’t Pay Won’t Pay: The Case for Economic Disobedience and Debt Abolition. Debt Collective. Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books, 2020. Paper, $15 (ISBN: 978-1-64259-262-7)." (in en-US). College & Research Libraries 82 (2). ISSN 2150-6701. https://crl.acrl.org/index.php/crl/article/view/24840/32678. 
  46. ↑ Thier, Hadas (2021-10-16). "Ten Years After Occupy, We Have a Left That Matters" (in en-US). https://jacobin.com/2021/10/astra-taylor-book-review-remake-the-world. 
  47. ↑ Timpf, Lisa (2024-05-29). "The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart By Astra Taylor" (in en-US). https://miramichireader.ca/2023/09/the-age-of-insecurity-by-astra-taylor/. 
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