Biography:Astra Taylor

From HandWiki
Astra Taylor
Taylor in 2014
Born (1979-09-30) September 30, 1979 (age 46)
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Alma mater
Spouse(s)
Jeff Mangum (m. 2008)
RelativesSunaura Taylor (sister)

Astra Taylor (born September 30, 1979)[1] is a Canadian-American documentary filmmaker, writer, activist, and musician. She is a fellow of the Shuttleworth Foundation for her work on challenging predatory practices around debt.[2]

Life

Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Taylor grew up in Athens, Georgia,[3] and was unschooled until age 13 when she enrolled in ninth grade.[4] 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.[5] She has described herself as a "teenage Deleuzian."[6]

Taylor enrolled at Brown University, where she attended classes for a year before dropping out. Reflecting on her decision to leave, Taylor stated "Why had I felt compelled to enroll in an Ivy League school, to excel by the standards of conventional education and choose a 'difficult' major, instead of making my own way? What was I afraid of?"[7] Taylor completed a Master of Arts in liberal studies at The New School, though stated that she ultimately "wearied" of academia.[8]

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.[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 of Dissent magazine and Keith Gessen of n+1.[23] 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.[24] Taylor is a co-founder of Debt Collective, a debtors' union fighting to cancel debts.[25][26]

Taylor has resisted the label "activist" in her writing[27] and advocates organized movement building, which she says is a necessary supplement to activism which makes it more durable and effective.

She is also a member of the Democratic Socialists of America[28] and on the Progressive International council.[29] 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".[30]

Works

Films

  • Zizek!, 2005
  • Examined Life, 2008
  • What Is Democracy?, 2018[31][32]

Writing

  • Examined Life: Excursions with Contemporary Thinkers (editor), The New Press, 2009, ISBN 9781595584472[33]
  • Occupy!: Scenes From Occupied America (co-editor), Verso, 2012, ISBN 9781844679409[34]
  • The People's Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age, Henry Holt and Company, 2014, ISBN 9780007525591[35]
  • "The faux-bot revolution", in A Field Guide to The Future of Work, RSA Future Work Centre, 2018[36]
  • Democracy May Not Exist, but We'll Miss It When It's Gone, Metropolitan Books, 2019, ISBN 9781250179845
  • Can't Pay, Won't Pay: The Case for Economic Disobedience and Debt Abolition (forward), Haymarket Books, 2020, ISBN 9781642594003[37]
  • Remake the World: Essays, Reflections, Rebellions, Haymarket Books, 2020, ISBN 9781642594546[38]
  • The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart (CBC Massey Lectures), Anansi Press, 2023, ISBN 1487011938

Notes

  1. ↑ Tortorici, Dayna, ed. (2013), "Group three", No Regrets: Three Discussions, Brooklyn, New York, p. 71, http://shop.nplusonemag.com/products/no-regrets, retrieved 2014-12-30 
  2. ↑ "Astra Taylor". September 2015. https://shuttleworthfoundation.org/fellows/astra-taylor/. 
  3. ↑ http://www.hiddendriver.com/about Astra Taylor's official bio, accessed February 8, 2009
  4. ↑ Drew, Michelle. "Interview with Unschooled Filmmaker, Astra Taylor". http://citizenshift.org/node/21634&term_tid=100004. 
  5. ↑ "Interview: Astra Taylor, Director EXAMINED LIFE". https://stillinmotion.typepad.com/still_in_motion/2008/11/interview-astra-taylor-director-examined-life.html. 
  6. ↑ Toro, Lauren Boyle, Solomon Chase, Marco Roso, Nick Scholl, David (March 9, 2015). "Astra Taylor | Digital Democracy and Direct Action". http://dismagazine.com/discussion/74702/astra-taylor-digital-democracy-and-direct-action/. 
  7. ↑ "The Unschooled Life: Astra Taylor's Story" (in en-US). PopularResistance.Org. 2014-01-16. https://popularresistance.org/the-unschooled-life-astra-taylor-story/. 
  8. ↑ "Interview: Astra Taylor, Director EXAMINED LIFE". https://stillinmotion.typepad.com/still_in_motion/2008/11/interview-astra-taylor-director-examined-life.html. 
  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 - The Baffler" (in en-US). June 5, 2014. 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. ↑ Brown, A.L. (January 2002). "Aardvarks, Armadillos, and an Artist in Greenpoint - Sunny Taylor: A Profile". http://www.freewilliamsburg.com/january_2002/sunny.html. 
  17. ↑ http://www.gloriousnoise.com/articles/2008/jeff_mangum_married.php Article from Glorious Noise, accessed February 8, 2009.
  18. ↑ Jarnow, Jesse. "Neutral Milk Hotel's First Show in 15 Years Was Ragged, Glorious". Spin.com. https://www.spin.com/2013/10/neutral-milk-hotel-reunion-show-tour-baltimore-ragged-glorious/. Retrieved October 26, 2014. 
  19. ↑ "Jeff Mangum Benefit for WFAS". Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary. October 28, 2011. http://woodstocksanctuary.org/news/jeff-mangum-benefit-for-wfas/. Retrieved June 14, 2016. 
  20. ↑ Taylor, Astra (2014). The People's Platform. New York. 
  21. ↑ Cassandra Drudi, "Canisia Lubrin, Danny Ramadan among 2024 Governor General’s Literary Award finalists". Quill & Quire, October 8, 2024.
  22. ↑ Discover exceptional Canadian writers and writing for your to-read pile
  23. ↑ "Read Our New Gazette" (in en-US). October 21, 2011. https://nplusonemag.com/online-only/occupy/read-our-new-gazette/. 
  24. ↑ VersoBooks.com. Verso Books. December 2011. ISBN 9781844679409. http://www.versobooks.com/books/1122-occupy. Retrieved 2016-03-06. 
  25. ↑ (in en) Remake the World: (Part 1), May 4, 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1L2RrpPh3w, retrieved 2021-05-14 
  26. ↑ "You are not a loan • Debt Collective" (in en). https://609c55978fdc1b00076efb96--tdc-home.netlify.app/. 
  27. ↑ Astra., Taylor, Remake the World : Essays, Reflections, Rebellions, ISBN 978-1-6661-2886-4, OCLC 1285604061, http://worldcat.org/oclc/1285604061, retrieved 2021-12-10 
  28. ↑ @DemSocialists (August 8, 2021). ".@astradisastra quotes Richard Trumka and talks about the importance of organization for socialists". https://twitter.com/DemSocialists/status/1424465602547232770. 
  29. ↑ "New council member Astra Taylor United States" (in en). https://twitter.com/ProgIntl/status/1704055249634234395. 
  30. ↑ "Refusing Complicity in Israel's Literary Institutions". https://docs.google.com/forms/d/11KaIIavJWoaoyA5d969dk1MbgH6mRgaC7FTmNb-2tpw/viewform?pli=1&pli=1&pli=1&edit_requested=true/. 
  31. ↑ 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. 
  32. ↑ 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/. 
  33. ↑ 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. 
  34. ↑ Occupy!: Scenes from Occupied America. Verso Books. December 2011. ISBN 9781844679409. http://www.versobooks.com/books/1122-occupy. Retrieved October 26, 2014. 
  35. ↑ 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. ""The People's Platform" should be taken as a challenge by the new media that have long claimed to be improving on the old order. Can they prove they are capable of supporting a sustainable cultural ecosystem, in a way that goes beyond just hosting parties at the Sundance Film Festival?" 
  36. ↑ "Field Guide to the Future of Work: Essay collection - RSA". 2019-01-09. https://www.thersa.org/discover/publications-and-articles/reports/field-guide-to-the-future-of-work-essay-collection. 
  37. ↑ "Can't Pay, Won't Pay". https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1520-can-t-pay-won-t-pay. 
  38. ↑ Remake the World: Essays, Reflections, Rebellions. Haymarket Books. May 4, 2021. ISBN 9781642594546. https://bookshop.org/books/remake-the-world-essays-reflections-rebellions-9781642594966/9781642594546. 



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