Astra Taylor
Canadian-American documentary filmmaker, writer, and activist From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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]
Astra Taylor | |
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_(cropped,_Taylor_1).jpg) Taylor in 2014 | |
| Born | September 30, 1979 |
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| Spouse | |
| Relatives | Sunaura Taylor (sister) |
Life
Summarize
Perspective
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 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
Other works
Taylor occasionally performs with her husband's band, Neutral Milk Hotel.
Notes
External links
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