Astra Taylor

Astra Taylor (born 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, which she only stayed at for a year before heading to Brown University. She attended classes there for a year and dropped out when she realized that "unschooling" was a lifelong commitment.[5] Taylor has taught sociology at the University of Georgia and SUNY New Paltz. Her writings have appeared in numerous magazines, including Dissent,[6] n+1,[7] Adbusters,[8] The Baffler,[9] The Nation,[10] Salon,[11] and The London Review of Books.[12]

Taylor is the sister of painter and disability activist Sunny Taylor,[13] and is married to Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel.[14] She joined Neutral Milk Hotel onstage for a number of shows in 2013 and 2014, playing guitar and accordion.[15] She is a vegan.[16] She lives in New York.[17]

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.[18] 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.[19]

Works

Films

Writing

  • Examined Life: Excursions with Contemporary Thinkers (editor), The New Press, 2009, ISBN 9781595584472[22]
  • Occupy!: Scenes From Occupied America (co-editor), Verso, 2012, ISBN 9781844679409.[23]
  • The People's Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age, Henry Holt and Company, 2014, ISBN 9780007525591.[24]

Projects

Notes

  1. ↑ Tortorici, Dayna, ed. (2013), "Group three", No Regrets: Three Discussions, Brooklyn, New York, p. 71, retrieved 2014-12-30
  2. ↑ "Astra Taylor". shuttleworthfoundation.org. Retrieved 2018-05-23.
  3. ↑ http://www.hiddendriver.com/about Astra Taylor's official bio, accessed February 8, 2009
  4. ↑ "Interview with Unschooled Filmmaker, Astra Taylor" by Michelle Drew for CitizenShift: Media for social change
  5. ↑ "The Unschooled Life: Astra Taylor's Story". PopularResistance.Org. 2014-01-16. Retrieved 2017-04-24.
  6. ↑ "Authors: Astra Taylor". Dissent Magazine. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
  7. ↑ "Astra Taylor - Authors". n+1. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
  8. ↑ "Astra Taylor". Adbusters. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
  9. ↑ "Astra Taylor - The Baffler". The Baffler. Retrieved 2016-03-06.
  10. ↑ "Author Bios: Astra Taylor". The Nation. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
  11. ↑ "Astra Taylor". Salon.com. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
  12. ↑ "Astra Taylor". The London Review of Books. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
  13. ↑ http://www.freewilliamsburg.com/january_2002/sunny.html "Sunny Taylor", Free Williamsburg, accessed February 8, 2009.
  14. ↑ http://www.gloriousnoise.com/articles/2008/jeff_mangum_married.php Article from Glorious Noise, accessed February 8, 2009.
  15. ↑ Jarnow, Jesse. "Neutral Milk Hotel's First Show in 15 Years Was Ragged, Glorious". Spin.com. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
  16. ↑ "Jeff Mangum Benefit for WFAS". Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary. October 28, 2011. Retrieved June 14, 2016.
  17. ↑ Taylor, Astra (2014). The People's Platform. New York.
  18. ↑ "Read Our New Gazette". n+1. Retrieved 2016-03-06.
  19. ↑ "VersoBooks.com". www.versobooks.com. Retrieved 2016-03-06.
  20. ↑ Phillips, Charlie (June 11, 2018). "What Is Democracy? review searing analysis of who's really in control". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077.
  21. ↑ Brown, Drew (September 11, 2018). "The Epic Conversation About Democracy We Need Right Now". Vice. Retrieved September 15, 2018.
  22. ↑ Dougherty, Sally (December 2009). "Book Review Examined Life: Excursions with Contemporary Thinkers edited by Astra Taylor". Theosophy Northwest. Theosophy Northwest. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
  23. ↑ "Occupy!: Scenes from Occupied America". VersoBooks.com. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
  24. ↑ Wu, Tim (July 18, 2014). "Content and Its Discontents". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 September 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?
External video
"Utopian Potential of the Internet": Astra Taylor on How to Take Back Power & Culture in Digital Age, Democracy Now, April 25, 2014
  • Official website
  • Astra Taylor on IMDb
  • Sarah Leonard (June 4, 2014). "Can the Internet Be a 'People's Platform'? A Q&A With Astra Taylor". The Nation.
  • "Astra Taylor on The People's Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age". Harper's. August 7, 2014.
  • Elisabeth Donnelly (April 17, 2014). "Everyone On the Internet Needs to Read 'The People's Platform': An Interview With Astra Taylor". flavorwire.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.