Astra Taylor
Astra Taylor (born 1979[1]) is a Canadian-American documentary filmmaker, writer, activist and musician.
Life
Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Taylor grew up in Athens, Georgia,[2] and was unschooled until age 13 when she enrolled in ninth grade.[3] 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.[4] Taylor has taught sociology at the University of Georgia and SUNY New Paltz. Her writings have appeared in numerous magazines, including Dissent,[5] n+1,[6] Adbusters,[7] The Baffler,[8] The Nation,[9] Salon,[10] and The London Review of Books.[11]
Taylor is the sister of painter and disability activist Sunny Taylor,[12] and is married to Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel.[13] She joined Neutral Milk Hotel onstage for a number of shows in 2013 and 2014, playing guitar and accordion.[14] She is a vegan.[15] She lives in New York.[16]
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.[17] 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.[18] She was also a founder of Rolling Jubilee, a Strike Debt project, which to date has relieved $39 million in debt since 2011 by crowd-sourcing funds and purchasing debt.[19]
Works
Films
- Zizek!, 2005
- Examined Life, 2008
Writing
- Examined Life: Excursions with Contemporary Thinkers (editor), The New Press, 2009, ISBN 9781595584472[20]
- Occupy!: Scenes From Occupied America (co-editor), Verso, 2012, ISBN 9781844679409.[21]
- The People's Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age, Henry Holt and Company, 2014, ISBN 9780007525591.[22]
Projects
Notes
- ↑ Tortorici, Dayna, ed. (2013), "Group three", No Regrets: Three Discussions, Brooklyn, New York, p. 71, retrieved 2014-12-30
- ↑ http://www.hiddendriver.com/about Astra Taylor's official bio, accessed February 8, 2009
- ↑ "Interview with Unschooled Filmmaker, Astra Taylor" by Michelle Drew for CitizenShift: Media for social change
- ↑ "The Unschooled Life: Astra Taylor's Story". PopularResistance.Org. 2014-01-16. Retrieved 2017-04-24.
- ↑ "Authors: Astra Taylor". Dissent Magazine. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
- ↑ "Astra Taylor - Authors". n+1. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
- ↑ "Astra Taylor". Adbusters. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
- ↑ "Astra Taylor - The Baffler". The Baffler. Retrieved 2016-03-06.
- ↑ "Author Bios: Astra Taylor". The Nation. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
- ↑ "Astra Taylor". Salon.com. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
- ↑ "Astra Taylor". The London Review of Books. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
- ↑ http://www.freewilliamsburg.com/january_2002/sunny.html "Sunny Taylor", Free Williamsburg, accessed February 8, 2009.
- ↑ http://www.gloriousnoise.com/articles/2008/jeff_mangum_married.php Article from Glorious Noise, accessed February 8, 2009.
- ↑ Jarnow, Jesse. "Neutral Milk Hotel's First Show in 15 Years Was Ragged, Glorious". Spin.com. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
- ↑ "Jeff Mangum Benefit for WFAS". Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary. October 28, 2011. Retrieved June 14, 2016.
- ↑ Taylor, Astra (2014). The People's Platform. New York.
- ↑ "Read Our New Gazette". n+1. Retrieved 2016-03-06.
- ↑ "VersoBooks.com". www.versobooks.com. Retrieved 2016-03-06.
- ↑ Taylor, Astra (2015-02-27). "A Strike Against Student Debt". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-03-06.
- ↑ Dougherty, Sally (December 2009). "Book Review Examined Life: Excursions with Contemporary Thinkers edited by Astra Taylor.". Theosophy Northwest. Theosophy Northwest. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
- ↑ "Occupy!: Scenes from Occupied America". VersoBooks.com. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
- ↑ 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 links
"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.