Astra Taylor | |
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_(cropped,_Taylor_1).jpg) Taylor in 2014 | |
| Born | September 30, 1979 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada |
| Alma mater |
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| Spouse | |
| Relatives | Sunaura 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]
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]
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.[21] 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.[22] Taylor is a co-founder of Debt Collective, a debtors' union fighting to cancel debts.[23][24]
Taylor has resisted the label "activist" in her writing[25] 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[26] and on the Progressive International council.[27]
Taylor occasionally performs with her husband's band, Neutral Milk Hotel.
