Astra Taylor | |
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 Taylor in 2014 | |
| Born | September 30, 1979 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada |
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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.
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)"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 videos | |
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 "Utopian Potential of the Internet": Astra Taylor on How to Take Back Power & Culture in Digital Age, Democracy Now, April 25, 2014 |
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