Astra Taylor

Astra Taylor
Taylor in 2014
Born	(1979-09-30) September 30, 1979 (age 44) Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Alma mater	Brown University (no degree) The New School
Spouse	Jeff Mangum (m. 2008)
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]

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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; 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]

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.^[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]

Works

Films

Zizek!, 2005
Examined Life, 2008
What Is Democracy?, 2018^[28]^[29]

Writing

Examined Life: Excursions with Contemporary Thinkers (editor), The New Press, 2009, ISBN 9781595584472^[30]
Occupy!: Scenes From Occupied America (co-editor), Verso, 2012, ISBN 9781844679409^[31]
The People's Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age, Henry Holt and Company, 2014, ISBN 9780007525591^[32]
"The faux-bot revolution", in A Field Guide to The Future of Work, RSA Future Work Centre, 2018^[33]
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^[34]
Remake the World: Essays, Reflections, Rebellions, Haymarket Books, 2020, ISBN 9781642594546^[35]
The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart (CBC Massey Lectures), Anansi Press, 2023, ISBN 1487011938

Projects

http://www.hiddendriver.com/ archived

Other works

Taylor occasionally performs with her husband's band, Neutral Milk Hotel.

Notes

^ Tortorici, Dayna, ed. (2013), "Group three", No Regrets: Three Discussions, Brooklyn, New York, p. 71, retrieved December 30, 2014{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^ "Astra Taylor". shuttleworthfoundation.org. September 2015. Archived from the original on May 7, 2019. Retrieved May 23, 2018.
^ http://www.hiddendriver.com/about Archived January 3, 2018, at the Wayback Machine Astra Taylor's official bio, accessed February 8, 2009
^ Drew, Michelle. "Interview with Unschooled Filmmaker, Astra Taylor". CitizenShift. Archived from the original on December 3, 2013. Retrieved October 5, 2019.
^ "Interview: Astra Taylor, Director EXAMINED LIFE". Still in Motion. Retrieved November 21, 2021.
^ Toro, Lauren Boyle, Solomon Chase, Marco Roso, Nick Scholl, David. "Astra Taylor | Digital Democracy and Direct Action". DIS Magazine. Retrieved November 21, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ "The Unschooled Life: Astra Taylor's Story". PopularResistance.Org. January 16, 2014. Retrieved April 24, 2017.
^ "Interview: Astra Taylor, Director EXAMINED LIFE". Still in Motion. Retrieved November 21, 2021.
^ "Authors: Astra Taylor". Dissent Magazine. Retrieved February 14, 2016.
^ "Astra Taylor - Authors". n+1. Retrieved October 26, 2014.
^ "Astra Taylor". Adbusters. Archived from the original on October 26, 2014. Retrieved October 26, 2014.
^ "Astra Taylor - The Baffler". The Baffler. June 5, 2014. Retrieved June 3, 2023.
^ "Author Bios: Astra Taylor". The Nation. April 2, 2010. Retrieved October 26, 2014.
^ "Astra Taylor". Salon.com. Retrieved October 26, 2014.
^ "Astra Taylor". The London Review of Books. Retrieved October 26, 2014.
^ Brown, A.L. (January 2002). "Aardvarks, Armadillos, and an Artist in Greenpoint - Sunny Taylor: A Profile". Free Williamsburg. Archived from the original on January 3, 2013. Retrieved 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 October 26, 2014.
^ "Jeff Mangum Benefit for WFAS". Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary. October 28, 2011. Archived from the original on April 5, 2018. Retrieved June 14, 2016.
^ Taylor, Astra (2014). The People's Platform. New York.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^ "Read Our New Gazette". n+1. October 21, 2011. Retrieved March 6, 2016.
^ VersoBooks.com. Verso Books. December 2011. ISBN 9781844679409. Retrieved March 6, 2016.
^ Remake the World: (Part 1), archived from the original on December 15, 2021, retrieved May 14, 2021
^ "You are not a loan • Debt Collective". 609c55978fdc1b00076efb96--tdc-home.netlify.app. Retrieved May 14, 2021.
^ Astra., Taylor, Remake the World : Essays, Reflections, Rebellions, ISBN 978-1-6661-2886-4, OCLC 1285604061, retrieved December 10, 2021
^ @DemSocialists (August 8, 2021). ".@astradisastra quotes Richard Trumka and talks about the importance of organization for socialists" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
^ "New council member Astra Taylor United States". X (formerly Twitter). Retrieved September 19, 2023.
^ Phillips, Charlie (June 11, 2018). "What Is Democracy? review searing analysis of who's really in control". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077.
^ Brown, Drew (September 11, 2018). "The Epic Conversation About Democracy We Need Right Now". Vice. Retrieved September 15, 2018.
^ Dougherty, Sally (December 2009). "Book Review Examined Life: Excursions with Contemporary Thinkers edited by Astra Taylor". Theosophy Northwest. Retrieved October 26, 2014.
^ Occupy!: Scenes from Occupied America. Verso Books. December 2011. ISBN 9781844679409. Retrieved October 26, 2014.
^ Wu, Tim (July 18, 2014). "Content and Its Discontents". The New York Times. Retrieved September 2, 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?
^ "Field Guide to the Future of Work: Essay collection - RSA". January 9, 2019. Archived from the original on January 9, 2019. Retrieved January 9, 2019.
^ "Can't Pay, Won't Pay". HayMarketBooks.org.
^ Remake the World: Essays, Reflections, Rebellions. Haymarket Books. May 4, 2021. ISBN 9781642594546.