Fred Moten, the theorist and poet, and Ralph Lemon, the choreographer, are among those receiving the MacArthur ‘Genius’ grant this year. They will each receive a no-strings-attached prize of $625,000 (£484,000), disbursed over five years by the MacArthur Foundation.
Fred Moten is best known for The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning & Black Study (2013), a series of essays with Stefano Harney which draw on the theory and practice of the Black radical tradition for the purposes of reorientating aesthetic critique. While a professor in the department of performance studies at New York University, Moten has also written significant books on the histories of jazz and poetry,
In 1995, Lemon disbanded his touring dance company to pursue art making outside the strict confines of dance. In the following nine years he travelled extensively, immersing himself within communities in Africa, Asia, and the American South, creating collaborative works under the title Geography Trilogy (1996–2004) which, the Foundation says ‘explore the intersection of art, race, spirituality, and self-discovery through movement, music, language, and visual installations. The trilogy amounts to an epic meditation on the possibility of human connection across cultures, even as it confounds and disassembles notions of fixed identities.’
The MacArthur Foundation has a $7 billion endowment, the legacy of twentieth century banker and property mogul John D. MacArthur who bequeathed 92 percent of his estate to a trust on his death in 1978. Though his father had been a staunch free-marketeer conservative, his son, J. Roderick MacArthur, decided to use the money to fund liberal causes.
Among the other 19 names from across American arts, humanities and sciences to also receive grants this year were science fiction writer N. K. Jemisin, playwright Larissa FastHorse and Nanfu Wang, whose documentaries have tackled China’s one-child policy, followed the work of a Chinese women’s rights activist and the life of a homeless man in Florida.
