SAIDIYA HARTMAN
Professor and Writer
The MacArthur Fellow and Columbia University professor has given us new language and frames of reference with which to discuss African American literature and history, as an immersive writer on the afterlife of slavery, 20th-century rule-breakers, and more.
WHAT KEEPS YOU UP AT NIGHT? The state of the world.
WHAT’S ONE BOOK, WORK OF ART, OR FILM THAT GOT YOU THROUGH AN IMPORTANT MOMENT IN YOUR LIFE? Andrei Tarkovsky’s The Sacrifice.
NAME AN INFLUENCE OF YOURS THAT MIGHT SURPRISE PEOPLE. Walter Benjamin.
WHAT DO YOU WANT NEXT FOR YOURSELF ABOVE ALL ELSE? To explore new forms of expression.
“Have I reached the heart of it?”
IF YOU COULD ATTRIBUTE YOUR SUCCESS TO A SINGLE QUALITY, WHAT WOULD IT BE? A deep connection to the ancestors.
WHAT QUESTION DO YOU ASK YOURSELF MOST OFTEN WHILE YOU’RE MAKING WORK? Have I reached the heart of it?
ARE PEOPLE EVER STARSTRUCK BY YOU? No.
in your life?
