In 1981, the MacArthur Foundation began awarding annual fellowships. These have consisted of monetary awards of $800,000 (an increase this year, bumped up from a decade ago and paid out in annual installments of $160,000 over five years) to do with whatever the awardees want.
Most people, in the press and elsewhere, have dubbed these “genius grants,” a suitably catchy name. Many, perhaps those gripped by jealousy, have referred to the awardees as “having won the lottery,” a wildly incorrect comparison.
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These people, which this year number 25, are not merely lucky. They have worked very hard. They cannot apply for the fellowships, and no one knows if they are being considered. As the foundation’s website explains, “nominees are suggested by a constantly changing pool of invited external nominators chosen from as broad a range of fields and areas of interest as possible.”
The foundation further informs that “the fellowship is not a reward for past accomplishment, but rather an investment in a person’s originality, insight and potential.” Of course, the foundation hopes that the money will be used by recipients for the financial freedom that might allow them to pursue their most innovative ideas and, in so doing, enrich the planet.
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The latest list of MacArthur Fellows was announced Wednesday morning. They range in ages from 35 to 69 and come from such familiar fields as music and writing, but also such endeavors as synthetic inorganic chemistry and astrodynamics.
There are a few of this year’s crowd that have ties to Chicago. One that we can claim is Tomeka Reid, a 44-year-old jazz cellist, composer and improviser who the MacArthur folks describe as “forging a unique jazz sound that draws from a range of musical traditions.”
We caught up with her earlier this week. She has been in Moers, Germany, since January as the artist in residence for the Moers Jazz Festival, an annual international music festival founded in 1971.
“I have enjoyed my time here,” she said by telephone. “I’ve gotten a nice break from U.S. politics and have met so many wonderful musicians. I live in a house near a park where I am able to take lovely, relaxing walks.”
Born and raised by a single mom near Washington, D.C., she remembers first seeing Chicago as a child, driving through with her family. “Even then I could sense the city’s power,” she says. “I came back to visit when my sister was in school here and I spent a summer working here in the Fine Arts Building. That convinced me to choose to do my graduate work here at DePaul and here I met so many influential musicians that I just had to stay.”
Here, she made a mark, and an indelible impression on former Tribune jazz critic Howard Reich, who wrote of her often. In 2018 he wrote, “Anyone who has heard Reid at work knows she’s a font of ideas, novel techniques and unexpected musical choices in solo and ensemble settings.”
She got the MacArthur news, as most recipients do, over the phone.
“I missed the first few calls from them,” she says. “Finally, I got home and was so tired I lay down, and a good thing too. The phone rang and I answered and was like ‘Wait? … What?’ I was so excited but I also know so many amazing people who deserve this. But it will help so much. It will buy me time to do so many things, to launch projects I have been thinking about, to have creative freedom.”
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She will be back in Chicago soon enough, where she lives with her husband David Brown, an architecture professor at the University of Illinois Chicago.
Also from Chicago:
Reuben Jonathan Miller, 46: Sociologist, criminologist and social worker affiliated with the University of Chicago “examining the long-term consequences of incarceration on the lives of individuals and their families, with a focus on communities of color and those living in poverty. … Miller’s next project will investigate the ‘moral worlds’ of people who society deems violent.”
Amanda Williams, 48: Artist and architect “who uses ideas around color and architecture to explore the intersection of race and the built environment.” Her series “Color(ed) Theory” (2014-2016) covertly painted empty houses slated for demolition in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood. According to art critic Lori Waxman, writing for the Tribune in 2020, the project’s “monochromatic structures strikingly acknowledged the racially tinted architectonic blight of Englewood and other Black communities, one home at a time.” Both Reid and Williams have been named Tribune Chicagoans of the Year in the arts.
The rest of the current class of the MacArthur Fellows Program also includes, in alphabetical order:
Jennifer Carlson, Tucson, Arizona, 40: Sociologist “reconfiguring our understanding of gun culture in the United States through ethnographic research with gun owners, educators, and sellers; law enforcement and state licensing bodies.”
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Paul Chan, New York, 49: Artist “striving to express humanity’s complexities and contradictions through an artistic practice that moves across media with drawings, sculptures, and digital projections.”
Yejin Choi, Seattle, 45: Computer scientist “leveraging her expertise in natural language processing to develop artificial intelligence-based systems that can perform common-sense reasoning.”
P. Gabrielle Foreman, University Park, Pennsylvania, 58: Literary historian and digital humanist at Pennsylvania State University “recovering early traditions of African American activism.”
Danna Freedman, Cambridge, Massachusetts 41: Synthetic inorganic chemist “creating novel molecular materials with unique properties directly relevant to quantum information science.
Martha Gonzalez, Claremont, California, 50: Musician, cultural theorist and activist “developing collaborative methods of artistic expression that build community and advance social justice principles.”
[ Meet the MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant winners with Illinois ties ]
Sky Hopinka, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, 38: A filmmaker, video artist and photographer “developing new forms of cinema that center the perspectives of Indigenous people.”
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June Huh, Princeton, New Jersey, 39: Mathematician “proving long-standing mathematical conjectures through novel connections between different branches of math”
Moriba Jah, Austin, Texas, 51: Astrodynamicist “laying the foundation for a safe, prosperous and sustainable near-Earth space environment.”
Jenna Jambeck, Athens, Georgia, 48: Environmental engineer “developing new methods for understanding and addressing global plastic pollution.”
Monica Kim, Madison, 44: Historian at the University of Wisconsin “uncovering new insights into U.S. foreign policy in the context of global decolonization after World War II.”
Robin Wall Kimmerer, Syracuse, New York, 69: Plant ecologist, educator and writer “articulating a vision of environmental stewardship grounded in scientific and Indigenous knowledge.”
Priti Krishtel, Oakland, California, 44: Health justice lawyer “exposing the inequities in the patent system to increase access to affordable, lifesaving medications on a global scale.”
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Joseph Drew Lanham, Clemson, South Carolina, 57: Ornithologist, naturalist, writer and poet “combining conservation science with personal, historical and cultural narratives of nature.”
Kiese Laymon, Houston, 48: Writer “bearing witness to the myriad forms of violence that mark the Black experience … across genres and grounded in radical honesty.”
Ikue Mori, New York, 68: Drummer, electronic musician, composer and graphic designer. “She creates rhythmic and ambient soundscapes … (and) has transformed the use of percussion in improvised music and inspired generations of electronic musicians.”
Steven Prohira, Lawrence, Kansas, 35: Physicist “advancing the study of cosmic rays and ultrahigh energy neutrinos through a rare combination of expertise in three distinct areas: theory, engineering, and experimental design.”
Loretta J. Ross, Northampton, Massachusetts, 69: Reproductive justice and human rights “activist reframing reproductive rights within a broader context of human rights.”
Steven Ruggles, Minneapolis, 67: Historical demographer “building the most extensive database of population statistics in the world.”
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Tavares Strachan, New York and Nassau, Bahamas, 42: Artist “merging scientific, historical, and aesthetic investigations in projects that exemplify the power of human ingenuity.”
Emily Wang, New Haven, Connecticut, 47: Physician “investigating the health-harming effects of incarceration and improving health outcomes for people exiting prison.”
Melanie Matchett Wood, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 41: Mathematician “investigating foundational questions in pure mathematics … specializing in number theory.”
