With our free press under threat and federal funding for public media gone, your support matters more than ever. Help keep the LAist newsroom strong, become a monthly member or increase your support today.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
Three Of This Year's MacArthur 'Genius' Grant Winners Hail From L.A.
Viet Thanh Nguyen, one of this year's 'genius grant' recipients. (Photo courtesy of the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation)
()
The MacArthur Foundation has anounced the 2017 winners of its annual "genius" grant, and out of twenty-four recipients, three of them—writer Viet Thanh Nguyen, painter Njideka Akunyili Crosby and opera director and producer Yuval Sharon—are based in Los Angeles. Not too shabby for the City of Angels.
Fittingly for one of America's most diverse cities, the three L.A.-based MacArthur fellows—who will receive a no-strings-attached $625,000 grant over five years—all represent international backgrounds. Nguyen, a Vietnamese-American fiction writer and cultural critic who is affiliated with USC, won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his debut novel The Sympathizers. His writing examines the untold stories of the Vietnam War. Nguyen's latest work, the 2017 short-story collection The Refugees, follows the lives of Vietnamese immigrants and their children. Here he is in a Late Night with Seth Meyers interview last February:
Nigerian-born painter Njideka Akunyili Crosby tells the "Afropolitan story" through her mixed-media visual art, which has been exhibited at L.A.'s Hammer Museum. In a Tate museum "TateShots" video in 2016, she discussed "inhabiting multiple spaces" in her art and life.
Support for LAist comes from
Opera director Yuval Sharon was raised in Chicago by Israeli-born parents, telling KCET in a 2012 interview that he was "supposed to hate Los Angeles," but after working as assistant director for Achim Freyer's "The Ring" cycle at the L.A. Opera, the city won him over. Sharon founded the Industry, an experimental opera company known for the 2013 “Invisible Cities" opera staged in Union Station, and "Hopscotch," the 2015 opera that was performed in cars driving around Los Angeles. Here's Sharon introducing "Hopscotch":
Two L.A. writers, Maggie Nelson and Josh Kun, made the MacArthur list last year. So, as a city, we can officially declare that we're even more intelligent in 2017.
In addition to the bona fide L.A. residents on the MacArthur "genius" grant list, one New York-based winner—theater artist Taylor Mac—chose L.A. as the location for his most recent work, a Pulitzer-nominated 24-hour-long musical survey that will open in L.A. this March, the L.A. Times reports. Take that, New York.
Okay, fine, in the interest of full disclosure; NYC boasts a whopping five winners on this year's MacArthur list, and it doesn't take a genius grant recipient to know that five is more than three. At least we'll always have In-N-Out.
At LAist, we believe in journalism without censorship and the right of a free press to speak truth to those in power. Our hard-hitting watchdog reporting on local government, climate, and the ongoing housing and homelessness crisis is trustworthy, independent and freely accessible to everyone thanks to the support of readers like you.
But the game has changed: Congress voted to eliminate funding for public media across the country. Here at LAist that means a loss of $1.7 million in our budget every year. We want to assure you that despite growing threats to free press and free speech, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust. Speaking frankly, the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news in our community.
We’re asking you to stand up for independent reporting that will not be silenced. With more individuals like you supporting this public service, we can continue to provide essential coverage for Southern Californians that you can’t find anywhere else. Become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission.
Thank you for your generous support and belief in the value of independent news.
Chip in now to fund your local journalism
(
LAist
)
Trending on LAist
-
What do stairs have to do with California’s housing crisis? More than you might think, says this Culver City councilmember. -
Yes, it's controversial, but let me explain. -
Doctors say administrator directives allow immigration agents to interfere in medical decisions and compromise medical care. -
The Palisades Fire erupted on Jan. 7 and went on to kill 12 people and destroy more than 6,800 homes and buildings. -
People moving to Los Angeles are regularly baffled by the region’s refrigerator-less apartments. They’ll soon be a thing of the past. -
Experts say students shouldn't readily forgo federal aid. But a California-only program may be a good alternative in some cases.
Best of LAist