Salamishah Tillet facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Salamishah Margaret Tillet
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Tillet in 2010
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| Born | August 25, 1975 |
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Notable work
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Sites of Slavery: Citizenship and Racial Democracy in the Post–Civil Rights Imagination |
| Awards | Pulitzer Prize for Criticism (2022) |
Salamishah Margaret Tillet, born on August 25, 1975, is an American expert, writer, and activist for women's rights. She is a professor at Rutgers University–Newark. There, she teaches about African American studies and creative writing. She also leads the New Arts Justice Initiative. Salamishah also writes as a critic for The New York Times.
In 2003, Salamishah helped start A Long Walk Home. This group uses art to help young people stop violence against girls and women. In 2022, Salamishah won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. She received it for her "smart and stylish writing" about Black stories in art and popular culture. Her work successfully connects academic and everyday discussions about art.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Salamishah Tillet was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Her parents were Lennox Tillet and Volora Howell. Her name, Salamishah, has a special meaning. It combines "salaam", which is the Arabic word for peace. "Mi" is her parents' idea of "black". "shah" is a Persian royal title.
After her parents separated, she lived in Boston with her mother. She later lived in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. There, she went to Mucurapo Girls School and St. Joseph's Convent. In 1988, Salamishah returned to the United States. She lived in Orange, New Jersey and went to Newark Academy in Livingston.
During high school, Salamishah became very interested in literature. She also played soccer and ran track. She even set school records for indoor races.
College and University Studies
Salamishah went to the University of Pennsylvania. She first planned to study law. However, she took classes on jazz and literature. These classes, taught by professors like Farah Jasmine Griffin, changed her path. Under Professor Griffin's guidance, Salamishah learned about the importance of academic work.
She realized she could do work that mattered. Salamishah decided to write her own academic works in easy-to-understand language. She also wanted to be involved in political issues.
Salamishah earned a bachelor's degree in English and African American Studies from Penn in 1996. She graduated with high honors. The next year, she earned her Master of Arts in Teaching from Brown University. In 2002, she earned another master's degree in English and American Literature from Harvard University. She then earned her Ph.D. from Harvard in 2007. Her Ph.D. focused on the history of American civilization.
Career Highlights
In 2007, Salamishah Tillet returned to the University of Pennsylvania. She joined the English Department faculty. Her research and courses covered many topics. These included American studies, African American literature, film, and popular music. She also taught about cultural studies and feminist theory.
Some of her courses explored interesting subjects. These included "Family Feuds: Beyonce, Jay-Z, and Solange and the Meaning of American Music". Another was "Black Rage: Race, Affect, and the Politics of Feeling".
Today, Salamishah teaches at Rutgers University—Newark. She teaches creative nonfiction and African-American studies. She lives in Newark, New Jersey, with her partner and two children.
A Long Walk Home
In 2003, Salamishah and her sister Scheherazade Tillet started A Long Walk Home (ALWH). This group is based in Chicago. It is a nonprofit organization that uses art to help young people. Their goal is to end violence against girls and women.
Through their programs, ALWH has helped survivors and activists. They work to build safe communities and stop gender violence. A Long Walk Home works with many different people. These include artists, students, and community groups. They help share the voices of those often ignored. They also help people heal and create social change.
A Long Walk Home was a leading group in the United States. They used Black feminist ideas to fight gender violence and racism. This was happening twenty years before the #MeToo movement.
The Girl/Friends Leadership Institute
In 2009, A Long Walk Home started Girl/Friends. This program focuses on young people. It helps share the voices and creative ideas of girls and women of color. Girl/Friends was created to protect teenage girls. These girls are often most at risk of racial and gender-based violence.
The program has been important in Chicago's efforts to end violence. This includes fighting crimes against queer and gender non-conforming girls. It also addresses gun violence and police brutality.
A Long Walk Home has been featured in many news outlets. These include The Chicago Reader, Chicago Tribune, and The New York Times. They have also received grants from groups like the NoVo Foundation. Salamishah and her sister, Scheherazade, were finalists for Glamour's Women of the Year Award. This was for their work to end violence against girls and women.
New Arts Justice
New Arts Justice is a special program at Rutgers University-Newark. It focuses on how art connects to places, social justice, and community involvement. It was inspired by poet and activist Amiri Baraka's 1968 film The NEW-ARK. The program cares about racial justice education, public theater, and raising political awareness in Newark.
New Arts Justice is located in Express Newark. Salamishah Tillet is its director. It works with the Clement A. Price Institute. The program does several important things:
- It organizes public art shows and exhibitions in Newark.
- It supports artists and curators who create art for social change.
- It promotes new research on art and community involvement.
A Call to Peace Exhibition
A Call to Peace was a public art and history exhibition. New Arts Justice and Monument Lab worked together on it. The main question for the exhibition was: What is a meaningful monument for Newark today?
The exhibition was a response to the Military Park's Wars of America monument from 1926. This monument was built by sculptor Gutzon Borglum. Borglum is famous for creating Mount Rushmore. He also designed a Confederate monument on Stone Mountain in Georgia. He was connected to the Ku Klux Klan. He even used granite from Stone Mountain for the pedestal of his Newark sculpture.
A Call to Peace included four temporary monuments. These were created by artists Manuel Acevedo, Chakaia Booker, Sonya Clark, and Jamel Shabazz. Each artist responded to the exhibition's main question. Their projects focused on veterans who are often overlooked. They also explored the history of Confederate statues. The artists looked at how public spaces connect to historical memory. These artists were chosen for their creative ways of combining art and social justice.
Awards and Recognition
In 2010, the University of Pennsylvania gave Salamishah Tillet an award for excellent teaching. She also received a fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. During that time, she was a visiting fellow at Princeton University. From 2013 to 2014, she was a scholar at the New York Public Library's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. In 2019, she received the Art Woman Award.
For her leadership in activism and helping girls' and women's rights, Salamishah has been recognized globally. Safe magazine named her one of the "Top 50 Global Leaders Ending Violence Against Children". Ebony magazine also named her one of America's "Top Leaders Under 30".
Images for kids
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Tillet in 2010
