MacArthur names 2021 genius grant recipients

The 2021 MacArthur Fellows were announced on Tuesday, giving 25 professionals $625,000 to continue with their individual projects, ranging from poetry, virology tracking and the racial intersections in public health.

The funding, unofficially known as “genius grants,” will be given in equal quarterly installments over the next five years. 

“As we emerge from the shadows of the past two years, this class of 25 Fellows helps us reimagine what’s possible,” said Cecilia Conrad, the managing director of the MacArthur Foundation. “They demonstrate that creativity has no boundaries. It happens in all fields of endeavor, among the relatively young and more seasoned, in Iowa and Puerto Rico.”

One of this year’s fellows include Ibram X. Kendi, a noted writer and academic who authored the bestseller “How to Be an Antiracist.”

“Congrats to all the 2021 MacArthur Fellows,” Kendi wrote on Twitter. “I look forward to celebrating you and celebrating with you. It is the honor of a lifetime to join this illustrious community.”

Congrats to all the 2021 MacArthur Fellows. I look forward to celebrating you and celebrating with you. It is the honor of a lifetime to join this illustrious community. 2/2

— Ibram X. Kendi (@DrIbram) September 28, 2021

Some of the other honorees include Cristina Ibarra and Alex Rivera, a married couple who make documentary films about migration and border communities along the U.S.; Daniel Lind-Ramos, a Puerto Rican sculptor and painter whose work explores Afro-Caribbean diaspora legacies; Ibrahim Cissé, a microbiologist studying tools to examine the subcellular patterns in genetic regulation; and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, a choreographer who uses dance as a medium to promote Black female voices and civic engagement. 

“Movement is the foundation of life,” Zollar said. “Through this lens I work to build leadership, choreograph new works, and create strategies for community engagement and organizing.”