MacArthur Names "Genius" Fellows

The MacArthur Foundation has named their 2017 grant award winners. The Fellowship, which honors “exceptionally creative people,” comes with a no-strings-attached grant of $625,000, to be awarded over five years. It is known colloquially as the “genius” award, to the sometime annoyance of the Foundation. The diverse group of Fellows includes: painter Njideka Akunyili Crosby; historian Sunil Amrith; human rights strategist Greg Asbed; photographer and educator Dawoud Bey; mathematician and statistician Emmanuel Candès; anthropologist Jason de León; Rhiannon Giddens, the Grammy-winning musician who became the first woman and first non-white person to win a major prize for excellence on the banjo; writers Jesmyn Ward and Viet Thanh Nguyen; and Cristina Jiménez Moreta who, at 33 is the youngest fellow, is the Founder and Executive Director of United We Dream. Meet all the fellows here.