Scholar. Activist. Critic. Curator.
About Salamishah Tillet
Salamishah won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for criticism for her work at The New York Times Magazine for columns examining race, genre, and Black perspectives as the arts and entertainment world responded to the Black Lives Matter moment with new works. She is also the author of In Search of The Color Purple: The Story of an American Masterpiece, and currently working on a book on the civil rights icon, Nina Simone. She is currently the Henry Rutgers Professor of Africana Studies and Creative Writing and the Director of Express Newark , a center for socially engaged art and design at Rutgers University–Newark. In 2003, she and her sister Scheherazade Tillet founded the arts organization A Long Walk Home.
In Search of the Color Purple
Mixing cultural criticism, literary history, biography, and memoir, this is an exploration of the making and meaning Alice Walker’s critically acclaimed and controversial novel, The Color Purple and features interviews with Walker, Oprah Winfrey, and Quincy Jones and many others whose lives were so changed by the novel that they adapted to the big screen or Broadway stage, ensuring its reach new audiences for years to come.
In Search of The Color Purple delivers extraordinary insight into both the love and the struggle that made Ms. Walker’s exquisitely crafted novel a masterpiece. After reading Salamishah Tillet’s poignant book, neither readers nor writers will forget that it takes courage and audacity to write a novel that tells the reality of women’s lives.” -- Anita Hill, University Professor, Brandeis University
“Regina’s Resolve” in Harper’s Bazaar
Cover Story: Regina King on learning to live with loss, the legacy of Shirley Chisholm, and finding a way forward
Express Newark
Led by Executive Director Salamishah Tillet and with support from Creative Director Nick Kline and Curator of Programs Alliyah Allen, Express Newark is a center for socially engaged art and design where people can create art together, learn collaboratively, and build coalitions to advocate for change.
Express Newark’s 2023-2024 annual theme is inspired by the 60th anniversary of the acclaimed book “Blues People” by writer, poet, and political activist Leroi Jones, who later renamed himself Amiri Baraka, by Leroi Jones.
A Long Walk Home
Founded by Salamishah Tillet and Scheherazade Tillet, A Long Walk Home is a national art organization based in Chicago that empowers young people to end violence against girls and women.
Assembled by A Long Walk Home’s artists Scheherazade Tillet and Robert Narcisco and Black girls in Chicago, “Freedom Square: The Black Girlhood Altar” is a mixed-media, object-based installation exhibition intended to be a sacred site for missing and murdered Black girls and women.
MKA Hemmeter Lecture: Feminism Across Generations Gloria Steinem and Salamishah Tillet
In the late 2023, MKA proudly presented the 2023 Hemmeter Lecture Series, Feminism Across Generations, with Gloria Steinem and Salamishah Tillet. It was an extraordinary evening of sharing, learning, and building community. These two prominent activists and writers discussed their friendship, the power of feminist leadership and the critical role that race, gender, and age have played in shaping their actions, life experiences, and understanding of equality in two engaging and enlightening opportunities.
Art on the Mall: American diversity on display
Curated by Salamishah Tillet and Paul Farber of Monument Lab, “Pulling Together” was the first public art exhibition on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. It presented works from diverse artists who revealed previously untold stories amid our nation's historic monuments. Correspondent Faith Salie reports on the installation "Beyond Granite: Pulling Together," which presents a more inclusive representation of America.