Scholar. Activist. Critic. Curator.
About Salamishah Tillet
Salamishah received the 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 art, design, and digital storytelling 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
Below the Surface
Transformation and tragedy go hand in hand for Hollywood’s new heroines. But their complex journeys are not in vain, feminist activist, scholar and Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Salamishah Tillet explains.
Express Newark
Led by director Salamishah Tillet, Express Newark is a center for art, design, and digital storytelling at Rutgers University-Newark, where people co-create and collaborate to advocate for social change.
Express Newark’s 2024-2025 annual theme is “Ritual,” a series of exhibitions and events that explore the relationship between Islamic spiritual practices and rituals and feature experimentations in photography, film, sound art, and textiles.
A Long Walk Home
Founded by Salamishah Tillet and Scheherazade Tillet, A Long Walk Home is a national organization in Chicago that uses art to empower young people and end violence against women and girls.
Governor Phil Murphy and First Lady Tammy Murphy Honor Salamishah Tillet for Women’s History Month
Governor Murphy held a reception at Drumthwacket and issued a proclamation celebrating Salamishah for her Pulitzer-award-winning writing, her leadership in Newark and at Rutgers, and her national work with A Long Walk Home to engage the arts to advocate for victims of violence and as a vehicle for long-term change.
“Dr. Tillet continues her legacy of enriching the quality of life for women and survivors across the entire Garden State.”
Salamishah Tillet Named As A 2025 Emerson Collective Fellow
Emerson Collective has announced its 2025 cohort of Fellows as “Local Leaders” who who come from varied fields and include a chef, landscape architects, a museum director and more. Each of them is taking on a hyperlocal project to help their community come together and solve hard problems.