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 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
New York Times
On City Strolls, ‘Fat Ham’ Writer Was Inspired by ‘Ghosts of Absence’
Walking around downtown Philadelphia, James Ijames reflected on his new play, “Good Bones,” gentrification and the absence that “haunts the cities
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 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.
Ta-Nehisi Coates, A Long Walk Home, and A Call To Men have founded The Courage Fund, a groundbreaking initiative to support Black survivors of sexual violence. The fund raises awareness and provides resources to those dedicated to ending sexual violence against women and girls in the United States. Join us in this vital effort to make a significant difference in the lives of countless individuals.
Regina King on “Shirley”
Based on her Harper’s Bazaar profile on King, Salamishah Tillet interviews director and Oscar-winning actor Regina King about her groundbreaking role-playing and producing Shirley Chisholm in the biopic.