Danielle Hayden wearing headphones and a white facemask, standing at a microphone looking at a sheet of paper on a music stand.

Entropy – Danielle Hayden

Danielle Hayden’s project for the 2022 Jack Straw Writers Program is an essay collection titled Entropy that delves into both the different identities that she holds and the identities that are trying to find her. In her conversation with curator Michael Schmeltzer, they talk about the challenges of witnessing oneself, the beautiful and ugly truths in her writing, and the dark night of the soul that instilled a sense of urgency in her. ”I’m talking about some things that are taboo . . . but there are other people who feel like I feel. And so I want to kind of say, ‘Hey, you’re not the only one.’”

Music by Ran Park, produced through the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.