Maisha Banks Manson’s project for the 2020 Jack Straw Writers Program is “myth building in the future.” In their conversation with curator Anastacia-Renée, they discuss their strategies for making a life in the arts, the speculative/narrative nature of their work, and reimagining fairytale narratives. “Part of it is taking how I feel, right now, about a story in the past and then, giving it to a future self. And then, having that be . . . how can I project care or worry or change to a version of me, or a version of family and kin and society that isn’t there yet?”

Music by SassyBlack, produced as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.