Justin Vivian Bond Awarded MacArthur “Genius Grant”

The New York cabaret star Justin Vivian Bond is part of this year’s class of MacArthur Fellows, making her one of 22 people who’s been given what’s known as the “genius grant” this year. The MacArthur Foundation’s annual prize, granted to people in many different fields, includes a stipend of $800,000, and it’s previously gone to musicians like Ali Akbar Khan, Anthony Braxton, John Zorn, Rhiannon Giddens, Vijan Gupta, and Ikue Mori.

Justin Vivian Bond, who first rose to fame as one half of the drag duo Kiki & Herb, has been nominated for a Tony and won a GLAAD and Obie award. The New York Times reports that Bond didn’t know she was up for MacArthur-genius consideration and that she got the news in an unexpected phone call while driving a friend to a train station: “I didn’t really expect it would ever happen to me, because I’m primarily a cabaret singer and I’d never seen anybody who was a cabaret singer win that before.”

This year’s other MacArthur Fellows include Reservation Dogs co-creator Sterlin Harjo, as well as poets, artists, writers, legal scholars, and scientists, among others. You can see the full list of winners here.