Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Among Recipients of 2016 MacArthur Genius Grant

31-year-old playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is among the 23 artists and scientists named as this year's recipients of the MacArthur Fellowship, the $625,000 grant better known as the "Genius Grant." Other notables on this year's list include graphic comic book writer Gene Luen Yang, writer Sarah Stillman, poet Claudia Rankine, composer Julia Wolfe and theater artist and educator Anne Basting. Click here for a full list of this year's recipients.

Jacob-Jenkins plays include his Antebellum melodrama "An Octoroon", Pulitzer-finalist "Gloria", "Neighbors," about a family of minstrel performers played by black actors in blackface, and "Appropriate," a family drama about siblings who discover that their father was associated with the Ku Klux Klan. His latest play, "Everybody," will premiere at Off Broadway's Signature Theater in 2017.

Last year's Fellowship grant recipients included HAMILTON creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, set designer Mimi Lien ("Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812" ) and puppeteer Basil Twist. In previous years, playwrights Samuel D. Hunter and Sarah Ruhl have been honored with the prestigious grant.

Learn more about Branden Jacob-Jenkins below:

Source: macfound.org