Born in a segregated Black neighborhood of Las Vegas in 1962, Fred Moten is one of the most influential scholars in Black studies, with a wide influence in critical theory, art theory, feminism, critical race theory, poetics, and literary studies. He is also a poet and professor of Performance Studies at New York University.

While studying at Harvard University in the 1980s, Moten met his collaborator Stefano Harney with whom he has authored two books and numerous essays. He went on to study for a PhD at the University of California, Berkley, during which time his earliest works were published. Moten’s first essay “Music against the Law of Reading the Future and ‘Rodney King’” (1994) engages with the themes that would dominate his writing for decades to come: music, Black

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Citation: Mason, Elliot C.. "Fred Moten". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 06 September 2024 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=15260, accessed 02 December 2024.]

15260 Fred Moten 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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