Hanif Abdurraqib

Hanif Abdurraqib is, frankly, one of the writers I most want to keep reading. A poet, essayist and cultural critic out of Columbus, Ohio, he writes about music the way few people can, treating a beat or a performance as a doorway into memory, grief and Black joy. His MacArthur Fellowship in 2021 only confirmed what readers already felt: this is the real thing. What captivates me is the tenderness in his attention, the way he honors performance as something sacred rather than disposable. He turns criticism into devotion, and I find that both rare and deeply human.

Name (English)

Hanif Abdurraqib

Name (Japanese)

ハニフ・アブドゥルラキブ

Reading

はにふ・あぶどぅるらきぶ

Born

August 25, 1983 (age 42)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Virgo / Boar

Origin

Columbus, Ohio, United States

Occupation

music critic / journalist / poet / essayist / cultural critic

High school

Beechcroft High School

Awards & achievements

• 2021 MacArthur Fellows Program

• Official sitehttps://www.abdurraqib.com
• Xhttps://x.com/NifMuhammad
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanif%20Abdurraqib
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%8F%E3%83%8B%E3%83%95%E3%83%BB%E3%82%A2%E3%83%96%E3%83%89%E3%82%A5%E3%83%AB%E3%83%A9%E3%82%AD%E3%83%96
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q25936064

Tags

• Ohio
• music critic
• journalist
• poet

Last updated

2026-06-21

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.