Matthew Donovan is a writer, researcher, and someone extremely online. He’s lived a few lives. Now a sociology student at Columbia and co-founder of The Future Left. His work has been covered by NPR, The New York Times, GQ, Zora Zine, Nylon, Vice, Hyperallergic, LA Times, Paper, Office, Paste, Lever News, E-News, Page Six, San Diego Beat, Boston Hassle, Little Village Mag, ISU Vidette, Perfectly Imperfect, Hysteria Magazine, Byline, Serving Capitalist Realism, and The Pantagraph. Matthew has byelines in The Whitney Review, Forever, Clockedout, Office Magazine, Zora Zine, Interview, Dirty, Kismet Magazine (forthcoming), and more.
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| Meeting Fran Leibowitz, 2025—photographed by Katharina Poblotzki |
In 2014, they were featured as part of the Daytrotter Session, released their Blood Gold EP, and the 2014 Mission Creek Music Festival Artist-in-Residence and performed with Juliana Barwick and William Basinski. Their music wove together deeply personal, confessional narratives with a slow, resonant folk style. Hook and Line Magazine at this time, they hosted an artist series for three years, bringing national artists to their hometown of Bloomington-Normal, Illinois. Their music premiered internationally at a Scottish LGBT film festival in a film by Mattie Kennedy in 2015 played at the Wichita Psych Fest, and they took up their second role in a film entitled Present. Their first double-sided LP has since sold out, and they have yet to release their latest album, recorded at Flat Black Studios with Luke Tweedy. They have performed with No Age, Grimes, Explosions in the Sky, Xiu Xiu, Deerhoof, Gang Gang Dance, Washed Out, and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.
"This might well be the most intimate, spellbinding and heart-breaking song I’ve stumbled across this year." No Fear of Pop, Berlin blog"The album is melancholy at times, playful at others. And while the music could be described as minimalist and bleak, her vocals are warm like orchestral strings, and the emotion in her lyrics is dense and layered... Nikolova also has a refreshing, child-like approach to very heavy topics, which erases any kind of pretentiousness from the otherworldly approach she has to her music and conversation." Little Village Mag"You music belongs in a David Lynch film... so so beautiful. I do not know what to say." Kawabata Makato (founder of Acid Mothers Temple)"She played a solitary piece that stretched on for minutes...In that room, in that moment, it felt like we were voyeuristically peering into a child’s mind, a kid in her bedroom singing songs about imaginary friends." Rid of Me, Ames, IA blog"It’s difficult to learn about the Bloomington-Normal local music scene without hearing the name “Teaadora” dropped at some point.. [T]he alter ego of local artist Matthew Donovan. No matter what Teaadora played, though, the audience remained captivated throughout the set." Illinois Wesleyan University Argus
"The debut album of young midwesterner Teaadora Nikolava is a collection of songs and incantations with an unnerving and affecting core of fragility and intensity primarily based around voice and guitar, though often with noise floating along the edges, background to foreground - there's a raw sense of melancholy but also sweetness and a sort of uncompromising loveliness, though the poppier sensibilities are tempered with a vague feeling that somebody's relatives are possibly oozing up from beneath the floorboards. Many transcendent late night emotions to be found on this one." Forced Exposure"When Teaadora performs, I literally almost can't breath..." Steve Halle, Editor in Chief, Spoon River Poetry Review"An enigmatic folkie with an angelic voice, Teaadora Nikolova uses squiggling electronics and folksy acoustic guitar in solo material that’s sometimes dreamy and sometimes nightmarish—but always compelling." San Diego Beat
They returned to central Illinois to pursue an Associate's Degree at Heartland Community College. Like many others, they founded the second-longest student-run #occupywallstreet movement at Illinois State University in 2011, wrote for the student newspaper, taught yoga classes, and ran an interpersonal-political conversation circle on "difficult topics." They completed a Master Gardening certificate from the University of Illinois, and the following summer, they worked as a farm apprentice on the experimental organic farm known as Henry's Farm. The next year, they were recognized as a Heartland Rising Scholar 2012-2014, the 2015 Paul Simon Essay Contest winner, and the Annual Student Speaker at their 2015 graduation. Matthew’s contributions shape both discourse and community action. Matthew Donovan’s work continues to push the boundaries of public discourse, creating spaces where ideas are shared and lived.
"I've been in radio/TV for nearly 46 years. I've had many, many good moments, but NONE tops the hour this afternoon spent with Matthew Donovan, our Someone You Should Know. From college dropout to living on the streets of New York, Baltimore, Austin and Portland to becoming a top scholar at Heartland Community College, he is now preparing for college at MIT, Yale or [Columbia]. His story is incredibly uplifting." Dan Swaney (original link to quote dead), WJBC Radio
Matthew’s collaborations extend to nonprofits, political advocacy groups, and cultural organizations, applying strategic insight to digital outreach. Partnerships between 2015-2020 include work with co-teaching a class at The New Centre for Research & Practice (NCRP) with Anon Collective (behind "the altwoke manifesto", speaking on panels for Honey Power, Junior High, Human Resources, Little Secret, Solitary for Sanctuary, City of Los Angeles, and writing an editorial piece for Restless Nites. Our group published voter guides and hosted public events for numerous projects, including the Los Angeles municipal elections, to help mobilize young voters, Noise Against Sexual Assault in conjunction with a Toronto-based event, Bash Back! To the Future, a Seattle panel on queer community self-defense in the age of the Alt-Right; Together We Plan! Community Organizing in 2018 with Women’s Center For Creative Work to rebalance the often juxtaposed goals of community change and livable personal lives; and The Future of Activism, a simulcast reading group that both critiqued contemporary activism and explored new visions of social change to come, in association with NCRP and Wolfgang Tillman’s Between Bridges gallery in Berlin. In 2020, he was invited to speak at Grand Park’s Our L.A. Voices festival, a civic arts initiative of the City of Los Angeles, where he led workshops on crafting political zines and personal essay as tools of public discourse.
The Future Left’s projects expose and investigate systems of power, such as the documentary on LAPD unions' corrupt influence on local governance and a data tool called PCRC, mapping connections between city officials and police forces. In Los Angeles, The Future Left also published one of the region's most-read voter guides, helping to elect progressive district attorney George Gascon. During this time, Donovan has lectured at the University of Southern California in the Media and Arts Practice department on digital and networked justice from the perspective of sociocultural research and the history of activist practices.Working on a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Columbia University in 2021 as an honors student, Matthew’s research spans gender studies and internet culture. In 2022, Matthew, alongside mentor JM Adams, submitted a co-written video essay to The Nature of Cities festival —an international, transdisciplinary gathering exploring urban ecology, equity, and design. In addition to their research, Matthew co-hosted the Neoliberalhell podcast, where their cultural and intellectual life mixes for public audiences alongside throwing parties and hosting public conversations Yesika Salgado (2020), with Steven Donziger, Chris Smalls (founder of Amazon Labor Union) in 2023, Will Menaker (of Chapo Trap House), Hasan Piker, Jessica Burbank (of The Hill Rising), Anna Delvey, Kareem Rahma, Bryan Johnson. Matthew is writing a memoir on detransition. In 2023–25, he appeared: On Air Fest, Hot and Single, RTS Conessions, Subway Takes, The Antifada Podcast, Scroll Tax, Offtrend, Sebbes World, and others.
"Matthew Donovan is one of the smartest people I know—an academic... [who's] work is sharp — clever, but the kind of cleverness that begets survival. Izzy Capulong, Office Magazine"You’re such a beautiful writer..." Kelly Cutrone, American author, television personality, and fashion publicist
"Matthew Donovan — founder of neoliberalhell podcast— is ‘the perfect cosign … an outward leftist detransitioner who knows everybody, reads everything … meeting every power broker in the room and absorbing them into his orbit at an astonishing clip." Sam Venis — Contributing Writer, The New Republic, The Guardian, and Dissent
“Your piece about the death of parties is one of the best pieces of writing in years. Really stunning. You’re Warhol with Didion sentences. I loved every word.” Shumon Basar, British writer, editor and curator.
Lately, I’ve been into running this groupchat—Sweetychat, 400+ people somehow—where we have community online but inside our own world. I like making things just to make them with the people I care about. And then there's this other thing I do, maybe more of a compulsion: helping my friends get what they want, feel more seen, like there's a system here even if there isn’t.