Amanda Palmer

The Eight Foot Bride was a painted living statue who stood on a crate in Harvard Square, held perfectly still, and handed a flower to anyone who dropped money in the hat. Amanda Palmer did that job for years before forming The Dresden Dolls, the piano and drums duo she started with Brian Viglione in 2000. In 2012 she asked her audience to pay for a record directly, and 24,883 people sent $1,192,793 for Theatre Is Evil, then a record total for a music project on Kickstarter. Her 2013 TED talk grew into The Art of Asking; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help, written in four months and published by Grand Central in 2014, carrying an introduction from Brené Brown. Reviewers split hard over it. NPR's critic argued the book skips how race and class decide whose asking gets answered, and the Boston Globe called it a study in contradictions.