In the late 1980s, a former trial lawyer named Denise Shekerjian read a newspaper article about the MacArthur Fellowship. The “genius grant,” people called it. It came with a mysterious phone call, a generous six-figure award paid with no strings attached, and the kind of cultural recognition that changes a life.

Shekerjian was not interested in the money or the prestige. She was interested in the people. She wanted to know what made them what they were.