How do we embrace our scars? - with Orlando taylor
Orlando Taylor is a poet and a creative. He joins me on the podcast to talk about his books of poems and discusses how our scars tell a story about our lives. We talk about some of his experiences as a child, the influence of James Baldwin, the Harlem renaissance and connection.
I wanted to start off by saying thank you to Orlando for reaching out to me. I really love it when guests reach out to me because they want to have a conversation about things personal to them. I got to read some of Orlando Poetry and you can tell he puts his heart and soul into writing. The exploration of his own life experiences is a beauty to read and I hope you got a little of that from the poem you heard.
We talk about the impact that James Baldwin had on him as a young child. James Baldwin challenged social norms of homosexuality in his writing that allowed Orlando to start to understand what his authentic self looks like. I really liked hearing about this, and I think it shows the power of representation. We should be brave to challenge what we feel is wrong and James Baldwin showed a way for that to happen.
I wanted to share this video with you because it relates perfectly with what we talked about in the episode. Here little ‘butters’ had his heart broken by someone and I think his response is how we should look at negative experiences in our lives.
Also, if you haven’t watched South Park, I highly recommend it. Its funny, rude, meta, deep, weird and subverts expectations.
The theme of this episode is about our scars. The experiences in life that we face can have big or small impacts but still have an impact. In knowing our scars, we can being to unpack how they have impacted us and how to embrace it. As mentioned, Orlando is able to do this with his poetry. James Baldwin did it with his writing. I guess where I am leading to us how are you and I going to do that?
