Poetry and Body Positivity: Listening to Sonya Renee Taylor’s The Body is Not an Apology

Abstract

The article highlights Sonya Renee Taylor’s performance of The Body is Not an Apology, a spoken word poem asserting radical self-love for the body, no matter how it looks or how ill it is. It is a reclamation of space and voice hitherto denied to certain types of bodies, which are the primary loci of people’s identities.  Activists, artists and writers often find in electronic media an avenue for raising awareness, for creating alternative definitions of (women’s) beauty and generating body-positive content to promote self-love and radical self-acceptance. The body is central to control and oppression, hence, feminist discourses and activism must necessarily consider the body as a foundation of self-love and self-acceptance. The most potent way to reach the people with such messages is not through theory or jargon, but through art or entertainment. In this context, contemporary performance poetry is of significant relevance. Rooted in a history of resistance,  modern performance poetry has found platforms in digital and electronic media, in ways such that it can reach thousands in just a click of a button. One such performance poet is Sonya Renee Taylor, an African American woman who has emancipated thousands of women through her movement ‘The Body is Not an Apology’. The objective of the close reading (or watching) of this spectacular work is to highlight Taylor’s feminist attempt at resistance through art, body-positivity and self-love using her own body, voice and ingenious creativity. The paper highlights how performing the poem is an act of resistance itself.