Although this event has passed, you can still buy a digital pass to watch the recording through Monday, May 9 at 7:30 p.m. (PT).
World-renowned activist Sonya Renee Taylor is the Founder and Radical Executive Officer of The Body is Not An Apology, a digital media and education company promoting radical self-love and body empowerment as the foundational tool for social justice and global transformation.
Taylor is also a former National and International poetry slam champion, the author of two books, including The Body is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love, and an educator who has enlightened and inspired organizations, audiences, and individuals, from board rooms to prisons, universities to homeless shelters, elementary schools to some of the biggest stages in the world.
Taylor’s book, The Body Is Not an Apology offers radical self-love as the balm to heal the wounds inflicted by these violent systems, which invites us to reconnect with the radical origins of our minds and bodies and celebrate our collective, enduring strength.
Believing in the power of art is a vehicle for social change, Taylor has been widely recognized for her work as a change agent. She was named one of Planned Parenthood’s 99 Dream Keepers in 2015 as well as a Planned Parenthood Generation Action’s 2015 Outstanding Partner awardee. Bustle Magazine named her one of the “12 Women Who Paved the Way for Body Positivity,” and in September 2015, she was honored as a YBCA 100, an annual compilation of creative minds, makers, and pioneers who are asking the questions and making the provocations that will shape the future of American culture; an honor she shared alongside author Ta-Nehisi Coates, artist Kara Walker, filmmaker Ava Duvernay, and many more.
With a B.A. in Sociology and an M.S.A. in Organizational Management, Taylor continues to use her work to disrupt systems of inequity from an intersectional, radical self-love and global justice framework. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Split This Rock, an organization calling poets to a greater role in public life and fostering a national network of socially engaged poets. Additionally, she serves on the Board of Directors for Sister Song, a pioneering Women of Color reproductive justice collective. Taylor continues to be engaged in issues of racial justice, police brutality, mental health, reproductive rights and justice and much more.
In 2011, Taylor founded The Body is Not An Apology, as an online community to cultivate radical self-love and body empowerment. TBINAA quickly became a movement and leading framework for the budding body positivity movement. In 2015, The Body is Not An Apology developed a digital magazine, education and community building platform to connect global issues of radical self-love and intersectional social justice.
Taylor’s work has been seen, heard, and read on HBO, BET, MTV, TV One, NPR, PBS, CNN, Oxygen Network, the New York Times, New York Magazine, MSNBC.com, Today.com, Huffington Post, USA Today, Vogue Australia, Shape.com, Ms. Magazine, and many more. Taylor resides between the California Bay Area and Aotearoa, New Zealand. Sonya continues to tour globally sharing lectures, workshops and performances focused on radical self-love, social justice and personal and global transformation.
