Author and poet Sonya Renee Taylor made a stop in Madison on Monday to present her newest book, The Body Is Not An Apology: The Power of Radical Self Love.
Taylor shared excerpts from her third book, published February 13, to an overflowing crowd at A Room of One’s Own.
The book, named after a body empowerment movement Taylor started in 2011, is less of a self help book and more of self guided journey to understanding and embracing one’s own body.
In its opening the book makes it clear: it will not fix a reader’s self esteem or teach self confidence, but it will offer something “exponentially more magnanimous and more succulent” than either of the two.
“While not completely unrelated to self esteem and self confidence, radical self love is its own lush and burning island offering safe harbor for self esteem and self confidence,” Taylor read, calling self esteem and self confidence two ships that drift at sea driven by ego and will power.
The Body Is Not An Apology encouragers readers to not view their bodies as an inconvenience based on ability, identity, or appearance. Taylor recognizes a social political economic structure she calls “the body shame profit complex” as force the capitalizes on body terrorism. This leads her to constantly ask readers and herself who is profiting from your self-hatred.
Taylor also encourages readers to understand the difference between self acceptance and self love, noting that acceptance is a stop but not a destination on the journey of self love.
“I believe there is a port far beyond the isle of self acceptance and I want us to go there,” she read. “Think back to all the times you accepted something and found it completely uninspiring.”
Taylor’s is constantly posing questions that allow readers to find their own answers and path.
Taylor’s book draws from her roots as a national and internationally awarded slam poet, offering wit and extended metaphors to encourage others to love both outwardly and inwardly to build a better self and ultimately a better world.
Taylor is currently on a book tour and will be sharing her work on Saturday in Milwaukee at the Boswell Book Company Bookstore.
The Body Is Not An Apology can be purchased at A Room of One’s Own or online.
