My Scars Are My Birthmark

In his book of poems and short stories, the new poet Orlando Taylor works to address trauma in his and that in the community where he grew up.

With powerful, moving wordplay, Orlando Taylor’s My Scars Are My Birthmark looks at the various types of love we experience, inter-relationships, and the fight for a relevant life as a black man in the USA. In these poems of life, the poet explores the definitions of love, the types of relationships we enter, and the war that goes on internally and externally in America for African Americans.

Written over the past two decades, these poems are emotionally and spiritually charged with the trauma of growing up black in the United States. At other times there are insights into the community he was born into. He addresses the issues he's had to deal with such as violence in the black community, USA politics vs. black people, racism, otherism, black men feelings of inadequacy, the drug culture, domestic violence, being both black and SGL (same gender loving), and what family togetherness looks like. This new writer’s collection is powerful, with vibrant and moving wordplay, that calls out to you.

Orlando Taylor was born in St. Louis, MO. He spent 11 years volunteering for St. Paul Saturdays Manhood and Leadership Development Program, helping African American males navigate life and go on to college (www.stpaulsaturdays.com). Growing up, he was fascinated with writing, science, and reading, and this interest led to some early exposure to reading comic books, poetry, and literature. Later, Orlando developed a passion for ideas that could be transformed into scripts for TV and film. In My Scars Are My Birthmark, Orlando explores the issues one might face in life and those familiar to the African American community. These are the love; relationships with himself, the community, and the world itself. To fight to have a life of meaning in a country that wants to erase you. He writes in the hopes of sharing with his readers the black experience of black people and especially black men. He has been featured in several anthologies of poetry prior. He can also be reached on the website www.kuumbaconcepts.com or on IG @olaorun_kingOp-Ed: https: //www.blackstarnews.com/health/living/why-black-men-in-the-usa-need-healing.htmlhttps: //aframnews.com/let-the-black-women-lead/