Spoken Word for Empowerment:
An Interdisciplinary Approach to Arts-Integration
TAYLLOR JOHNSON IS AN ARTIST, performer, and educator. A published poet, she has been writing and performing her own poetry and plays for over ten years. She is committed to using art to give voice to the world's unspoken needs and guides children to discover and speak their truth. She is pursuing an interdisciplinary master's degree in poetry, psychology, and education at NYU, which she will use to bring performance poetry curriculum and programming into educational communities.
In 2014, she launched her own brand, #ImNotYourEnemy Apparel that started with with the creation of one T-shirt to begin action-oriented conversations on how women of color can cease to break each other down and start to build each other up (#sisterhoodisaverb). The brand continued to grow as she does and that is how Sisterhood(verb) was born, an all inclusive hub for embracing collaboration, healing, creativity, and abundance for each other.
Currently, Tayllor Johnson lives in New York City continuing to learn, read, write, perform, and teach in one of the most artistic hubs in the world. In all she has done, is doing, and will do she embodies her mission.
Mission
Find new ways poetry can empower the voiceless, soothe the wounded, and disturb the status quo, setting all of us on a path to freedom
Pedagogical Approach
Arts integration, community-based, social justice, critical pedagogy, interdisciplinary
Feedback from Colleagues
Tayllor is truly a rising star. She is a phenomenal artist, with depth and insight and a raw wisdom beyond her years. Her work is both thoughtful and thought-provoking. Tayllor is also a passion and gifted educator, capable of inspiring anyone who has the chance to interact with her.
- Marcella Hall, Vice President for Student Life, Mount Holyoke College, Author and Educator
Tayllor has the rare combination of qualities that include both artistic creativity and the ability to execute. She has a firm grasp on the implementation of vision and invoking emotive expression from her students. It was a pleasure to have a truly talented artist like Taylor work with our middle school youth.
- Melany Mendoza, Mass Mentoring Partnership, Manager of Targeted Communities ​
Tayllor Johnson has an extraordinary gift for combining her sparkling talents for speaking truth and painting visions of humanity through poetry, with her compassion and enthusiasm for working with youth and enduring devotion to a socially just world. I have watched both middle-school and college students alike marvel in the joy and intensity Tayllor brings to spoken word performance, and walk away as I have myself from seeing and hearing her inspired to join and organize with others to make the world a better place.
- Alan Bloomgarden, Director of Community Engagement, Adjunct Lecturer in Education
I want to thank you so much for filling our space and reviving our spirits with your poetry, your story, your family. We were truly inspired. This day was exactly what so many of my students (and I), in this, too often - system of painfully flat academic rigor-- needed to get through the next two months. Thank you so much for taking time to share yourself with us. We will not forget this day.
- Jenny Grove, Park Rose Middle School, Educator