The Body is Not an Apology

I’ve been fascinated by Sonya Renee Taylor’s work ever since I met her. She’s a performance poet, activist, teacher, author and a self declared rebel rouser. You may remember a Spirit Syrup post about her last year.

I wrote:

“I found a spot in the studio and waited for the next workshop to begin. In comes this coffee brown, (newly) bald-headed sister with dangly earrings. Her every step said I deserve to be here. She told the group her name is Sonya Renee before saying, “I want to talk about embodying your work – unapologetically.”

Embodiment is one of my favorite topics regarding independent women. We’re often asked to make the bigness of our desires small enough to make others comfortable. People may tells us we’re too much, too picky or that we have high expectations. How can we be ourselves when we’re encouraged to be more like everybody else?

Sonya Renee asked us to consider that our bodies are recorders. She proposed that our bodies absorb the energy behind the way people describe us and the way we describe ourselves. She asked us to consider the work of Masuru Emoto who studied the impact of positive and negative labeling on frozen water bottles. Bottles with words like “I love you” or “thank you” formed microscopic crystals in eye-pleasing, snowflake-like patterns while bottles with “I hate you” or “you make me sick” produced asymmetrical crystals if any shape at all.”

Emoto’s Water Experiment: The Power of Words and Thoughts

Since then Sonya Renee has created a movement designed to help women and men develop a positive self image. It’s called The Body is Not an Apology. Sonya Renee recently sat down with me to talk all about it. Click here to watch the video interview.

And that’s just part one. Subscribe to Spirit Syrup’s youtube channel to be the first to receive the second part of this powerful conversation and other inspiring videos.