TayMarie

Reared from Metro Detroit and a current DC transplant, Taylor Bland is an educator, poetry reader/performer, animal-lover, and long time writer that has always used poetry and storytelling as an open journal to lament or reimagine the intersectional effects of what is femaleness, Blackness, queerness, and mental illness. Taylor studied Psychology and Social Welfare and Justice at Marquette University and obtained her Masters Degree in Education from Johns Hopkins University. While she teaches early childhood special education during the day, she is an executive function coach for the older students and a writer by night. She has published with Blavity, Kalopsia Lit, Free Your Mind, Body & Soul Inc., So To Speak Journal, and has been featured on the Homecoming Podcast with Dr. Thema. Taylor hopes to continue sharing her art through performance at open mics as well as writing for therapy and social justice. When Taylor is not writing, teaching, or coaching, she is outside walking (preferably with a furry friend), biking, hiking, kayaking, finding a new hole in the wall to enjoy a fabulous meal or sitting in her cute one bedroom apartment either reading, painting, or overthinking, like most millennials do.