Felicia Taylor E.: The Pandemic Relationship
Author, actress, and arts facilitator Felicia Taylor E.’s project The Pandemic Relationship launched a series of poetry and creative writing sessions titled “2020: Where you a Hermit? (Did you Thrive?)”. The project focused on the symbiotic experiences of people moving through the Pandemic and how the relationship had mutual benefits in some ways, even through its destruction. With a streamline of poetic and creative writings by brave participants, Felicia encapsulated the rawness and accounts of 2020 and the years after.
This multidisciplinary project gathered Pasadena community members of all ages to participate in two virtual poetic and creative writing sessions in early April of 2023 titled, “2020: Were you a Hermit? (Did you Thrive?)” to share their triumphs, pains, and joys of these past years during the Pandemic and channel their stories through writing. Felicia also hosted one final workshop in-person at the Pasadena Senior Center with the intention to capture the voices of the elderly, and their lived experiences during such unprecedented and frighting times.
The project culminated with an evening event at Boston Court Pasadena in early May 2023 filled with collaborative storytelling, created by Taylor E., along with incorporating words and memories from the writers of the community workshop. Guided and narrated by the artist, she shared stories of struggle, resilience, and evolution through the times of 2020 and beyond. Joining her were ten participants of the writer's workshop series. Helping to share those moments of history were musician Joshua Duran and dancer/choreographer Beatriz Eugenia Vasquez. Felicia also installed a small exhibition of handwritten pieces produced by participants for the day.
Check out the video below of a few participants reading their work:
This project is made possible with the support of The Cultural Affairs Division of the City of Pasadena and the Arts and Culture Commission.
BIO
Felicia Taylor E. is a poet, writer, actor, arts educator, and author of “Southern Spiced: A Brown Girl’s Tale,” a Readers Choice Best Book Award “Finalist” 2022. And also on tour in a special exhibition with Michigan State University.
Her poetry and stories have been showcased in Los Angeles Poetry Anthology, Poets & Writers, and Los Angeles Poet Society and presented at museums, libraries, and theaters, such as the Sims Library of Poetry, USC Pacific Asia Museum, The Huntington Library & Arts Museum, Pasadena History Museum, the Fullerton Museum, and the Boston Court Theater.
She believes that the human spirit can connect and heal through the creative expression of poetry, journal writing, art, and performance.
Follow Felicia Taylor E. on Instagram @feliciae_writer and www.southernspicedabrowngirlstale.com.
In 2022, Felicia Taylor E. was invited to “develop a project with the clear intention of interdependent multigenerational engagement and sanctuary in the community of Pasadena” based on SSP’s Artist Residency theme “Symbionts: Organisms living in symbiosis”.