Cheryl Allison Boyce-Taylor (born 1950) is a Trinidadian poet, teaching artist, and theatre performer who lives in Brooklyn, New York. Boyce-Taylor has published several full-length poetry monographs including early works ''As A Woman I Laugh and Cry: Poems'', ''Birthsounds, Rhythms and Other Contractions''; five collections of poetry; and an award-winning verse memoir dedicated to her son. She is the mother of late African-American hip hop artiste Malik Izaak Taylor aka

Phife Dawg Malik Izaak Taylor (November 20, 1970March 22, 2016), known professionally as Phife Dawg (or simply Phife), was an American rapper and a member of the group A Tribe Called Quest with Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad (and for a short time Jarobi W ...

A Tribe Called Quest A Tribe Called Quest was an American hip hop group formed in Queens, New York City, in 1985,Q-Tip

Biography

Early years and Education

Cheryl Boyce-Taylor was born in Arima, Trinidad and Tobago on the 6th of December 1950. Her early years were spent honing a love for poetry in the footsteps of her mother who was a regular winner of poetry recitation contests during her own school days. In primary school, Boyce-Taylor recalls learning Shelley, Keats, and Shakespeare, but it was through the political and social musings of calypsonians and through the sound of the steel pan that Boyce-Taylor realized the power of poetry to reflect her life. At the age of 13, Cheryl Boyce-Taylor moved to the St Albans neighborhood of Queens, New York, and attended the Bronx-Manhattan Seventh Day Adventist School in the Bronx. After graduation, she worked as a file clerk and completed an undergraduate degree at City College of New York in Theatre. She then earned a Masters of Fine Art in Poetry from Stonecoast: The University of Southern Maine, and a Masters of Social Work from Fordham University.

Works

Cheryl Boyce—Taylor is the author of 5 poetry collections with another scheduled for 2022. She co-founded an all-lesbian women's performance group, the Stations Collective, which included Dorothy Randall Gray,

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, Storme Webber, and Hadley Mays, to perform

Audre Lorde Audre Lorde (; born Audrey Geraldine Lorde; February 18, 1934 – November 17, 1992) was an American writer, womanist, radical feminist, professor, and civil rights activist. She was a self-described "black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet," who ...

’s work in the late 1980s. Cheryl Boyce-Taylor founded the Calypso Muse Reading Series in 1994 and is the creator of the Glitter Pomegranate Performance Series. Boyce-Taylor was a poetry judge for the

New York Foundation for the Arts The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is an independent 501(c)(3) charity, funded through government, foundation, corporate, and individual support, established in 1971. It is part of a network of national not-for-profit arts organizations ...

and the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, and has performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Aaron Davis Hall, The Bowery Poetry Club, The African Poetry Theatre, Lincoln Center, and Celebrate Brooklyn! in Prospect Park. Cheryl Boyce-Taylor frequently performed at

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. She also has facilitated poetry workshops for

Cave Canem Foundation Cave Canem Foundation is an American 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1996 by poets Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady to remedy the underrepresentation and isolation of African-American poets in Master of Fine Arts (MFA) programs and writing wor ...

and Poets & Writers.

Honours and recognition

In 1994, Cheryl Boyce-Taylor was the first Caribbean woman to present her work in Trinidadian dialect at the National Poetry Slam. She has toured the United States as a road poet with Lollapalooza and performed for Mamapolooza in New York City. Boyce-Taylor's work has been commissioned by The Joyce Theater, and the National Endowment for the Arts for Ronald K. Brown: Evidence, A Dance Company. She is a recipient of the Partners in Writing Grant and served as Poet in Residence at the Caribbean Literary and Cultural Center in Brooklyn and as a VONA fellow.

Awards

* 2015 Barnes and Noble Writers for Writers Award * 2018 Paterson Poetry Prize (finalist) * 2022 The Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry by The Publishing Triangle

Personal life

In 1970, Boyce-Taylor married childhood friend Walt Taylor whose family lived on the same street as hers in Arima, Trinidad. They had a son, Malik Isaac Taylor (rapper

of the rap group

A Tribe Called Quest A Tribe Called Quest was an American hip hop group formed in Queens, New York City, in 1985,Q-Tip

), who was born premature, and whose twin, Mikal, died only a few hours after birth. Cheryl and Walt later divorced. Boyce-Taylor, who has been with her partner, Ceni, for over 2 decades has been open about her journey in becoming an out lesbian, which included the difficult time when she had to tell her husband. Cheryl Boyce-Taylor currently lives in Brooklyn, New York with her long-time partner, Ceni.