The Body Is Not An Apology’s content and message have changed the lives of millions of people across the world, transforming how we live in and relate to our bodies and the bodies of others and helping us shift from a relationship of shame and injustice to a relationship bound by radical love. TBINAA is proud to offer unique transformational workshops, lectures, and retreats for groups and individuals interested in bringing life-affirming art and healing to their communities. Facilitated by TBINAA’s award-winning founder Sonya Renee Taylor, these powerful events launch folks’ journey to radical unapologetic living.

About Sonya

Sonya Renee Taylor is a world-renowned activist, best-selling author, award-winning artist, spiritual, transformational thought leader, and founder of The Body Is Not an Apology, an international movement and digital media and education company exploring the intersections of identity, healing, and social justice using the framework of radical self-love. Sonya is the author of six books, including New York Times bestseller The Body is Not an Apology:The Power of Radical Self Love 1st and 2nd editions, Your Body is Not An Apology Workbook, Celebrate Your Body (and Its Changes, Too!), The Book of Radical Answers (That I Know You Already Know) (Dial Press 2022) and co-editor of The International Handbook of Fat Studies (Routledge 2021).

Believing in the power of radical love as the foundational necessity for sustainable social change, Sonya has had a storied career as a change agent at the intersection of art, culture and justice work. Sonya graduated from the Pittsburgh High School for Creative and Performing Arts as a musical theater major in 1995. She was named one of Planned Parenthood’s 99 Dream Keepers in 2015 as well as a Planned Parenthood Generation Action’s 2015 Outstanding Partner awardee. Bustle Magazine named her one of the 12 Women Who Paved the Way for Body Positivity. In September 2015, she was honored as a YBCA 100, an annual compilation of creative minds, makers, and pioneers who are asking the questions and making the provocations that will shape the future of American culture. This was an honor she shared alongside author Ta’Nahesi Coates, artist Kara Walker, filmmaker Ava DuVernay, and many more.

In 2016, Sonya was named a Champion of Women’s Health by Planned Parenthood and commissioned to write the official poem for Planned Parenthood’s 100-year centennial celebration. In the same year, Sonya was also invited to the Obama White House to speak at their forum on the intersection of LGBTQIAA and Disability issues. In 2017, Sonya was awarded the Quixote Foundation’s Thank You Note, a $25,000 award for leaders and artists working in the field of reproductive justice. That fall, she was named one of 28 global changemakers selected into the inaugural cohort of the New Zealand-based Edmund Hilary Fellowship, a 3-year international fellowship of world-leading entrepreneurs and investors innovating purpose-driven global impact projects.

Sonya’s work has been seen, heard, and read on HBO, BET, MTV, TV One, NPR, PBS, CNN, Oxygen Network, The New York Times, New York Magazine, MSNBC.com, Today.com, Huffington Post, USA Today, Vogue Australia, Shape.com, Ms. Magazine and many more. She is a regular collaborator and artist with organizations such as Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Advocates for Youth 1in3 Campaign, Association for Size Diversity and Health, Binge Eating Disorders Association (BEDA), Greater than AIDS Campaign, Yerba Buena Cultural Art Center, and numerous others.

With a B.A. in Sociology and an M.S.A. in Organizational Management, Sonya continues to use her work to disrupt systems of inequity from an intersectional, radical self-love and global justice framework. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Split This Rock, an organization calling poets to a greater role in public life and fostering a national network of socially engaged poets. Additionally, she serves on the Board of Directors for SisterSong, a pioneering Women of Color reproductive justice collective. Sonya continues to be engaged in issues of racial justice, police brutality, mental health, reproductive rights and justice, and much more.

After spending decades as an award-winning performance poet and international poetry slam champion, in 2011, Sonya founded The Body is Not An Apology as an online community to cultivate radical self-love and body empowerment. TBINAA quickly became a movement and leading framework for exploring and understanding bodies. In 2015, The Body is Not An Apology developed a digital magazine and education and community-building platform to connect global issues of radical self-love with intersectional social justice. Today, TBINAA is a digital media enterprise reaching nearly 1 million people per month from over 140 countries.

Sonya resides in Aotearoa / New Zealand and continues to tour globally, sharing lectures, workshops and performances focused on radical self-love, social justice, and personal and global transformation.

To book Sonya for your event or organization, please contact her here.