Orville Lloyd Douglas
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Orville Lloyd Douglas (born September 26, 1976) is a Canadian poet and writer. His work concentrates on class, creative non fiction,gender, pop culture, politics, race, and sexuality.
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[edit] Biography
Orville Lloyd Douglas was born in Toronto, Ontario Canada to Jamaican-Canadian parents. He graduated from York University with a B.A. degree in history in June 2004.
He has contributed to several Canadian and international publications, including Word Magazine, The New Zealand Herald, Georgia Straight, The Toronto Star, Xtra!, NOW and The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Douglas' first volume of poetry, You Don't Know Me, was published by TSAR with typographical and spelling errors. The volume is no longer in print. The poetry collection explored many polemical issues such as death, unhappiness, suicide, depression, identity, love, homophobia in Caribbean culture, and gay racism. Although Orville Lloyd Douglas was extremely angered, depressed, at the edge of despair, and distraught at the initial overall quality of the poetry collection,[1] You Don't Know Me reached over one hundred and thirty public and university libraries worldwide in New Zealand, England, Canada, Australia, and the United States.[2] [3]
In 2007, Douglas' fifteen minute radio documentary "The Good Son" was broadcast across Canada on the CBC Radio One program Outfront. The first section of the documentary was an interwoven quilt of Douglas reading his poetry and interviewing his father. The second part of the documentary was a monologue as Douglas talks about his frustrations. He explores issues such as homophobia in the black community, the pernicious hypocrisy and gay racism in the homosexual culture, heterosexual marriage, family discord, and racism against young, gay black men.
Douglas' poetry has been featured in the Wilderness House Literary Review, SNR Review, The Vermillion Literary Project,Pedestal Magazine, and Seminal (2007), the first anthology of gay male Canadian poetry.
In the essay "Shades of Blackface", published in The New Zealand Herald, Douglas criticizes Angelina Jolie for taking the female lead in the film A Mighty Heart. Douglas argues that since the real Mariane Pearl is what he terms a "bi-racial" woman an actress of similar heritage such as Thandie Newton should have had the role instead of a white actress.
He also expands his thoughts about Hollywood racism and sexism against black women in The Georgia Straight opinion article "Is White the New Black?"
[edit] Bibliography
- You Don't Know Me (2005)
[edit] Radio documentaries
- "The Good Son" - CBC Radio - 2007
