“Head of the Class” (Taylor Scott)

Hailing from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Taylor Scott is a writer, performance artist, and director. She found a love for performance when she joined the youth spoken word scene in high school through Forward Arts, where she is now a teaching artist. Taylor graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a BA in Communications. She received a full-tuition scholarship from UW’s First Wave program, the only collegiate hip hop and spoken word community of its kind in the country. Taylor has graced many stages including the Little Amsterdam Theatre on Broadway, Contacting the World Theatre in Manchester, England, and Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. She directed the Bellhops, a Madison-based blues and hip hop theatre ensemble, for two and a half years. In 2014, the Bellhops premiered Honey In My Tea, a 45-minute production that centers the narratives of black women, at the Overture Center for the Arts. The following year, the Bellhops released a 6-track EP, Hero of My Own Tale, which you can find on Bandcamp. Currently, Taylor is a graduate student in LSU’s English program, and is a recipient of the Perkins Fellowship. Her research interest includes global Shakespeare and the performative study of black literary practices/texts.