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Orville Lloyd Douglas (born September 26 1976) is a Canadian poet and writer. His work concentrates on class, gender, pop culture, race, and sexuality.

Biography

Douglas was born in Toronto, Ontario to Jamaican-Canadian parents. He graduated from York University with a B.A. degree in history in June 2004.

A former book reviewer for the Toronto hip hop publication Word Magazine, Douglas has contributed to several Canadian and international publications, including 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. Douglas was disgusted with the unprofessionalism of Nurjehan Aziz the publisher of TSAR Publications. In May 2005 Aziz told Douglas "so what its just a couple of errors." When Douglas wanted to discuss his concerns about the book. Douglas was shocked at the deleterious actions of TSAR and immediately asked for a termination agreeement. A termination agreement was later reached on July 13th 2005 between Douglas and TSAR and the rights of the collection reverted back to Douglas.

You Don't Know Me is no longer in print. Although Douglas was extremely angered, depressed, and distraught at the initial overall quality of the poetry collection,, it still reached an international audience in New Zealand, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The poetry explores issues such as family discord, depression, love, homophobia. The collection also investigates topics such as the hypocrisy and racism of the mainstream gay community, and homophobia in Caribbean culture.

Douglas' poetry has been featured in The Vermillion Literary Project and Seminal (2007), the first anthology of gay male Canadian poetry.

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, heterosexual marriage, family discord, and racism against young, gay black men.

Douglas turned his attention to pop culture because he believes it forms, shapes, and has a strong presence in our lives. In the controversial and explosive 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 of had the role instead of a white actress.

Douglas challenges the white liberal Hollywood images of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in his piece "Is White The New Black?" Douglas perspective is Jolie and Pitt are profiting from exploiting the image of blackness for publicity. He also expands his thoughts about Hollywood racism and sexism against black women in The Georgia Straight opinion article "Is White the New Black?"

Bibliography

• You Don't Know Me (2005)

Radio documentaries

• "The Good Son" - CBC Radio - 2007

References

1. ^ "AngrygayblackCanadianman". Retrieved 2007-12-01.

External links

• Douglas' personal website
• 2005 Xtra interview with Douglas
• Douglas' "Shades of Blackface" essay in The New Zealand Herald
• Douglas' "Is White The New Black?" article in The Georgia Straight

• 1976 births
• Canadian poets
• Canadian journalists
• Black Canadians
• Canadians of Jamaican descent
• People from Toronto
• Living people