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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

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.

A former book reviewer for the Toronto hip hop publication Word Magazine, Douglas has contributed to several Canadian and international publications, including 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. In May 2005 Douglas asked the publiisher of TSAR Nurjehan Aziz about hiring a copy editor and Aziz refused. Aziz told Douglas "so what there are just a couple of errors". After the publication of You Don't Know Me Douglas asked for a terminaiton agreement he was disgusted with Nurjehan Aziz lack of class and character. The rights of the book to revert back to him on July 13th 2005. Douglas was unimpressed with the unprofessionalism of Aziz and her husband Giller Prize winning author M.G. Vassanji. The volume is no longer in print. The poetry collection explored many issues such as depression, identity, suicide,love, homophobia in Caribbean culture, and gay racism. Although Douglas was extremely angered, depressed, and distraught at the initial overall quality of the poetry collection, You Don't Know Me reached over one hundred public and university libraries worldwide in New Zealand, England, Canada, Australia, and the United States.

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' poetry has been featured in the Wilderness House Literary Review,The Vermillion Literary Project, 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 a biracial 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?"

Bibliography

• You Don't Know Me (2005)

Radio documentaries

• "The Good Son" - CBC Radio - 2007

References

1. "AngrygayblackCanadianman". Retrieved 2007-12-01.
2. "Worldcat record for You don't know me".
3. {{cite web | title = British Library record for You don't know me |url=http://catalogue.bl.uk/F/ENBR345Y6FYP5JMBH7DCLJLMC1CDBQYIIT66EFT52M532L4ICG-15841?func=full-set-set&set_number=150133&set_entry=000001&format=999

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
• LGBT writers from Canada
• Gay writers