Some of Taylor Scott’s earliest memories revolve around penning poetry in elementary school inspired by famous names like Maya Angelou. Though she can’t remember all the poems she scribbled into her notebooks and journals, she still holds some lines close.
“One line that I was so proud of was about a body of water that was close to the house that I grew up in,” she recalls. “‘The lake that night had been framed.’ I don’t know why that still sticks with me. That’s one of the earliest lines I remember writing as a poet before identifying as a poet.”
Today, that spark for writing has turned into a crackling fire as Scott continues to create with words. Now, she fully identifies as an artist. Her work even earned her the title of the 2023-2024 Baton Rouge Poet Laureate, a program coordinated by the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge. In this role, Scott was able to help inspire young writers through talks and workshops while advocating for literacy in the community.
“My tagline as poet laureate was, ‘Just keep writing,’” she says, acknowledging that she first heard the phrase from a poet friend. “Because one day you will be in a position where your writing is working for you. … I wanted to be a beacon of light for (young writers).”
“Home sits on the edge of our skin but the air here is different. The way dirt clings to pores like Africa in America.”
[Taylor Scott]
Scott spends a lot of her time encouraging her own students, too, through her job as an assistant professor at Southern University. She teaches classes focused on African American literature. Scott says her classes are usually full, which she attributes to students being interested in the subject matter and the openness and relatability she tries to foster in the classroom.
With so much on her plate, Scott admits it can be hard to stay creative. When she does get time off through university breaks, the Baton Rouge native likes to take trips to the Midwest. The region is where she earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and where many members of her creative community are based.
It’s also where Scott weaves words through music with her contemporary blues band, Tilla. The band has released EPs and held a residency at a venue in Wisconsin.
“My bandmates, that’s my family. … When we come together, the energy is always unmatched,” she says.
Still, Scott holds a lot of love for her hometown. The Capital City is where inspiration first struck, and Scott still hunkers down in local coffee shops to work and create.
Here, she feels she has been supported as a poet. In the future, she hopes her music will be received in the Capital Region as well as it has been in the Midwest.
“70805 is where I grew up,” she says. “I definitely think that those experiences growing up there and my interactions with people influenced what I wrote about and how I wrote about them. … That cadence of the way that people speak, it’s very musical. Even that influences what I do, not only as a poet, but as a songwriter and musician.”
This article was originally published in the January 2025 issue of 225 Magazine.
