J’can author aims to inspire young writers
Published:Thursday | August 4, 2022 | 12:08 AM
Ignited by a passion to educate the nation’s youth, multi-award-winning author Danijah Taylor is driven to further develop Studio Dan, a creative hub he founded in order to produce children’s books.
He wants to stock bookshelves in school libraries and to supply the international market.
“It’s all about helping the youths to realise the purpose that they have inside,” Taylor told the Gleaner recently.
By September, he hopes to get his content into the hands of children from the early-childhood stage to the secondary level as he continues to grow his business.
Studio Dan was first founded in 2017. Its aim is to allow for the self-publication of authentic Jamaican and Afrocentric stories written in Jamaican Patois.
The stories are focused on everyday issues that children face, such as being bullied, and have some elements and thematic concerns which reflect aspects of the Jamaican society.
Eight of these stories have been published with the National Library of Jamaica. The 2016 short story titled Orlando Jack, along with the 2017 short stories Odaedah Guardians and Gods, Zabiti and Zemi Demi and Work! Studio Dan’s Ananse Story, written in 2019, all won first prize in the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) writing competitions.
Taylor developed his first ‘edutainment’ initiative, Pen Powerment Writing4LIFE, as a member of the Life Yard Collective.
The initiative, which blended the concepts of education, culture, technology, art and entertainment, allowed at-risk children age six to 16 years old to participate in creative writing workshops for free with the help of volunteers.
Through this initiative, Taylor and his team compiled the stories that were created and made them available for purchase. The proceeds were given over to the young authors.
This, he said, gives the “voiceless” a platform to be heard and improves their self-esteem.
The St Catherine native, hailing from Portmore, says he aspires to become a household name and to continue to promote positivity.
He added that he intends to leave a lasting legacy for the children he intends to have in the future.
Taylor has so far impacted youth from Parade Gardens, Trench Town, Rose Gardens, and other inner-city communities through utilising puppets, animated videos and books to teach them.
“It’s always [about] the end product, which is the youths [and] how well them develop, how well them take on to the material,” he said of his most memorable experiences through the programmes.
He says it is inspiring to witness the growth in these children, from them being unable to read or write at the level that they should, to then progressing.
Taylor may be found on Instagram @writinggod or dandanijah@gmail.com.
Books may be viewed at penpowerment.org.