Calvin Taylor

About Me

I am three generations removed from the slave plantation economy in the southern US, which was the combined institution of European colonialism and its slave trade with Africa. My Ancestry.com DNA map looks like a map of this economic system: a mix of those African countries from which the slaves came, their European masters, and the intersection with the indigenous peoples of Mexico, Bolivia, and Peru, also affected by colonization.

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My social advocacy began at a young age. I was born in the middle of the civil rights movement. I participated in the first efforts to integrate the public schools of Memphis, Tennessee. I worked as a high school student aide with the Memphis Urban League, fighting for black equality. In college, I was a founding member of the first Gay social club on the Dartmouth College campus. As an openly gay corporate executive, I joined the Human Rights Committee to fight for gay employees in the workplace.

As a kid, I was recognized as a gifted artist and enrolled in a Saturday Art School program. However, I could not envision a career in art, so I chose a corporate sales and marketing path, which proved financially rewarding but did not satisfy my creative aspirations.

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I am now retired and have chosen to help starving artists. My efforts are purely volunteer and often require funding sales and marketing efforts out of my own pocket. Quite simply, I want to help artists get paid for their skills and talents. To that end, I have joined a group of emerging artists and hope to bring my business acumen to advance their careers and bring well-paying projects to the table.

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