Outspoken word
Literary
By Ardith Racey
Patrick Shannon
Abena Beloved Green
is no stranger to odes and accolades. Her most recent publication, titled Ode to the Unpraised (Pottersfield Press, 2020) is a testament to the lives and stories of 26 women – friends and family of Green’s – whose stories would not otherwise be told. “After a missed opportunity to gather her grandmother’s personal reflections,” Green decided to collect and reflect about the lives and issues of multigenerational women from Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Ghana. The work first transcribes brief conversations about everything from housework to courage, and Green’s poems provide an additional layer of meaning that is a “mix of their words, a response to what they said or something previously written.” The result is an empowering read that offers insights in recorded prose conversations and Green’s own poetry about the “personal essence” of being female. Green recently moved to the Quinte area. She grew up in Nova Scotia and spent a “year abroad in Ghana” which
“Poetry – both written and spoken - is about saying exactly what I’m trying to say. Dance is a way to convey meaning for things for which you have not yet formed the words.” she considers “the best year of [her] life.” It was during this time that she took a creative writing course at the University in Ghana and was inspired by a teacher who told her not to adopt other people’s fears as your own. The same teacher also admonished her for wordiness – a lesson 36
