Opal Palmer Adisa – författare

4-Headed Woman is a journey into and through womanhood—from preadolescence through menopause—and an exploration of women’s relations with one another. The poems employ female domestic imagery, manifest in the titles in the book’s first section, which name different types of breads found throughout the world—from coconut to pita. Yet many of these poems are sparse and abstract in their trajectory. The poems in the second section focus specifically on menses, weaving together biological, folk, and cultural aspects in a humorous tone. The third section, “Graffiti Poem,” comprises poems centered around college restrooms, which Adisa sees as a site of communication—through graffiti among other means—for students on a wide variety of social-sexual issues. In 4-Headed Woman, Adisa bravely explores and uncovers taboos about womanhood in a controlled and at times lyrical style laced with humor.

Miss Lou had the instinctive wisdom to relatelanguage to identity. As a people who have long since lost our identity, wecontinue to search for it.There is an interrelationship between language – thewords we use – and our identity. In that regard, Miss Lou helped us to rememberwho we are. However, mental slavery is still with us. While we continue to denyour own language, our way of expressing ourselves, there is no escaping thefact that our language is part of our identity as Jamaicans.Although a lot of our unique cultural DNAdisappeared during the Middle Passage, Miss Lou had the wisdom and the courageto grasp what remained of that DNA and give voice to the voiceless. She did itwith such decisiveness that I have lived to see the day when Patwa, or JamaicanLanguage as it is properly called, has taken its rightful place as an importantpart of our identity.That is Miss Lou’s legacy. - Beverly Manley-Duncan