With strength and resilience, Africans have persevered through the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and were able to rebuild a life after slavery while enduring the inhumane conditions of the civil rights Jim Crow era forced upon them by the African diaspora. The lack of acknowledgement of the generational trauma these events have had on their descendants continues to create further injury. Even today, barriers prevent their healing and transition from survival to a thriving existence.

Unspoken Truth is a bold collection of poetry highlighting the generational pain of Africans living in the diaspora. Through her poems, Bowden creates a panoramic view of the terrible conditions they endured for centuries. Deliberately, with dignity, she brings the trauma stories of African Nova Scotians told around kitchen tables for decades to the homes of readers while restoring the balance of humanity and royalty from which the African journey began. Despite all odds, they were able to preserve their lineage and lean on the resilience buried deep in their souls while passing this pride, culture, and strength on to future generations so they may one day fulfill the hopes and the dreams of the former slaves.

This collection seeks to spark the necessary conversations the larger society needs to engage in around the perseverance of systemic racism, a society now grappling to make the connections between historical trauma and current-day conditions of inequality. It summons the conscience of every reader to acknowledge the truth and reconcile it with their own dissonance. The poems pay homage to the ancestors, honour the elders, and provide inspiration for the youth so they can heal from this historical inheritance and build upon their own narratives.

Angela Bowden is an African Nova Scotian poet, author, TEDx speaker, writer, and activist. A descendent of the stolen Africans sold through the transatlantic slave trade, her roots were preserved through the Black Loyalists? arrival in Birchtown and subsequent migrations to Guysborough County and New Glasgow, where she was born and raised. Her ongoing work and published book of poetry, UnSpoken Truth: unmuted and unfiltered, highlights, documents, and challenges systemic and overt racism entrenched in Nova Scotia. A strong advocate of self-care, she encourages self-love, self-empowerment, deep healing, and change. Angela writes in many genres; Black Girl, Black Girl is her first children's book.

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