#garen abel unokan

[garenabelunokan]

I wrote for Refinery29 UK about how reading tarot for a psychic hotline changed my outlook. enjoy!

#tarot #divination #witchcraft #witchblr #tarotcommunity #tarot cards #garen abel unokan #garenabelunokan #reading tarot #refinery29 #refinery29 UK #writing #writeblr

[nazsefik]

“Persephone Lied”

The truth is, I was bored. My mother blissing ahead of me, rosebuds rising in her footsteps, And I skulking behind, thinking, Oh look. She walks in beauty. Again.

Her power could boil rivers, if she chose. She doesn’t choose. She scatters Heliotrope behind her.

And me, I’ve no powers. I think she’d like A decorative daughter. A link to the humans She feeds with her scattered wheat. A daughter wed to a swineherd’s just the thing To show that Demeter’s a down-to-earth Kind of goddess.

Do you know what swineherds talk about? Swine. Diseases of, ways to cook; “That ‘un’s got no milk for ‘er shoats; Him, there, he’s got boggy trotters.”

And when he leaned in, smiling, While we sat in a bower sagged with Mother’s honeysuckle, When he said, “Now, My herd’s growing and I’m thinking I could feed a wife—” That’s when I snapped, I howled, I ran.

And when a hole opened up, a beautiful black, in all the pastels of my mother’s sowing. Let me fix the lie: Nobody grabbed, nobody pulled. I jumped.

I thought it was a tiny earthquake, Thought I was killing myself, Starting a long journey to Hades. It was a more direct trip Then I’d imagined— I landed in his lap.

He just looked at me, said “Well,” And kept driving his chariot down, Flicked his leather reins near my face. He did not give me flowers. He never spoke of pigs.

Didn’t speak much at all. Just took me down in darkness And did dark things. I liked them.

I stumbled through his grey gardens, after, Sore and smiling. And the gardener said, “Little girl, Little sunlit flower, You belong in the world above. Trust that they’ll come for nyou, But while you wait Don’t eat the food of the dead, for it will trap you here.” And I said give me the fucking fruit.

But when I ate I could hear her howling, See her spreading winter on the world. My poor mother, who missed me after all; My poor swineherd, starving. Huddled up for warmth with the few he hadn’t eaten.

I spat out half the seeds.

So now I suffer through the summers, Smile at the swineherd who tells me Which shoat is off its feed. Smile at my mother and walk behind her. My powers have come to me now, and in her candy-colored wake I scatter Sundew and flytrap, nettles and belladonna.

I smile and wait for November, For when I come back to you. Your clever cold hands and your hard black boots. I don’t ask what the leather is made from. I don’t think I want to know.

#Garen Abel Unokan #poem #Poetry Magazine #m #persephone #greek mythology

[queeringshakespeare]

Interview with Garen Abel Unokan

In what will hopefully be an ongoing series, I have been talking to queer Shakespearean actors and asking them a set of five questions about queerness and marginalised identities in the Shakespeare industry.

This interview was conducted with 22-year-old Garen Abel Unokan, who played Titania in the Royal Holloway, University of London production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. She has since taken part in National Youth Theatre and her blog can be found here.

1. How did you first become interested in performing Shakespeare?

In sixth form! I realized that I was about to go my whole dramatic career at school without ever doing any Shakespeare, and I was determined to actually do some Shakespeare when I got to university. We did readings of Romeo and Juliet and Othello in class, but I think the first inklings of 'Oh gosh I really want to perform these texts' were sown when I saw the version of Much Ado About Nothing with Emma Thompson and Denzel Washington and Keanu Reeves. It's fresh and funny and brilliant, and I'm a huge fan of the casting. It's still my favourite adaptation/interpretation of anything ever to be honest, not just Shakespeare.

2. Did you bring elements of queerness into your conception of the character you played? If so, please give an example.

Honestly, not consciously. I liked that with Titania, that I could interact with other women on stage and focus on those platonic relationships, because a lot of the time, given the choice between two plays, directors often chose the one with more men (because most of the big names on campus were men, let's be honest). I did play across gender when I played Angus, though, and after not really liking my performance when attempting to be more masculine, I tried to be more neutral/androgynous.

(Questions continued below the Read More)

3. Were you aware of a history of queer Shakespeare (either in performance or academia)?

I was actually about to answer no to this, but then I realized I remembered when I was in year ten we talked about Shakespeare's bisexuality because of his poems about "the fair boy" and "the dark lady". The intense, almost romantic friendship between Antonio and Bassanio in Merchant of Venice and Viola's cross-dressing inTwelfth Night were also discussed. So I'd been aware of queerness in the text, but not of performance or academia, mostly because of access to those things.

4. What do you think can be done for more queer visibility in Shakespearean performance?

More inventive casting! I find this especially with stagings that are modernizing the text; there's no reason for relationships to always be heterosexual (or even romantic; it would very interesting to see a marriage that's viewed as romantic from the outside, but is aromantic on both sides). That and bringing out queerness that's already in the text rather than shying away from it/making it an undertone.

5. Do you feel that Shakespearean performance is accessible for marginalised people? (Note: This includes queer people, people of colour, disabled people, etc.)

Hmmmmmm a little bit? I think the £5 tickets at The Globe are quite good if you're working class/poor, but maybe not so great if you're disabled? I know a lot of theatres do stage Shakespeare plays with casts of exclusively people of colour, or if not, then some of the main characters will be; a couple of years ago i think it was RSC who did a version of Julius Caesar that was set in a fictional African country, so the entire cast was black, as well as the Much Ado with Meera Syal, where all the actors were south Asian.

I think again with disability, there needs to be more imagination and a willingness on able-bodied people's part to not be catered to directly all the time. Like, we could stage plays where in addition to dialogue being acted verbally, actors could learn to sign as well, and incorporate those gestures into the acting or maybe using cinema screens for hard of hearing folk.

Again I think accessibility pretty low for some disabled people just because of the actual spaces in which theatre takes place – a lot of those buildings are old as balls, and therefore don't have very good access for those with limited/no mobility. Maybe more theatre outside? Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park in the summer would be the PERFECT place for Midsummer Night's Dream.

I think playmakers should also consult with marginalized groups more/we should have more marginalized folk AS playmakers.

#shakespeare #queer shakespeare #midsummer nights dream #titania #garen abel unokan #queeringshakespeare #interviews

[garenabelunokan]

“If John Boyega were your boyfriend, the two of you would develop a language composed entirely of facial expressions. A slow blink at the same time would translate to “We have to go home right now.” You’d never stay at parties longer than you had to.”

#john boyega #the toast #if x were your boyfriend #garen abel unokan #garenabelunokan

[garenabelunokan]

me for Allrecipes! dive in and pretend it’s still summer — oh wait it’s going to be 15 degrees in glasgow this week it might as well be still be august

#garen abel unokan #my work #writing #food writing #burgers

[garenabelunokan]

I wrote about migration and climate change through the lens of tropical houseplants for Scottish BPOC Writers’ Network. link above!

#garen abel unokan #my work #writing #houseplants #migration #climate change

[garenabelunokan]

I actually wrote this in September 2016, but the summer holidays are here, and then Christmas launches next month/October, and anyone who works retail will not know peace until January, so it’s still relevant

#garen abel unokan #my work #writing #retail

[garenabelunokan]

I always quietly pray that cat-callers will turn into deer. or at least get a very bad, violent headache, that would be nice

[garenabelunokan]

i wrote a personal essay about natural hair care and depression for Black Ballad

#writing #garen abel unokan