proud.
Liana Nanang
Liana Nanang is a multidisciplinary storyteller with Black-Bermudian, Iban-Malaysian and British parentage. She is the founder of Unstoried. Liana won Best Columnist in the 2017 Best of Bermuda Awards. Her first book Menoa: Ancestral Healing for Trauma, Addiction and Mental Illness will be published internationally on Emancipation Day 2023. She is working on her memoir Tell Me My Name. She has both artwork and poetry in the 2022 Bermuda Biennial.
She says: “Each of my submissions claims part of my story.
proud. In 2021, I reclaimed my maternal indigenous Borneo surname as I could no longer retain an enslaver’s brand on my identity. This poem challenges us to consider what it means to be Bermudian.
yellow. An anti-Black term of endearment. A sign of long-term alcoholism. The effects of a suicide attempt. The predation of young women. The cycle continues.
latchkey lot. A snapshot of the vulnerability of childhood. Our proximity to one another means the past is always present.”