Call it destiny, divine timing or a gentle nudge from above, whatever it was, Janae Greene believes she was meant to write That Ain’t My Name and take it all the way to the National Independence Festival of Creative Arts (NIFCA) Theatre Arts Finals.
The bronze award winner told Weekend Buzz earlier this week that the persistent and troubling issue of harassment and catcalling faced by girls and young women in Barbados had been weighing heavily on her long before she ever stepped onto a NIFCA stage.
What made the poem resonate so deeply was her unapologetic use of Barbadian dialect, imagery and humour. From the beginning, Janae knew authenticity was key.
“It’s almost as if sexual harassment has become a part of Barbadian culture so, I knew everybody would know what I’m talking about,” she said, drawing on both her own experiences and those of women close to her.
Ironically, spoken word performance was never part of the plan. Janae said she was content writing quietly, keeping her poems tucked away on her phone.
“I had always been interested in poetry and literary arts. I was writing from secondary school, but I would write down and type them on my phone and just keep them there. They started to compile but I never really thought it would come from the shadows. I had no intention for it being a visible thing.”
Switch
Her first step onto a stage came almost by accident in 2024, when she entered the Love Safely competition.
“That was the first time I had ever done poetry on a stage, read anything I wrote. That was the very first time.”
After that, she stepped back – or so she thought.
A year later, she found herself entering her church’s Youth Got Talent competition, not out of ambition, but necessity.
“I didn’t want to do this, and I was racking my brain trying to figure out, what else could I possibly do . . . . And then the Lord was, like, spoken word. I was very confused because I had never done it.”
Though she didn’t advance to the finals, Janae said the experience changed her perspective entirely.
“Then I realised the purpose of it for me, wasn’t to make it to the finals. It was just to, like, turn on the switch in my brain that I have this capacity.”
That “switch” stayed on. Within months, she was performing repeatedly, each time more confident than the last.
“All of that happened because of that one moment of me deciding that, yes, I will go in, I will be obedient, even though I was terrified and do the spoken word piece.”
Her message
The idea of NIFCA came next – and terrified her all over again.
“I looked at her like, ‘you’ve got to be kidding me’ . . . there was no way I was going to do something like that again.”
But the thought wouldn’t leave her alone. “As a Christian, I pray about everything, so I was looking at the Lord, and He was looking at me, and I’m like, that’s not what we’re doing,” she said, laughing.
Still, she entered and then came the poem.
Inspired by a UWI campaign poster that read “Psst, ain’t my name”, Janae knew she had found her message. “It’s a bit scary, because we all know about sexual harassment in Barbados, but no one talks about it and to go on the stage and to talk about it from every angle it could be talked about, seemed bolder than I was actually feeling.”
The response was immediate and powerful.
“At the semi-finals when I did it, women came up to me afterwards and were telling me about their personal experiences and thanking me for sharing about it.”
Now, standing back and reflecting on the journey, Janae is still amazed.
“It blows my mind to see how all of this work together so excellently . . . how well God put all of this together.”
Grateful and grounded, she credits her support system for helping her navigate the NIFCA experience and amplifying a message she believes needed to be heard.
And just like that, That Ain’t My Name has become more than a poem, it’s a movement, a mirror, and a moment Barbados isn’t ready to forget. (GBM)
“I had always been interested in poetry and literary arts. I was writing from secondary school, but I would write down and type them on my phone and just keep them there.” (Donna Sealy)
