Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Iep Jaltok: Poems from a Marshallese Daughter
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: c. 1988
WEBSITE: https://www.kathyjetnilkijiner.com/
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY: Marshall Islands
NATIONALITY: Marshallese
http://www.shesource.org/experts/profile/kathy-jetnil-kijiner#full * http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/09/23/kathy_jetnil_kijiner_solastalgia_marshall_islander_s_poem_moves_u_n_climate.html * https://www.earthcompany.info/kathy/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: no2016109222
Descriptive conventions:
rda
Personal name heading:
Jetn̄il-Kijiner, Kathy
Variant(s): Kijiner, Kathy Jetn̄il-
Located: Marshall Islands
Affiliation: College of the Marshall Islands
Profession or occupation:
College teachers
Found in: Iep jāltok, 2017: ECIP t.p. (KATHY JETNIL-KIJINER) data
view (Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, instructor at the College of
the Marshall Islands. She teaches courses in Pacific
studies, contemporary social issues in Micronesia, and
Pacific literature) CIP change request ("Iep Jaltok"
should be "Iep Jāltok" with a macron accent mark over
the "a"; also the author's last name should have a
macron over the "n" in "Jetnil")
Unniversity of Arizona Press website, September 18, 2017
(Iep Jāltok will make history as the first published
book of poetry written by a Marshallese author;
Marshallese poet and activist Kathy Jetn̄il-Kijiner's
writing highlights the traumas of colonialism, racism,
forced migration, the legacy of American nuclear
testing, and the impending threats of climate change)
================================================================================
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS AUTHORITIES
Library of Congress
101 Independence Ave., SE
Washington, DC 20540
Questions? Contact: ils@loc.gov
PERSONAL
Born c. 1988, in the Marshall Islands.
EDUCATION:Mills College, Oakland, B.A., 2010; University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, M.A., 2014.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, poet, performance artist, and journalist. Potpourri School Uniforms, Honolulu, HI, cashier and sales associate, 2004-05; Coaching Corporation, Mills College, Oakland, CA, tennis coach, 2006, fitness center supervisor, 2007-2010; College of the Marshall Islands, Majuro, Marshall Islands, communications officer, 2010-12; University of Hawai‘i Mānoa, Honolulu, community liaison in the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs, 2012-13; College of the Marshall Islands, Majuro, Marshall islands, faculty member, 2014-16; Jo-Jikum, Majuro, Marshall Islands, cofounder, 2010, codirector, 2014–. Also volunteer with the nonprofit Pacific Tongues, Honolulu, 2012-14.
AWARDS:Named a Climate Warrior, Vogue, 2015; Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Contest winner, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, 2016; recipient of scholarships.
WRITINGS
Contributor to periodicals, including the Campanil, Call & Response, Hawaii Review, Kurangabaa, Marshall Islands Journal, and Storyboard.
SIDELIGHTS
Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner is a Marshall Islander poet and performance artist. She received international attention for her poetry performance at the opening of the United Nations Climate Summit in New York in 2014. Her writing and performances have been featured on various media outlets. She is also cofounder of Jo-Jikum, a youth environmentalist group that seek to empower Marshallese youth to address issues that threaten their homeland, a chain of Pacific islands west of Hawai‘i, such as climate change. Named one of 13 Climate Warriors by Vogue in 2015, Jetnil-Kijiner is especially interested in the threat to the Marshall Islands of rising seas. As noted by K.I.N.: Knowledge in Indigenous Networks website contributor Cynthia Albers: “Jetnil-Kijiner wants to open the eyes of the world to climate change, before it is too late. Her poem ‘Tell Them’ pleads with the world community to recognize the plight of island nations, and denies that resident relocation is a viable solution to rising sea levels.”
Jetnil-Kijiner’s debut poetry collection, Iep Jāltok: Poems from a Marshallese Daughter, is believed to be the first book of published poems by a Marshallese author. The collection mainly focuses on issues and threats related to the Marshall Islands. From nuclear testing conducted on the islands to rising seas, forced migration, and racism in America, Jetnil-Kijiner addresses issues related to the archipelago and tells them largely in the form of women’s stories.
In a poem titled “History Project,” Jetnil-Kijiner writes about nuclear testing via a poem about a history project she did as a teenage schoolgirl in which she focused on the nuclear testing other countries had done in the islands’ vicinity. Commenting on the poetry collection, World Literature Today contributor She Hawke noted that her “narration of radiation-related deaths in her community, and her necessary departure from the ‘hot’ shores of home, reveal an inhospitable resettling on Hawaii as an environmental exile.”
Addressing the issue of climate change in her poem “Two Degrees,” Jetnil-Kijiner points out the catastrophic effect that would result from just a two degree rise in the overall temperature of the planet. “It is easy to empathize with the injustice-fueled fury that simmers beneath many of these poems,” wrote Haikai magazine website contributor Shelley Leedahl, who went on to note: “Jetnil-Kijiner succeeds at making the personal political, and she does so with passion, originality, and grace.” A Publishers Weekly contributor commented that many of the “poems bear witness through the body,” noting Jetnil-Kijiner’s “utilization of lyrical, visual, and narrative modalities, adding to the growing body of Pacific Islander poetics.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Honolulu Star-Advertiser, March 5, 2017, Mindy Pennybacker, “Hawaii-Raised Poet Returns to Present Exhibit.”
Living on Earth, December 11, 2015, “Poetic Plea for the Marshall Islands.”
Poets & Writers, May-June, 2017, Caroline Davidson, “Nuclear Age Peace Foundation Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Award,” p. 96.
PRI’s The World, September 23, 2014, “The UN Climate Summit Opens with a Voice from an Endangered Nation.”
PRWeb Newswire, November 11, 2016, “Marshallese Activist Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner Advocates in Turbulent Times the Survival of Her Island-Nation at Marrakech Climate Talks.”
Publishers Weekly, January 16, 2017, review of Iep Jāltok: Poems from a Marshallese Daughter, p. 37.
World Literature Today, September-October, 2017, She Hawke, review of Iep Jāltok, p. 83.
ONLINE
Hakai, https://www.hakaimagazine.com/ (March 17, 2017), Shelley Leedahl, review of Iep Jāltok.
Impolitikal, https://impolitikal.com/ (October 28, 2014), “Q&A: Kthy Jetnil-Kijiner on Experiencing the Effects of Climate Change.”
Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner Website, https://www.kathyjetnilkijiner.com (October 24, 2017).
K.I.N.: Knowledge in Indigenous Networks, https://indigenousknowledgenetwork.net/ (November 3, 2016), Cynthia Albers, “Tell Them: A Poet Shouts Out.”
Women’s Media Center, http://www.womensmediacenter.com/ (October 24, 2017), brief author profile.*
About the Author
Iep Jeltok (yiyip jalteq). “A basket whose opening is facing the speaker.”
Said of female children, she represents a basket whose contents are made available to her relatives. Also refers to matrilineal society of the Marshallese.
“Iep jeltok ajiri ne” – You are fortunate to have a girl child.
– Marshallese English Dictionary
Iep Jeltok is one of my favorite Marshallese sayings and I use it here as an introduction for what I’m giving to the world through this blog: a basket full of writing and poetry.
My name is Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner and I am a Marshallese poet, writer, performance artist and journalist.
I’ve started this blog as a way of sharing my poetry with the world, and to openly display my thoughts – through the good times and the bad times as I work towards shaping my first collection of poetry.
My poetry mainly focuses on raising awareness surrounding the issues and threats faced by my people. Nuclear testing conducted in our islands, militarism, the rising sea level as a result of climate change, forced migration, adaptation and racism in America – these are just a few themes my poetry touches upon. Besides these, I also use poetry as a means of understanding the people and the world around me.
Along with writing, I also love to perform. A lot of my poetry is performance based. I’ve competed in slam poetry competitions and performed at showcases, conferences, and various literature readings. I’ve also hosted open mics and written and performed my own solo piece.
Journalism is my side gig. I use it to promote the achievements of Marshallese people, and to promote my topics of interest. Many of my articles have been published online and in my home island’s newspaper The Marshall Islands Journal.
Should you have any questions, or are interested in publishing any of these works, please contact me at jkijiner@gmail.com.
Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner is a Marshall Islander poet, spoken word artist, and teacher. She has used her poetry to highlight the struggles of her people including social justice issues such as the threat of climate change for her islands, the American legacy of nuclear testing in her country, and racism against Micronesians in Hawaii. She received international acclaim after performing at the United Nations Climate Summit last September where she performed a poem to her daughter entitled, “Dear Matafele Peinam” which moved hundreds of world leaders to tears and has since launched her into global conversations on climate change. She also co-founded the youth environmentalist ngo Jo-Jikum based in the Marshall Islands, and is currently the Pacific Studies faculty instructor at the College of the Marshall Islands.
November 3, 2016
link Tell them – A Poet Shouts Out
Kia ora KIN whānau, this is a repost requested by Cynthia Albers – Arc Inspired Press about this remarkable Indigenous Marshall Islands poet Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner that was originally posted 18th October 2016 (https://arcinspired.net/2016/10/18/tell-them-%E2%80%A2-a-poet-shouts-out/). Enjoy the words of this conscious warrior whanau……
It was overdue, but I surrendered to reading selected works of the 1950s Beat poets only weeks before I encountered slam poetry in 1980s Chicago. It was not difficult to draw comparisons between the two styles. Both seemed to fly from the pens of young writers motivated by events of their time, with political undercurrents that demanded to be spoken, if not roared, out loud.
Slam poetry relies on the spoken word. It is a product of poetry slam competitions, where the artists employ rhetorical skills to capture attention, accomplishing this, in some cases, by discomforting their audience. When it comes to social issues and political themes, slam poets want to wake you up.
Daughter of the Marshall Islands
When I heard Marshallese poet Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner speak in Portland, Oregon, on September 29th she seemed too polite—almost shy—to deliver a riveting call to action. She referenced slam poetry and gave some background on her adoption of the style following her years at Mills College and her inspired participation in the Poetry for the People program at the University of California, Berkeley. By the end of the evening it was clear that this writer speaks strongly for her generation, and will no doubt remain on the front line of arts activism.
aosis
Tell Them We Are Whispering Prayers
Jetnil-Kijiner wants to open the eyes of the world to climate change, before it is too late. Her poem Tell Them pleads with the world community to recognize the plight of island nations, and denies that resident relocation is a viable solution to rising sea levels. World leaders believe that the earth can warm another 2 degrees before calamity occurs, but beyond 1.5 degrees the oceans will rise to a point that renders these Micronesian islands uninhabitable. As the sea begins to wash over the land it claims the history, traditions, and identity of the indigenous people.
tell them we are descendants
of the finest navigators in the world
tell them our islands were dropped
from a basket
carried by a giant
but most importantly tell them
we don’t want to leave
we’ve never wanted to leave
and that we
are nothing without our islands
United Nations Laureate
In the autumn of 2014 Jetnil-Kijiner was selected from 500 applicants to speak at the United Nations Climate Summit in New York. The committee referred to her as a Climate Change Poet and tasked her with writing a new poem. She was given two weeks to “write a poem that will save the world.” (She stifled a nervous laugh.)
She admitted it was difficult, if not daunting, to think of what to say in front of the United Nations, but much easier to find the necessary words when she imagined speaking directly to her newborn child, Matafele Peinam. The resulting poem Dear Matafele Peinam received a standing ovation.
they say you, your daughter
and your granddaughter, too
will wander rootless
with only a passport to call home
no one’s drowning, baby
no one’s moving
no one’s losing their homeland
no one’s gonna become
a climate change refugee
or should I say
no one else
Paris Conference • Taking It to the Street
Now in the international spotlight, Jetnil-Kilijner welcomed an opportunity to take part in the 2015 Paris climate conference (COP21). This time she took her poetry to the street, with a slam poetry style that had sharpened its edge.
People of Color on the Front Line
serveimage-3
Former Oregon congresswoman Jo Ann Hardesty served as MC for the September Portland event. An inspiring speaker, now president of the NAACP Portland chapter, she plainly stated that people of color are positioned at the forefront of environmental issues like climate change. Who knows better, she asked, than people of color, who are more likely to live without access to clean water, and who find fast food more available in their communities than a basket of strawberries?
serveimage-1Jetnil-Kijiner has become keenly aware of her role in the broader indigenous peoples community. She is strongly inspired by Dallas Goldtooth, a member of the Dakota and Dine tribes, and the Spirit Camp Warriors who are fighting to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline. The message of the Native Americans is akin to that of the Marshall Islanders—the world community must wake up to the urgency of accepting alternatives to fossil fuel. The quality of our water and the stability of our oceans depends on it.
Jetnil-Kijiner’s poem For the Dakota Water Protectors closes with these words:
You were meant
for a life pure enough
to drink
© 2016 Cynthia Albers, All Rights Reserved
All poetry, excerpts, and video performances © Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner
poetryperformance
Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner is a Marshallese poet, writer, performance artist, and journalist. She has used her poetry to raise awareness of the struggles of her island nation, including social justice issues and forced migration. Raised and educated in Hawaii, she studied at Mills College and the University of California, Berkeley. She currently serves as Pacific Studies instructor at the College of the Marshall Islands. Her book, Poems from a Marshallese Daughter, will be available in December 2016.
Poet
"..I fell asleep
dreamt
my words
were a current
flowing
to greet you"
Kathy is a Marshall Islander poet and spoken word artist. She received international acclaim through her poetry performance at the opening of the United Nations Climate Summit in New York in 2014. Her writing and performances have been featured by CNN, Democracy Now, Mother Jones, the Huffington Post, NBC News, National Geographic, Nobel Women’s Initiative, and more. In February 2017, the University of Arizona Press published her first collection of poetry, Iep Jāltok: Poems from a Marshallese Daughter.
Kathy also co-founded the youth environmentalist non-profit Jo-Jikum dedicated to empowering Marshallese youth to seek solutions to climate change and other environmental impacts threatening their home island. Kathy has been selected as one of 13 Climate Warriors by Vogue in 2015 and the Impact Hero of the Year by Earth Company in 2016. She received her Master’s in Pacific Island Studies from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
Promotional Material:
Curriculum Vitae
Previous Public Speaking Engagements:
Climate Generation 10th Anniversary Celebration, Minnesota (Keynote Speaker): December 2016
Conference of the Parties 22 (COP22), Morocco (Performer, RMI Delegation Member): November 2016
Portland State University, Portland State of Mind, Oregon (Keynote Speaker): October 2016
Asian Pacific Islander Network of Oregon (APANO) Rolling Tides (Panelist, Performer): October 2016
Pacific Asia Tourism Association Annual Summit, Guam (Opening Speaker): May 2016
Conference of the Parties 21 (COP21), Paris (Performer, RMI Delegation Member): November 2016
European Union African Caribbean Pacific Islands Conference, Fiji (Performer, Panelist): July 2015
University of Guam Presidential Speaker Series, Guam (Speaker): April 2015
United Nations Secretary General’s Climate Summit, New York (Civil Society Representative): June 2012
‘Aha Mo’olelo Hawaii Literary Conference, Hawai‘i (Panelist, Performer): 2012
Leaves Keep Falling: The Asian/Pacific Basin & Sustainability After Empire, Film Screening, Hawai’i (Panelist and Performer), Hawai‘i: 2012
Native Voices Reading, Hawai‘i (Featured Poet): 2012
International Poetry Parnassus Festival, London (RMI Representative, Performer, Panelist): 2011
Queer Pacific Islanders Sustaining Community, California (Performer): 2011
Poetic Crossroads: An Open Mic with Swag, California (Featured Poet): 2010
Sisters Rising, The Garage, California (Performer): 2010
The Kaleidoscope Reading Series, California (Featured Poet): 2010
Third Roots Art Collective, California (Solo Performance Artist): 2010
City Solo, Off Market Theater, California (Solo Performance Artist): 2010
Words First, California (Solo Performance Artist): 2010
KATHY JETÑIL-KIJINER
jkijiner@gmail.com
WORK
2014 – now Jo-Jikum, Majuro
Co-Director
2014 - 2016 College of the Marshall Islands, Majuro
Faculty
2012-2013 Office of Multicultural Student Affairs, University of Hawai‘i Mānoa, Honolulu, Hawa‘ii
Community Liason
2010-2012 College of the Marshall Islands, Majuro, Marshall Islands
Communications Officer
2007- 2010 Mills College Fitness Center, Mills College, Oakland, California
Fitness Center Supervisor
2006 Coaching Corporation, Mills College, Oakland California
Tennis Coach
2004- 2005 Potpourri School Uniforms, Honolulu, Hawai‘i
Cashier/Sales Associate
EDUCATION
2014 University of Hawai’i at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawai‘i
Master of Arts in Pacific Island Studies
2010 Mills College, Oakland, California
Bachelor of the Arts in English with an Emphasis in Creative Writing
COMMUNITY WORK EXPERIENCE
2010 – 2016 Jo-Jikum
Non-Profit Organization: Majuro, Marshall Islands
Co-Director, Co-Founder
2012-2014 Pacific Tongues
Non-Profit Organization: Honolulu, Hawai‘i
Poet Facilitator
PUBLIC SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
2016 Climate Generation 10th Anniversary Celebration, Minnesota
Keynote Speaker
2016 Conference of the Parties 22 (COP22), Morocco
Performer, Delegation Member
2016 Portland State of Mind, Oregon
Keynote Speaker
2016 Asian Pacific Islander Network of Oregon (APANO) Rolling Tides 2016, Oregon
Panelist, Performer
2016 Pacific Asia Tourism Association Annual Summit 2016, Guam
Opening Speaker
2015 Conference of the Parties 21 (COP21), Paris
Performer, Marshall Islands Delegation Member
2015 European Union African Caribbean Pacific Islands Conference, Fiji
Performer, Panelist
2015 University of Guam Presidential Speaker Series, Guam
Speaker
2013 United Nations Secretary General’s Climate Summit, New York
Civil Society Representative
2012 ‘Aha Mo’olelo Hawaii Literary Conference, Hawai‘i
Panelist, Performer
2012 Leaves Keep Falling: The Asian/Pacific Basin & Sustainability After Empire, Film Screening, Panel and Performance, Hawai‘i
Panelist, Performer
2012 Native Voices Reading, Hawai‘i
Featured Poet
2012 International Poetry Parnassus Festival, London
Marshall Islands Representative, Performer, Panelist
2011 Queer Pacific Islanders Sustaining Community, California
Performer
2011 Poetic Crossroads: An Open Mic with Swag, California
Featured Poet
2010 Sisters Rising, The Garage: San Francisco, California
Performer
2010 The Kaleidoscope Reading Series, California
Featured Poet
2010 Third Roots Art Collective, California
Solo Performance Artist
2010 City Solo, Off Market Theater, California
Solo Performance Artist
2010 Words First, California
Solo Performance Artist
AWARDS
2016 Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s 2016 Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Contest: 1st Place
2014 University of Hawai’i Ian MacMillan Writing Award: 3rd Place
2009 Mills College Mary Merritt Henry Prize Undergraduate Poetry Contest: 1st Place
2007 Mills College Mary Merritt Henry Prize Undergraduate Poetry Contest: 1st Place
2007 California College Media Association Awards Best Sports Action Photo:
3rd Place
SCHOLARSHIPS
2013-2014 East-West Center Graduate Degree Fellowship
2013-2014 Glenna Eshleman Scholarship
2013-2014 Sumi Makey Scholars Award
2012-2013 Republic of the Marshall Islands National Scholarship
2006-2010 Republic of the Marshall Islands National Scholarship
2006-2010 Mills College Presidential Scholarship
WRITING WORKSHOP PARTICIPATION
2011 Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation, University of California at Berkeley
2009 Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation, University of San Francisco
JOURNALISM INTERNSHIPS AND MEDIA TRAINING
September 2015 Women's Media Center/Lear Family Foundation
Participant during customized media training program for climate change women leaders from the Global South
2007 August -2009 The Campanil
Staff Writer
Assistant News Editor
Sports and Health Editor
Online Editor
2007 May- June Secretariat of the Pacific Community
Reporter during the 10th Triennial Conference for Pacific Women
2006 July –August The Marshall Islands Journal
Reporter
BOOK PUBLICATION
Iep Jāltok: Poems from a Marshallese Daughter, expected publication February 14, 2017
University of Arizona Press
PRINT PUBLICATIONS
“Tell Them,” The Value of Hawaii 2: Ancestral Roots, Oceanic Visions, 2014
“The Monkey Gate,” Hawaii Review Issue 80: Voyages, 2014
“My Rosy Cousin,” Hawaii Review Issue 80: Voyages, 2014
“Tell Them,” Hawaii Review Issue 79: Call & Response, 2014
“Lessons from Hawai’i,” Hawaii Review Issue 79: Call & Response, 2014
“History Lesson,” Storyboard 12: A Journal of Pacific Imagery, 2012
“Lessons from Hawaii,” Storyboard 12: A Journal of Pacific Imagery, 2012
“Tell Them,” Storyboard 12: A Journal of Pacific Imagery, 2012
“Tell Them,” Kurangabaa Magazine: A Journal of Literature, History, and Ideas from the Sea, 2012
Jitdam Kapeel June 2012
Jitdam Kapeel May 2012
Jitdam Kapeel March 2012
Jitdam Kapeel December 2011
Jitdam Kapeel October 2011
Jitdam Kapeel August 2011
Jitdam Kapeel May 2011
Jitdam Kapeel June 2011
Jitdam Kapeel March 2011
Jitdam Kapeel November 2010
“Project to Stop Kids from Dropping Out,” The Marshall Islands Journal 13 February 2012: 15.
“Private Bosses Join Forces with CMI,” The Marshall Islands Journal, 13 January 2012: 15.
“These Students Are On FYRE,” The Marshall Islands Journal, 30 December 2011: 29.
“Good Students Can Get Better,” The Marshall Islands Journal, 18 February 2011: 36.
“College Pumps Health Academies,” The Marshall Islands Journal, 18 February 2011: 36.
“CMI Brings Down GED Price,” The Marshall Islands Journal, 18 February 2011: 36.
“Maritime Vocational Training Program,” The Island Voice, 13 October 2011: 10.
“Maritime Training for Marshallese,” The Marshall Islands Journal, 23 September 2011: 5.
“CMI takes action on dropout rates,” The Marshall Islands Journal, 23 September 2011: 5.
“Jaluit Overflows with “Dirty” Catchments,” The Marshall Islands Journal, 23 September 2011: 8.
“Agriculture Gift for High Schools,” The Marshall Islands Journal, 23 September 2011: 8.
“CMI To Improve Retention,” The Island Voice, 22 September 2011: 10.
“Land Grant In Jaluit: 150 Water Catchments Contaminated,” The Island Voice, 22 September 2011: 10.
“GED Aims to Meet Big Ebeye Adult Ed Demand,” The Marshall Islands Journal, 12 August 2011: 18.
“Maritime Training Planned,” The Marshall Islands Journal, 12 August 2011: 18.
“WASC Okays First CMI Voc Course,” The Marshall Islands Journal, 5 August 2011: 17.
“Nurses Head for Graduation” The Marshall Islands Journal, 11 February 2011:6.
“Maritime Vocational Training Program Moves Forward,” Yokwe Online 8 October 2011
“The Future of the Marshallese Pearl: How a Hatchery Revived a Dying Industry,” Yokwe Online, 10 January 2011
“CMI Goes Outer Island” The Marshall Islands Journal, 11 February 2011: 14.
“Carl Heine Remembered: A Marshall Islands Legacy” Yokwe Online, 14 April 2011
“CMI Aims for Vocational Ed” The Marshall Islands Journal 10 October 2010
“history project, ” Yellow Medicine Review, April 2010
“SAMEAPI Fails to Acknowledge Cultural Differences,” The Campanil, 6 April 2009
“Spring…and Pollen Are in the Air,” The Campanil, 17 March 2008
“Pow Wow Brings Community Together at Mills,” The Campanil, 21 April 2008:7.
“Pulling the Plug on Tampon Myths and Facts,” The Campanil, 21 April 2008
“Will Mills Become a No Smoking Campus?” The Campanil, 19 November 2007: 6.
“A Heavy Promise,” The Womanist, Spring 2008
“Stressed? Frazzled? Try Meditation,” The Campanil, 5 May 2008: 9.
“Crewtons Medal in Humboldt Race,” The Campanil, 7 April 2008: 6.
“Fall Tuition to Rise 5 Percent,” The Campanil, 17 March 2008: 7.
“Mills Athletes Score Community Service Points Off the Field,” The Campanil, 11 February 2008: 3.
“Spring Brings a Fresh Season for Cyclones,” The Campanil, 28 January 2008: 3.
“More Students Attend Mills Now than any other Year,” The Campanil, 12 November 2007
“Swimmers Fundraise for Women With Cancer; Mills College Hosts,” TheCampanil, 15 October 2007: 1.
“First Home Game Shows Team’s Promise,” The Campanil, 1 October 2007: 7.
“New Athletic Trainer Steps Up to Bat,” The Campanil, 17 September 2007:1.
“Everyone At Risk For HIV In RMI,” The Marshall Islands Journal, 20 June 2007: 28.
“HIV Myths,” The Marshall Islands Journal, 20 June 2007: 26.
“Ministers: Uplift Women’s Status,” The Marshall Islands Journal, 8 June 2007: 7.
“WUTMI Praised for Action,” The Marshall Islands Journal, 8 June 2007: 7.
“Is RMI ready for a Ministry of Women?” The Marshall Islands Journal, 8 June 2007: 11.
“UNIFEM Approves of Women’s Organization,” The Marshall Islands Journal, 6 June 2007: 20.
“RMI Fails to Budget for Women’s Affairs,” The Marshall Islands Journal, 6 June 2007: 17.
“10th Triennial Conference For Pacific Women,” The Marshall Islands Journal, 5 June 2007: 23.
“Rien Morris Leads RMI to Women’s Conference,” The Marshall Islands Journal, 1 June 2007: 3.
“Stories From My Mother,” The Womanist, May 2007: 17.
“Chicano Vibrance,” The Mills Weekly, 11 September 2006: 7.
“Talk About Texting,” The Marshall Islands Journal, 28 July 2006: 21.
“DES Summer School A Big Success In ’06,” Marshall Islands Journal, 28 July 2006: 20.
“Health Program Working,” The Marshall Islands Journal, 4 August 2006: 32.
“Are Our Kids Hungry?” The Marshall Islands Journal, 4 August 2006: 32.
Q&A | Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner on experiencing the effects of climate change
October 28, 2014
If you followed the UN Climate Summit in New York last month it’s likely you will have heard of Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, a poet and activist from the Marshall Islands who spoke at the Summit opening ceremony on September 23. As part of her speech, Kathy delivered a powerful poem, ‘Dear Matafele Peinem‘, about the impact climate change is already having on the Marshalls. In it she calls for the world to take action so her daughter’s generation and those subsequent will be able to continue to live in the islands that are their home.
She talks to Sarah about the experience.
How did you come to speak at the Climate Summit? What was it like to do it?
The US Ambassador to the Marshall [Islands] called me and asked if it would be ok to nominate me for a speaking position at the UN Climate Summit in New York. I had no idea what it was, but it sounded like something interesting that I wanted to be a part of, especially because of the writing I’ve done on climate change. So I said sure. Then I got an email saying I was one of over 500 candidates nominated for a role in the Summit, and that I had to send a video explaining why I should be chosen for a speaking role. I was really surprised at how competitive it was, but I sent in a video. Then I got a call saying I was one of the three chosen to speak at the Summit, and then I thought, wow ok at least I have a speaking role. The next day I got a call saying I was chosen to speak at the opening, which just blew me away.
Speaking at the UN was absolutely terrifying. I couldn’t sleep or eat the whole night and day before, and the whole week up to it was a whirlwind. But at the same time, I just focused on performing my poem the best way I could. I told myself over and over that it was just another audience, and that I needed to focus on performing to the best of my ability. Luckily it worked out for the most part.
Can you paint a bit of a picture around life in the Marshall Islands, and your people’s vulnerability to the effects of climate change?
Our islands are so small and the ocean is so big out here that it always reminds you of how vulnerable you are. Some parts are so narrow and so thin that you can see the ocean on either side of you, and you can feel the salt spray on either side of you.
What are some of your key frustrations around the lack of action around climate change at an international level? Do you feel they were heard at the Summit?
My key frustration is that a lot of dialogue is all about where we will move to, whether we would still have a seat at the UN, and it all includes a lot of numbers and data. The human face, the fact that our culture and our history will completely disappear – none of this seems to be important. People just assume that climate change is inevitable, and that we will have to move sooner or later. But I want the world to know that we shouldn’t have to move. The countries who are responsible for most of the carbon emissions need to take responsibility for their actions and take steps to create the changes necessary.
To be honest, I’m not sure if [these frustrations] were heard at the Summit. I’m hoping that having an islander voice at the opening somehow put these issues in the spotlight.
What are your thoughts around the relationship between inequality and poverty, and climate change vulnerability?
I think the communities that are struggling the most are the ones who are hit the hardest in regards to climate change. As far as the Marshalls go, there are many families who have lost their homes because of high tides, king tides and flooding, and they struggle to find ways to pay for fixing their home or for having to build a completely new home. My cousin and her family lost their home in the last king tides, their home they’ve lived in for all her life, and they’ve moved from rental to rental and had to take out loans, struggling to find ways to build a new home, and it’s stressing them out financially and emotionally.
Can you talk about the most recent flooding in the Marshall Islands and its impact on the community?
The flooding [in early October] occurred because of a high tide and a number of other factors. What should have been a simple high tide, turned into flooding in certain parts of the Marshalls, once again damaging homes and leaving our roads and yards littered with rocks and trash. This is the second time already this year that we’ve had flooding from the water. I spoke to Reginald White, our Meteorologist in Charge, and he said that they have over 50 years of data on the ocean and weather, and yet they’ve never seen flooding this frequent. It was scary to see it happen again, when it isn’t even king tides season yet.
You’re a long-time poet. What are your thoughts around using poetry – and the arts in general – to express concerns around social issues?
I think poetry and art are necessary parts of social movements. Poetry and art bring the humanity of social issues to the forefront, and they connect people.
How has becoming a mother affected your sense of urgency around addressing climate issues?
Ever since I became a mother, climate change became that much more real and urgent. Seeing how vulnerable [my daughter] is, reminded me of how vulnerable we are.
Can you talk a bit about Jo-Jikum and the work you do?
Jo-Jikum is an NGO that me and my cousins created and it focuses on empowering and mobilizing the youth of the Marshalls to raise awareness on environmentalism and climate change.
Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner is a Marshallese poet, writer, performance artist and journalist. She is also a founder of the climate NGO Jo-JiKuM and teaches Issues in Pacific Studies at the College of the Marshall Islands. Find her at Jkijiner.wordpress.com.
Iep Jaltok: Poems from a Marshallese Daughter
264.3 (Jan. 16, 2017): p37.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Iep Jaltok: Poems from a Marshallese Daughter
Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner. Univ. of Arizona, $14.95 trade paper (90p) ISBN 978-0-8165-3402-9
Through a poetics of resistance, Jetnil-Kijiner bears witness to the atrocities suffered by the inhabitants of the central Pacific Marshall Islands. As the first published Marshallese poet, Jetnil-Kijiner addresses in a woman's voice pressing themes surrounding the Marshalls, such as nuclear testing, militarism, rising sea levels, and racism. Renewing the archipelago's matrilineal traditions, Jetnil-Kijiner presents women's stories--from her mother, grandmother, herself, and others--to re-center an indigenous feminist contemplation and resistance against state-sanctioned violence. In the poem "History Project," she recalls the history of nuclear testing in the islands through her own memory of researching it as a teenager; the fate of the project echoes that of the islands. Moreover, these poems bear witness through the body, which figures prominently. As Jetnil-Kijiner writes "your/ body/ is a country/ we conquer/ and devour." She reclaims body and poetry through utilization of lyrical, visual, and narrative modalities, adding to the growing body of Pacific Islander poetics. Reclaiming the Marshallese symbol of "a basket whose opening is facing the speaker," which is also used to describe female children, the collection begins and ends with two versions of the title poem. Breaking the white space of the page, Jetnil-Kijiner's words trace the outline of an open basket; one thread testifies, and the other concludes with a dream: "dreamt// my words// were// a current// flowing// to greet you." Against visions of a rising tide, Jetnil-Kijiner offers healing and justice through language. (Feb.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Iep Jaltok: Poems from a Marshallese Daughter." Publishers Weekly, 16 Jan. 2017, p. 37. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA478405246&it=r&asid=ca8e6f79855c230a456003057e8bacc4. Accessed 1 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A478405246
Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner. Iep Jaltok: Poems from a Marshallese Daughter
She Hawke
91.5 (September-October 2017): p83.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 University of Oklahoma
http://www.worldliteraturetoday.com
Kathy Jetml-Kijiner. lepJaltok: Poems from a Marshallese Daughter . Tucson. University of Arizona Press. 2017. 82 pages.
The lacunae in literary and cultural studies of the Pacific is here mended and woven into the fabric of the basket in Marshallese daughter Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner's sea of poems. The poetic gendered, cultural, and political genealogy she provides is at once gentle, lamenting, and instructive as well as harsh, factual, and poignant, narrating the broadest of Marshallese stories, from innocent paradise to nuclear fallout zone. The collection is bookended by basket poems, iepjaltok representing the matrilineal lineage of the poet and from which the collection gets its title. The second basket acts perhaps as a memoir or epilogue to a precarious journey, "a lineage of sand / a reef of memory / your womb a sustainer," with directions for the next generation of weavers. Indeed, the journey of the Marshallese has been precarious, suffering the pernicious radiation from US nuclear testing in the Pacific in the 1950s. "We mistook radioactive fall out for snow" that lodged in "Biancas 6 year old bones" and transformed paradise into white-hot sand.
Jetñil-Kijiners narration of radiation-related deaths in her community, and her necessary departure from the "hot" shores of home, reveal an inhospitable resettling on Hawaii as an environmental exile. "Lessons from Hawai'i" exposes an America littered with racism and the stigma of being the Micronesian "other" whose cultural specificity gets lost in the metanarrative of not belonging "here": " You don't look Micronesian / you're much prettier!" These poems are raw and affecting and provide the reader with a vital inside view of a little-known story.
Having inherited the fallout of nuclear testing (as cancers and environmental death), having been dispatched to a safer island home, having buried elders and young relatives, Jetñil-Kijiner draws the reader on to the next catastrophe--climate change. In "Two Degrees," she shoots from the lip about what a temperature increase of two degrees will do, not just to the Marshallese but the world; it will wash the "crumbs" of the Pacific "off the table," swallowed by rising seas of affluence, nuclear testing, melting icebergs, and the arrogance of some of the worlds people who have forgotten their source. "Maybe I'm / writing the tide towards / an equilibrium / willing the world / to find its balance."
Reminiscent of the late Paula Gunn Allen, a provocative, prophetic, poetic memoir and way forward.
Shé Hawke
University of Sydney
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Hawke, She. "Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner. Iep Jaltok: Poems from a Marshallese Daughter." World Literature Today, vol. 91, no. 5, 2017, p. 83. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA502351952&it=r&asid=52cb9162f7e62ca060fcb9d6d3654468. Accessed 1 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A502351952
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Award
Caroline Davidson
45.3 (May-June 2017): p96.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Poets & Writers, Inc.
http://www.pw.org/magazine
Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner of Portland, Oregon, won the 2016 Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Award for her poem "Fishbone Hair." She received $1,000 and publication on the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation website. The award is given annually for a poem that explores "positive visions of peace and the human spirit." (SEE DEADLINES.)
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Award, PMB 121, 1187 Coast Village Road, Suite 1, Santa Barbara, CA 93108.
www.peacecontests.org
Davidson, Caroline
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Davidson, Caroline. "Nuclear Age Peace Foundation Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Award." Poets & Writers Magazine, vol. 45, no. 3, 2017, p. 96+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA488192508&it=r&asid=97ae364f53521fcde60b7ee0f34814a8. Accessed 1 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A488192508
Poetic Plea for the Marshall Islands
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2015 Public Radio International, Inc.
http://www.loe.org/
To listen to this broadcast, click here:
The Marshall Islands are extremely vulnerable to the effects of climate change, but some still call it home. Poet Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner describes life on the island and the rising seas that threaten it, and performs her poem "Tell Them". (published December 11, 2015)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Poetic Plea for the Marshall Islands." Living on Earth, 11 Dec. 2015. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA437614756&it=r&asid=b08a7734b81cd030a35ab7f732fb4b57. Accessed 1 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A437614756
Marshallese Activist, Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, Advocates in Turbulent Times the Survival of her Island-Nation at Marrakech Climate Talks
(Nov. 11, 2016):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 Vocus PRW Holdings LLC
http://www.prweb.com or www.vocus.com
Majuro, Marshall Islands (PRWEB) November 11, 2016
Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, a renowned voice of the climate-vulnerable small island nations, will participate in several official side events in Marrakech, Morocco during COP 22. In 2014, she spoke to 120 heads of state at the UN Secretary-General's Climate Summit. Selected from 544 candidates, Kathy performed an impassioned poem entitled "Dear Matafele Peinem," written to her 6-month old daughter, that triggered a standing ovation and tears of inspiration by the world leaders. This year, her presence in the climate discussions in Marrakech comes at a critical time when the future of her home country, Marshall Islands, and many climate-vulnerable nations will be determined. With the Paris Climate Agreement entering into force on 4 Nov, Kathy will build on the positive momentum and advocate further reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
In particular, Kathy is officially invited to and will participate in the following key events:
* Panel discussion at the High Level Closing Panel of Development & Climate Days events: 3:30pm on Nov 13, at Kenzi Club Agdal Medina. https://goo.gl/jooRwQ
* Poetry presentation at the Women Leading Solutions on the Frontlines of Climate Change event by the Women's Earth & Climate Action Network (WECAN): 5:35pm on Nov 14, at Kenzi Farah Hotel. https://goo.gl/PGK35j
* Poetry presentation at the 100% Renewable Energy for 1.5C event by Climate Action Network (CAN): 6:30pm on Nov 15, at side event area Zone E.
* Women Leaders & the Global Transformation Summit under patronage of His Majesty Mohammed VI King of Morocco: Nov 16, Palmeraie Golf Palace. https://goo.gl/7STBA4
Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner's profile:
Kathy is a Marshall Islander poet, spoken word artist, and a full-time instructor at the College of the Marshall Islands. She received international acclaim through her inspirational poetry performance at the opening of the United Nations Climate Summit in New York in 2014. Her writing and performances have been featured by CNN, Democracy Now, Mother Jones, the Huffington Post, NBC News, National Geographic, Vogue Magazine, Nobel Women's Initiative, and more.
Kathy also co-founded the youth climate change nonprofit, Jo-Jikum, dedicated to empower Marshallese youth to transform from passive victims of climate change to active navigators of their complex future. Kathy has been selected as one of 13 Climate Warriors by the Vogue in 2015 and the Impact Hero of the Year by Earth Company in 2016. She received her Master in Pacific Island Studies from the University of Hawai?i at Manoa. In February 2017, her first collection of poetry titled "Iep Jaltok: Poems from a Marshallese Daughter" is due to be published by University of Arizona Press. Kathy's mother, Hilda Heine, became the President of the Marshall Islands in 2016, representing the first female head of state in the Pacific.
Support for Kathy's visit to Marrakech and participation in events has been led by Farhana Yamin, Climate Advisor to the President of the Marshall Islands as well as Founder and CEO of Track 0 - an independent nonprofit serving as a hub to support all those working to get green house gas emissions on track to zero.
In Marrakech, Kathy will be accompanied by Aska Hamakawa, Executive Director of Earth Company, a boutique accelerator supporting Kathy and her nonprofit, Jo-Jikum, in scaling their impact.
For more information regarding Kathy's participation and schedule, please contact Aska Hamakawa (aska(at)earthcompany(dot)jp).
Earth Company
CEO: Aska Hamakawa
Established: October 6, 2014
Summary of Activities: Supporting social entrepreneurs, Nurturing the next generation of change-makers,Strengthening social purpose organizations through professional services.
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2016/11/prweb13844236.htm
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Marshallese Activist, Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, Advocates in Turbulent Times the Survival of her Island-Nation at Marrakech Climate Talks." PRWeb Newswire, 11 Nov. 2016. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA469734379&it=r&asid=b3d71cd5d93706fac0540b15a253dc02. Accessed 1 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A469734379
The UN climate summit opens with a voice from an endangered nation
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2014 Public Radio International, Inc.
http://www.pri.org/the-world.html
To listen to this broadcast, click here:
Before the talking began at the UN Climate Summit in New York on Tuesday, music and poetry had their moment.
The opening of the summit featured Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner of the Marshall Islands reading poem she wrote for her own daughter:
Mommy promises you: No one will come and devour you.
No greedy whale of a company sharking through political seas, no backwater bullying of businesses with broken morals, no blindfolded bureaucracy's going to push this mother ocean over the edge.
No one's drowning, baby.
No one's moving, no one's losing their homeland.
No one's becoming a climate change refugee.
Kijiner is a poet, teacher and journalist who's also co-founded an environmental NGO called Youth for a Greener Environment -- shortened to Jo-JiKuM in the local language.
Through her poetry, she says, she wants to tell her daughter not to fear. "I was telling my daughter that although there are those people who tell us that we have to leave and the water is going to swallow our islands ... there are people fighting," she says.
The Marshall Islands are one of many island nations in the Pacific Ocean whose territories are threatened by climate change and rising seas. Many citizens in the Marshall Islands have already been forced to evacuate their traditional home areas or leave the country altogether, as Foreign Minister Tony De Brum told PRI's The Takeaway on Monday.
But Kijiner is trying to resist the pressure to leave, and her NGO focuses on youth. That's because Kijiner says that youth, despite their potential, are "not usually given the tools" to contribute to what's happening in the world. She says she wants to help prepare them to take over the country in the future.
And despite encroaching seas, Kijiner believes there's still hope. "Going to the climate march rally [on Sunday] really opened my eyes to how affected and how aware people are," she says. "There were thousands of people from all different walks of life." To her, this just shows how much the "tides are turning."
As for Kijiner's poem, it seemed well-received at the United Nations. She says after a long round of applause, attendees came up to talk to her.
"I am used to people coming up to speak to me after my poetry performance," she says, "but it's different when you're at the UN and it's the head of the EU or the ambassador to Tuvalu." And she's hoping the attention for her and her cause will continue long after the next few days at the UN.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"The UN climate summit opens with a voice from an endangered nation." PRI's The World, 23 Sept. 2014. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA383890200&it=r&asid=60b787f145ae4ff0831a3409eea76070. Accessed 1 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A383890200
Iep Jaltok: Poems from a Marshallese Daughter by Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner
VERSE
Author:
Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner
The cover to Iep Jaltok: Poems from a Marshallese Daughter by Kathy Jetñil-KijinerTucson. University of Arizona Press. 2017. 82 pages.
The lacunae in literary and cultural studies of the Pacific is here mended and woven into the fabric of the basket in Marshallese daughter Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner’s sea of poems. The poetic gendered, cultural, and political genealogy she provides is at once gentle, lamenting, and instructive as well as harsh, factual, and poignant, narrating the broadest of Marshallese stories, from innocent paradise to nuclear fallout zone. The collection is bookended by basket poems, iep jaltok representing the matrilineal lineage of the poet and from which the collection gets its title. The second basket acts perhaps as a memoir or epilogue to a precarious journey, “a lineage of sand / a reef of memory / your womb a sustainer,” with directions for the next generation of weavers. Indeed, the journey of the Marshallese has been precarious, suffering the pernicious radiation from US nuclear testing in the Pacific in the 1950s. “We mistook radioactive fall out for snow” that lodged in “Bianca’s 6 year old bones” and transformed paradise into white- hot sand.
Jetñil-Kijiner’s narration of radiation-related deaths in her community, and her necessary departure from the “hot” shores of home, reveal an inhospitable resettling on Hawaii as an environmental exile. “Lessons from Hawai’i” exposes an America littered with racism and the stigma of being the Micronesian “other” whose cultural specificity gets lost in the metanarrative of not belonging “here”: “You don’t look Micronesian / you’re much prettier!” These poems are raw and affecting and provide the reader with a vital inside view of a little-known story.
Having inherited the fallout of nuclear testing (as cancers and environmental death), having been dispatched to a safer island home, having buried elders and young relatives, Jetñil-Kijiner draws the reader on to the next catastrophe—climate change. In “Two Degrees,” she shoots from the lip about what a temperature increase of two degrees will do, not just to the Marshallese but the world; it will wash the “crumbs” of the Pacific “off the table,” swallowed by rising seas of affluence, nuclear testing, melting icebergs, and the arrogance of some of the world’s people who have forgotten their source. “Maybe I’m / writing the tide towards / an equilibrium / willing the world / to find its balance.”
Reminiscent of the late Paula Gunn Allen, a provocative, prophetic, poetic memoir and way forward.
Shé Hawke
University of Sydney
Book Review: Iep Jāltok
A poetry collection explores the stories of the Marshallese people and the fallout of the US military’s nuclear testing on the islands.
by Shelley Leedahl
Published March 17, 2017
It is rare for a poet to blatantly state an objective in penning a collection, but in Iep Jāltok: Poems from a Marshallese Daughter, writer and environmental activist Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner clearly articulates a hope that her work will put human faces on the statistics, and bring to light the health and climate change conversations from her beloved homeland, the Pacific Oceanʼs Marshall Islands. She recounts legends and family history, draws attention to the US militaryʼs nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands (and the fallout-related cancers that resulted), and writes frankly about climate change, colonization, and racism. Through poems that range in style—the predominantly free verse text begins and ends with picture poems and also includes prose poems—the writer reveals stark contrasts between an idyllic past, a diseased present, and a threatened future for the environment.
The collection opens with ʻʻBasket,ʼʼ a picture poem in the shape of a basket. The poem sets a feminist and melancholic tone for the four-section collection. ʻʻMy smile/was merely/a rim/woven/into my/face,ʼʼ Jetnil-Kijiner writes. Interesting legends immediately follow, but the bookʼs gold appears in the two middle sections: ʻʻHistory Projectʼʼ and ʻʻLessons from Hawai‘i.ʼʼ In the former—based on the poetʼs years-ago high school project—we learn that during the nuclear testing, a fisherman witnessed atrocities including soldiers shooting off a woman’s ears. The fisherman never forgot his own hunger after nuclear contamination resulted in a fishing ban, thus was forever grateful for the American gifts of food, such as canned Spam, flaky biscuits, and chocolate bars, even though eating these foods eventually destroyed his health.
Strong imagery reinforces the gravity of the situation. A boy with ʻʻpeeled skin/arms legs suspended/a puppetʼʼ and ʻʻjelly babies/tiny beings with no bones/skin—red as tomatoesʼʼ—are juxtaposed against images of American marines and nurses ʻʻwith bloated grins sucking/beers and tossing beach balls along/our shores.ʼʼ
It is easy to empathize with the injustice-fueled fury that simmers beneath many of these poems. Jetnil-Kijiner speaks of the irony of an American uproar over nuclear testing on goats and pigs, for instance, when little was made of the rampant, post-nuclear-testing cancer rates among the Marshallese. The poetʼs family was not spared. Niece Bianca had a ʻʻwar/raging inside [her] six year old bones,ʼʼ and a grandmother developed tongue cancer.
Occasional prosaic and melodramatic lapses are evident in this, the authorʼs first book, but Jetnil-Kijiner succeeds at making the personal political, and she does so with passion, originality, and grace. Her poetry is underscored with pride in a people ʻʻtoasted dark brown as the carved ribs/of a tree stumpʼʼ and a place ʻʻdropped/from a basket/carried by a giant.ʼʼ Beyond the numbers and statistics, there is ʻʻa toddler/stomping squeaky/yellow light up shoes/across the edge of a reefʼʼ that is ʻʻnot yet/under water.ʼʼ And there is a young Marshallese poet doing what she can to “[will] the world/to find its balance.”
Iep Jāltok: Poems from a Marshallese Daughter
by Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner
96 pp. The University of Arizona Press