This past December, I was grateful to be a part of a series of poem videos that were released to commemorate the 5th Anniversary of the signing of the Paris Agreement. Five years ago, I was in Paris attending COP21, performing poetry on climate change alongside other poet activists while our RMI delegation which included late Senator and Minister of… Read More
Bulldozed Reefs and Blasted Sands: Rituals for Artificial Islands
Iakwe aolep – it’s been a while since my last blog post. Last year was hectic and instead of updating my blog alongside my social media I fell off the map after my journey to Enewetak. So to kick off this year’s blog posts I’d like to focus on coming to terms with a new piece of advice given to… Read More
“Butterfly Thief” and Complex Narratives of Disappearing Islands
My latest poem video has finally been released. This was a simpler poem video than my last one (Islands Dropped from a Basket) created for the Honolulu Biennial this past February. “Butterfly Thief” was a poem that was curated by an energy company in London called Good Energy whose mission is to “is to transform the UK energy market by helping homes… Read More
Islands Dropped from a Basket
When I was initially approached by my friend (amazing scholar and writer) Greg Dvorak to join the Honolulu Biennial, I agreed but with reservations. The Honolulu Biennial Foundation’s mission statement proudly proclaims its support for local arts infrastructure with a global outreach by presenting an arts festival. Greg told me all the huge names that would be included in this… Read More
A Moment of Clarity – Why I’m going to Paris COP21
If you’ve been following this blog you might have seen my past posts struggling with this new role I inherited as a “climate change poet” since my performance at the United Nations Climate Summit last September. All last year I fought with myself as I considered what this role, what these responsibilities, would now mean. I’ve always embraced my role… Read More
Lavender Saltwater (a poem)
These past few weeks I’ve been totally swamped with preparations for Global Divestment Day (which you can read more about here: http://www.trust.org/item/20150209145810-c47vs), prepping for a few trips coming up, and also, most importantly, preparing for my daughter’s first birthday. For those who don’t know, first birthdays are a HUGE deal for Marshallese. First birthdays, or kemem, as we call them,… Read More