Jamaica Interview

May 2010:  Jamaica interviewed by  Henry Curtis

May 2010: Interview (above). I love seeing Jamaica draw from her grounded Hawaiian roots, to shine as she holds her place as a strong American woman poet. This is a very good interview — watch it!

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November, 2010 — Jamaica just posted this:


May: 2009 <> What happens to the ones forgotten? The ones who shaped my heart from their rib cages, I want to taste the tears in their names…but I    have forgotten my father’s own grandparents middle names, forgotten the color thread God used to sew me together with… I want to teach my future children how to spell “family” with my middle name, Haiole-Melekalani…

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Scroll down for the link to Jamaica’s recitation of her interpretation and inspiration of Kumulipo, the Hawaiian chant of creation, all its inclusion of first life and stars, and the endless

geneologies of self and peoples, self and lands, of earth and sea and sky; spoken  at the White House.

Describing how President Obama approached her in the reception line, she recalled: “He said, ‘You’re the girl from Hawai’i.’ … And it was so amazing that I said I was from Pālolo Valley, (O’ahu) and he could actually nod his head and smile, because he got it,” said the elated 18-year-old, laughing as she savored the notion that the nation’s leader was born and bred just one green valley away from her home. “Mostly when I tell people I am from Hawai’i, they have no idea what’s going on here.” Liza Simon for Ka Wai Ola Newspaper..   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY7fWlmE-0g&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fochairball.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F05%2Fjamaica-osorios-spoken-word-performance.html&feature=player_embedded

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This You Tube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d54xhGzwM50 of her from a slam, has Jamaica and another poet giving the Hawaiian and English nearly simultaneously, in a telling of traditional stories with a fresh new slant. Her face and her words call up  deep ancestry.

Standing on the stage at the White House, she spoke her poetry: There is a culture, a people somewhere beneath my skin that I’ve been searching for… After she was congratulated by President Obama, she said that it was humbling to have her words acknowledged by him. Congratulations, Jamaica! Aloha!

NEW SITE!!  (2010)  http://www.youtube.com/user/eJAMAICAtor

GLORIOUS POEM posted 2009 August,  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HFY1s2g070

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