Loving Jamaica – An Evening of Poetry, Prose and Film with Esther Figueroa
Date: November 7, 2013
Time: Refreshments 6:00pm; Presentation 6:30-8:00
Where: Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies, HaLau ‘O Haumea, 2645 Dole Street
Sponsors: English Department, Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies
Here’s a link to a brilliant and informative interview Figgy did on KTUH’s “Iturnally Dread Meets Rudie’s Hi-Fi” show with DJs Tommy Fox and Irie-Sistable: soundcloud-file-esther-figueroa-interview
On November 7, Esther Figueroa, Ph.D., the Distinguished Visiting Writer in the English Department University of Hawai’i at Manoa will be giving the first ever reading from her forthcoming environmental novel Limbo (March, 2014, Arcade Publishing) and the first screening outside of Jamaica of her film “Cockpit Country is Our Home”. She will also be reading her poetry and that of others. The event is free and open to the Public.
A Jamaican independent filmmaker, writer, linguist, educator and curator/producer of art, literature and film events, Figueroa began her media-making career in Hawai’i. In 1985 she and Heather Haunani Giugni founded Juniroa Productions and produced numerous television series and specials, documentaries, educational videos, dvds, multimedia, and web content mainly focused on perpetuating indigenous knowledges, strengthening Native Hawaiian language, culture and sovereignty struggles, empowering communities, producing local content and countering the silences of mass media.
Since returning to Jamaica in 2006, Figueroa has dedicated herself to the natural environment, and has produced many films on environmental issues including fresh water and rivers, sea birds and wildlife, shoreline and marine conservation. Her award winning feature length documentary “Jamaica for Sale” about tourism and unsustainable development (www.jamaicaforsale.net) has been screened internationally. Her environmental shorts can be viewed on her you-tube channel.
Her publications include the canonical treatise Sociolinguistic Metatheory (Pergammon, 1994) and the literary anthology ” At Home the Green Remains – Caribbean Writing in Honor of John Figueroa (Caribbean Quarterly, 2003). Limbo (2014), an environmental novel about Jamaica, is her first novel to be published. She has an earlier (2001) unpublished novel about Hawai’i called Holes in the Heart.