Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner
Kathy Jetn̄il-Kijiner is a writer and performer of Marshall Islander ancestry.
Born in the Marshall Islands, raised in Hawai’i, and currently based in Majuro, the capital city of the Marshall Islands, she dedicates her creative life to exploring her culture’s rich storytelling and how they intersect and dialogue with evolving issues threatening islands and her community.
Her focus on climate change is explored through the mediums of poetry, performance, and media. This practice is also informed by the nonprofit Jo-Jikum that she co-founded and directs, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering Marshallese youth to see solutions to climate change and environmentalism.
While continuing to write and run Jo-Jikum, she is also currently serving as Climate Envoy for the Marshall Islands Ministry of Environment, and pursuing her PhD in Pacific Studies at Australia National University.
She has received immense 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, the Huffington Post, NBC News, National Geographic, and more. In February 2017, the University of Arizona Press published her first collection of poetry, Iep Jāltok: Poems from a Marshallese Daughter.
If that’s not impressive enough, 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.
Be inspired by Kathy’s creative mind and take a look at some of her work below.
https://www.kathyjetnilkijiner.com/fighting-for-our-survival-350-pacific-cvf-series/
http://www.kathyjetnilkijiner.com/book/iep-jaltok-poems-from-a-marshallese-daughter/