Craig Santos Perez - The Living Traditions of Chamoru

This event will feature two undergraduate Chamoru poets, Joleen Togawa Salas and Lailanie Javier, alongside Chamoru faculty poet Craig Santos Perez. In addition to sharing our poetry, we will also provide historical, political, and cultural background to the living traditions of Chamoru poetry in our homelands and in the diaspora. Poet biographies: Joleen Togawa Salas is a native from the island of Saipan and is pursuing a BA in Sociology at UH Mānoa. She credits her poetic influences to music because it has inspired her in dance, word, and life since a very young age. She hopes to become a writer to proudly contribute to her cultural background. Biba Pasifiko! Biba Kutura! Lailanie Javier was born and raised on the island of Guahan, and later moved to New Jersey. She is currently pursuing a bachelor's in Family Resources at UH Mānoa. Her inspiration for writing stems from all aspects of life, mainly from her Pacific Island background and experiences of culture shock and identity. Her dream is to become a social worker with a concentration in child welfare. Craig Santos Perez is a native Chamoru from the Pacific Island of Guåhan/Guam. He is the co-founder of Ala Press, co-star of the poetry album Undercurrent (Hawai‘i Dub Machine, 2011), and author of two collections of poetry: from unincorporated territory [hacha] (Tinfish Press, 2008) and from unincorporated territory [saina](Omnidawn Publishing, 2010), a finalist for the LA Times 2010 Book Prize for Poetry and the winner of the 2011 PEN Center USA Literary Award for Poetry. He is an Assistant Professor in the English Department at UH, Mānoa, where he teaches Pacific literature and creative writing.

Ticket Information
Free and open to the public

Event Sponsor
Center for Pacific Islands Studies, Manoa Campus

More Information
Katherine Higgins, 956-2658, khiggins@hawaii.edu

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