Interdisciplinary Studies

e-mail: Takara@hawaii.edu
Curriculum Vitae

Kathryn Waddell Takara, Ph.D., long time professor and poet from Honolulu recently transferred to the Interdisciplinary Studies Program at the University and has recently returned from four book tours: 1) the Bay Area where she read at Barnes & Noble Books and Cody’s in Berkeley and the Pro Arts Gallery in Oakland, 2) City Lights Books in San Francisco, 3) Tuskegee University and the Texas Book Fair in Austin and 4) Tribes and the Bowery Poetry Club in Greenwich Village in New York City. She also was invited to be a panelist at the Annual Harlem Book Fair in New York City sponsored by Quarterly Book Review where she spoke on “The Origin of the Spoken Word”.

Reviewers have said, “When Kathryn Waddell Takara reads her poems, it’s like a soft, steady rain – a quiet affirmation of the meaning of things” says Anne Keala Kelly in Honolulu in Honolulu Weekly adding “Kathryn’s poetry will take the audience to places of celebration and pain while maintaining a soul that is based in love.” And, says poet Jesse Lipman in the Honolulu Advertiser “place is important to the woman, a performance poet whose words will reverberate at The Arts at Mark’s Garage,” and Ishmael Reed says “It’s hard to find a poet like Kathryn, …she mixes things up. There are a lot of things particular to Hawaii in her work – she moves in and out of cultures” in an interview in the Honolulu Weekly. Her writing reflects her travels in Africa, China, Europe and her Alabama childhood growing up black in the Jim Crow South. In a 5-star customer review on amazon.com writer Bill Danks says “Some jewels are obvious. They sparkle and shine and call all kinds of attention to themselves. Diamonds are a good example. Other jewels are more humble and quiet and perhaps a bit shy, but they can possess a deeper darker beauty of even greater value. Emeralds are of this type. Poet Kathryn Waddell Takara is an emerald. …in addition to being a World Poet, she is also most decidedly a `world class poet’ with an amazingly sensual gift of language honed and crafted to perfection over a lifetime of writing.”

In 1971 she created the first “Black Studies” courses in Ethnic Studies at the University of Hawaii, and has been the only African -American lecturer and Asst. Professor of Ethnic Studies teaching “Black Studies” in the University of Hawaii academic setting. She earned a BA. in French from Tufts University (Jackson College), 1965, a M.A. in French from the University of California, Berkeley, 1969 and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1993, and has been a Fulbright Scholar twice.

Dr. Takara=s many titles and accomplishments include those of scholar, poet, writer, researcher, social and community service activist, adviser, coordinator, mentor, mother, wife, and proud daughter of one of the oldest living Buffalo Soldiers, Dr. William Waddell. She was the recipient of the Board of Regents Outstanding Teacher Award during the 1995-1996 school year. Dr. Takara=s love for diverse cultures and languages and search for common ground found her traveling and teaching in China three times, once as a visiting professor at the University of Quindao, teaching American Cultural Studies and Conversational English.

Dr. Takara has published 2 books, New and Collected Poems published by Ishmael Reed Publishing and Oral Histories of African-Americans, over 75 poems, several articles in refereed journals, chapters in books, a monograph, several encyclopedia entries, articles on the Internet, and book reviews. She has been featured and interviewed in Hawaii newspaper articles, and often appears on local video and TV productions. Dr. Takara has invited, introduced and/or interviewed such prestigious African-American scholars such as Frank Marshall Davis, Dr. Barbara Christian, Ishmael Reed, Maya Angelou, Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture), Angela Davis, Alice Walker, Opal Palmer Adisa, Audre Lorde as well as many others. Dr. Takara has also interviewed and researched the experiences of many African-Americans living in Hawaii lending a unique and intelligent perspective and voice to their journeys here. Dr. Takara is without a doubt a prominent sojourner, and a dedicated and leading pioneer in the small but vital African-American community in the Hawaiian Islands.