#terisa siagatonu

[ukdamo]

Atlas

Terisa Siagatonu

If you open up any atlas

and take a look at a map of the world,

almost every single one of them

slices the Pacific Ocean in half.

To the human eye,

every map centres all the land masses on Earth

creating the illusion

that water can handle the butchering

and be pushed to the edges

of the world.

As if the Pacific Ocean isn’t the largest body

living today, beating the loudest heart,

the reason why land has a pulse in the first place.

The audacity one must have to create a visual so

violent as to assume that no one comes

from water so no one will care

what you do with it

and yet,

people came from land,

are still coming from land,

and look what was done to them.

When people ask me where I’m from,

they don’t believe me when I say water.

So instead, I tell them that home is a machete

and that I belong to places

that don’t belong to themselves anymore,

broken and butchered places that have made me

a hyphen of a woman:

a Samoan-American that carries the weight of both

colonizer and colonized,

both blade and blood.

California                          stolen.

Samoa                                        sliced in half                                          stolen.

California, nestled on the western coast of the most powerful

country on this planet.

Samoa, an island so microscopic on a map, it’s no wonder

people doubt its existence.

California, a state of emergency away from having the drought

rid it of all its water.

Samoa, a state of emergency away from becoming a saltwater cemetery

if the sea level doesn’t stop rising.

When people ask me where I’m from,

what they want is to hear me speak of land,

what they want is to know where I go once I leave here,

the privilege that comes with assuming that home

is just a destination, and not the panic.

Not the constant migration that the panic gives birth to.

What is it like? To know that home is something

that’s waiting for you to return to it?

What does it mean to belong to something that isn’t sinking?

What does it mean to belong to what is causing the flood?

So many of us come from water

but when you come from water

no one believes you.

Colonization keeps laughing.

Global warming is grinning

at all your grief.

How you mourn the loss of a home

that isn’t even gone yet.

That no one believes you’re from.

How everyone is beginning

to hear more about your island

but only in the context of

vacations and honeymoons,

football and military life,

exotic women exotic fruit exotic beaches

but never asks about the rest of its body.

The water.

The islands breathing in it.

The reason why they’re sinking.

No one visualizes islands in the Pacific

as actually being there.

You explain and explain and clarify

and correct their incorrect pronunciation

and explain

until they remember just how vast your ocean is,

how microscopic your islands look in it,

how easy it is to miss when looking

on a map of the world.

Excuses people make

for why they didn’t see it

before.

[missedstations]

"Praise Poem in the Key of Diaspora" - Terisa Siagatonu

Praise the Ocean for teaching me that home is not location as much as it is belonging where I am wanted 

Praise the Ocean for always wanting me  for washing my body in and naming it child 

Praise the way the water bites at my ankles  but never breaks the skin 

Praise the skin on my ankle that had to break for the gun for the tatau drawn by the gun’s mouth in the hands 

of a tufuga during my first tatau appointment  on island when I was 17 years old 

Praise his cigarette break   so I could complete my sobbing in peace. 

Praise the umu, the underground oven of hot rocks and fire cooking the sweet coconut milk in the center of salted leaves for palusami 

for the thick talo and soft fattiness of octopus tentacles  Praise the crinkled crack of metal on the edge of every can of tuna 

greasy from oiled chunks of fish, peppered over a bowl of hot rice Praise the ground as dining room table 

as only place to eat  at eating at the feet of our elders as the talking chief blessed us in prayer 

Praise the mother mosquito and her obsession with the back of my legs Praise the stench of repellant that stuck to my skin like boobie trap 

like tourist trick  like 2nd generation 

like “not quite from here”  Praise the heavenly scorch of heat behind my ears 

Praise the lowered heads and crossed legs atop each woven fala mat Praise the village of women who wove them 

the mulberry bark that was beaten enough to braid  Praise the broken flip flops running alongside flattened frogs

on the road headed towards the church house Praise the choir of children 

who sing with one tongue.  Praise the way we lay our dead to rest in front of each house 

how there is no need for cemeteries  if our kin never really die 

Praise the way they return home to us  Praise home 

Praise us.

[bookclub4m]

45 New & Forthcoming Indie Press Books by BIPOC Authors 

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.

Fiction

Weird Black Girls: Stories by Elwin Cotman (AK Press)

False Idols: A Reluctant King Novel by K’Wan (Akashic Books)

Sister Deborah by Scholastique Mukasonga, translated by Mark Polizzotti (Archipelago Books)

Bad Land by Corinna Chong (Arsenal Pulp Press)

These Letters End in Tears by Musih Tedji Xaviere (Catapult)

The Coin by Yasmin Zaher (Catapult)

Cecilia by K-Ming Chang (Coffee House Press)

Fog & Car by Eugene Lim (Coffee House Press)

We’re Safe When We’re Alone by Nghiem Tran (Coffee House Press)

A Woman of Pleasure by Kiyoko Murata, translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter (Counterpoint Press)

Bad Seed by Gabriel Carle, translated by Heather Houde (Feminist Press)

The Default World by Naomi Kanakia (Feminist Press)

The Singularity by Balsam Karam, translated by Saskia Vogel (Feminist Press)

I'll Give You a Reason by Annell López (Feminist Press)

Tongueless by Lau Yee-Wa, translated by Jennifer Feeley (Feminist Press)

Outcaste by Sheila James (Goose Lane Editions)

Silken Gazelles by Jokha Alharthi, translated by Marilyn Booth (House of Anansi Press)

Dad, I Miss You by Nadia Sammurtok, illustrated by Simji Park (Inhabit Media)

Secrets of the Snakestone by Pia DasGupta (Nosy Crow)

The Burrow by Melanie Cheng (Tin House)

Masquerade by Mike Fu (Tin House)

The World With Its Mouth Open: Stories by Zahid Rafiq (Tin House)

I Love You So Much It's Killing Us Both by Mariah Stovall (Soft Skull Press)

Non-Fiction

RAPilates: Body and Mind Conditioning in the Digital Age by Chuck D and Kathy Lopez (Akashic Books)

All Our Ordinary Stories: A Multigenerational Family Odyssey by Teresa Wong (Arsenal Pulp Press)

Dispersals: On Plants, Borders, and Belonging by Jessica J. Lee (Catapult)

My Pisces Heart: A Black Immigrant's Search for Home Across Four Continents by Jennifer Neal  (Catapult)

Beyond the Mountains: An Immigrant's Inspiring Journey of Healing and Learning to Dance with the Universe by Deja Vu Prem (Catapult)

Out of the Sierra: A Story of Rarámuri Resistance by Victoria Blanco (Coffee House Press)

Thunder Song: Essays by Sasha LaPointe (Counterpoint Press)

Born to Walk: My Journey of Trials and Resilience by Alpha Nkuranga (Goose Lane Editions)

Jinny Yu (At Once/À La Fois) by Jinny Yu (Goose Lane Editions)

Log Off: Why Posting and Politics (Almost) Never Mix by Katherine Cross (LittlePuss Press)

Becoming Little Shell: A Landless Indian’s Journey Home by Chris La Tray (Milkweed Editions)

World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments  by Aimee Nezhukumatathil (Milkweed Editions)

Opacities: On Writing and the Writing Life by Sofia Samatar (Soft Skull Press)

The Story Game by Shze-Hui Tjoa (Tin House)

Black Meme: The History of the Images That Make Us by Legacy Russell (Verso Books)

Poetry

i heard a crow before i was born by Jules Delorme (Goose Lane Editions)

We the Gathered Heat: Asian American and Pacific Islander Poetry, Performance, and Spoken Word edited by Franny Choi, Bao Phi, Noʻu Revilla, and Terisa Siagatonu (Haymarket Books)

A Map of My Want by Faylita Hicks (Haymarket Books)

[...] by Fady Joudah (Milkweed Editions)

Comics

A Witch’s Guide to Burning by Aminder Dhaliwal (Drawn & Quarterly)

Oba Electroplating Factory by Yoshiharu Tsuge (Drawn & Quarterly)

Lost at Windy River by  Jillian Dolan, Trina Rathgeber and Alina Pete (Orca Books)

[nationaldvam]

Terisa Siagatonu is a brilliant Samoan poet, educator, and more. She speaks beautifully about the complexity of “AAPI,” anti-Blackness within Oceania, and prison and police abolition. #1Thing you can do this Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (#APAHM) is check out her work and welcome her brilliance into your space. 💙

[buttonpoetry]

When you ask your parents about the monsters in your closet did they tell you there was nothing to be ashamed of? That even those in closets have monsters of their own?

Terisa Siagatonu, "Trigger"

[profeminist]

For those not keeping track, so far President @rihanna has: 

 - covered the cost of ventilators in her home country of Barbados 

- donated $5 million to fight #COVID19 in Haiti, Malawi, Barbados & the U.S. 

- donated personal protective equipment for the state of New York

- Terisa Siagatonu 

Sharing tweet from NY Gov. Cuomo, “I want to thank @rihanna and the Rihanna Foundation for donating Personal Protective Equipment to New York State. We're so appreciative of your help and that of so many others who have stepped up. “

“Wherever I go...I’m an immigrant. I think people forget that a lot of times. I think they see Rihanna the brand. But I think it’s important for ppl to remember, if you love me, everyone out here is just like me. A million Rihannas out there, getting treated like dirt.” -@rihanna 

- Terisa Siagatonu 

[feuillesmortes]

— Terisa Siagatonu, excerpt from Ink Knows No Borders: Poems of the Immigrant and Refugee Experience; “Ethnic Studies”

[lavenderseekerflame]

Deserving Terisa Siagatonu He runs the gun down my sternum  wrists pressed against my breasts the ink sharp from the lip of the gun’s hum. Exhale only when he loosens. Carrie captures all of this on film. Photos failing to  snap my ancestors guiding his hand down my chest. I ask him about Rihanna, and he tells me his friend was pressured into doing it. She makes a new tattoo appointment once she returns to America, to cover up  the indigenous ink she received here and I’m reminded of my own unworthiness that I sometimes throw in the backseat  of my pride. She didn’t deserve that tatau.  I get that.  I plan to get my malu one day, but I just don’t feel  like I deserve it yet, I tell him as his body is still pressed against mine, his precision below my chin, steady and solemn. I find it interesting, he says, when people say  they don’t feel like they     ‘deserve’ their malu. To me, your malu feels like your birthright   no?  I swallow without speaking.  My breath held captive  in his indigenous hands. Between each buzz of the gun’s mouth  on my indigenous skin.

[joshuajacksonlyblog]

The Marshall Islands Will Proceed with SOV Cryptocurrency

The next stage for SOV cryptocurrency was revealed yesterday at Invest: Asia. The RMI is moving ahead with a timed-release monetary issuance.

The Marshall Islands announced the creation of the first-ever legal tender issued as a cryptocurrency, the Sovereign (SOV) back in February 2018. Yet since then, things have gone a bit quiet. 

Yesterday, however, at the Invest: Asia cryptocurrency conference in Singapore, the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) announced that it is moving ahead with its blockchain-based national currency after all.

The Marshall Islands is on track to have a blockchain-based national currency, the Marshallese SOV. And it's arguably more than just a 'tiny isolated Pacific nation' https://t.co/jIyfpmo8KH

— Deepa Kumar (@dipaah) September 12, 2019

The Next Stage for RMI’s SOV Cryptocurrency

Environment Minister and Minister-in-Assistance to the President of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) David Paul, announced the next step for SOV cryptocurrency. 

The team behind its creation (including blockchain export and Strategy Lead on Malta’s National Blockchain Task Force Steve Tendon) plans to introduce it in “a highly visible way” before its circulation in the Islands is initiated.

SOV will be introduced to the market gradually through a Timed Release Monetary Issuance (TRMI) rather like a token pre-sale.

All units sold during the timed-release period will be exchanged for the Marshallese SOV upon its official launch (no date for that yet). 

Minister Paul explained that SOV was not only an opportunity for the Islands to create their own money for the first time (they currently use the U.S. dollar) but that it “enshrines our Marshallese values.”

More Than Just a Government-Backed Cryptocurrency

According to its webpage, “unlike Bitcoin, Libra, or other cryptocurrencies,” SOV is money just like the dollar or the euro, however:

SOV also has advantages over traditional government-issued currencies, as it leverages innovations in cryptocurrencies.

The Mashall Islands faces several pressing issues brought about by climate change and an ongoing health crisis due to nuclear testing at its Bikini Atoll coral reef.

If you’re not familiar w/ the Marshall Islands: it’s the island that the U.S. military nuclear tested 67 bombs on. The biggest one was dropped on Bikini Atoll, causing an explosion 1000x bigger than the bomb we dropped on Hiroshima.

0.00001% of the world’s global emission. https://t.co/NMgFqeBdN4

— Terisa Siagatonu (@terisasiagatonu) September 10, 2019

The creation of SOV cryptocurrency is about much more than simply issuing a digital blockchain-based legal tender. It’s about finding solutions to sustaining the island into the future.

The bulk of the sale proceeds is going to be placed in trust funds which will be used to combat the multiple issues the tiny country faces.

‘Blockchain Changes Everything’

Isolated in the Pacific Ocean with a population of just 75,000, the sovereign nation faces many problems beyond its climate and health crises. Currently, the country receives funding from the United States, yet that will come to an end in 2023.

Moreover, due to its remoteness, the RMI is hampered by logistical challenges and Marshallese citizens currently endure high remittance costs of as much as 10% per transaction. However, “blockchain changes everything,” Minister Paul said.

How Will the SOV Work Exactly?

SOV is backed and issued by the Marshallese government on a specially developed blockchain that has built-in compliance features. It is algorithmically programmed to grow at a fixed rate of 4% per year. This, the minister explained, will make it “sustainable, fair, safe and simple.” 

The government won’t be able to interfere and print money at will and its people are protected from high inflation wiping out their wealth. While the SOV cryptocurrency will be the Islands’ legal tender, the U.S. dollar will still circulate after its launch, at least initially.

Thanks to its built-in compliance (only verified users will be able to transact in SOV), it will reduce the country’s burden and effectively help fight against money laundering and financing of terrorism.

Moreover, on top of its fixed supply growth, newly created SOV cryptocurrency will be sent to eligible holders–all Marshallese citizens. They will also receive an equal share of 10% of the initial currency supply–another world-first that “no other government has done.”

What is the future of Marshall Island’s SOV cryptocurrency? Will it find widespread acceptance? Share your thought. 

Images via Bitcoinist Image Library, Twitter: @dipaah, @terisasiagatonu

The post The Marshall Islands Will Proceed with SOV Cryptocurrency appeared first on Bitcoinist.com.

from Cryptocracken Tumblr https://ift.tt/30caDTp via IFTTT

[missedstations]

“Deserving” - Terisa Siagatonu

He runs the gun down my sternum   wrists pressed against my breasts the ink sharp from the lip of the gun’s hum. Exhale only when he loosens. Carrie captures all of this on film. Photos failing to   snap my ancestors guiding his hand down my chest.

I ask him about Rihanna, and he tells me his friend was pressured into doing it. She makes a new tattoo appointment once she returns to America, to cover up   the indigenous ink she received here and I’m reminded of my own unworthiness that I sometimes throw in the backseat   of my pride. She didn’t deserve that tatau.   I get that.  

I plan to get my malu one day, but I just don’t feel   like I deserve it yet, I tell him as his body is still pressed against mine, his precision below my chin, steady and solemn. I find it interesting, he says, when people say   they don’t feel like they     ‘deserve’ their malu. To me, your malu feels like your birthright   no?   I swallow without speaking.   My breath held captive   in his indigenous hands. Between each buzz of the gun’s mouth   on my indigenous skin.  

[thegiesorc-blog]

Poet, educator, and activist Terisa Siagatonu is giving a poetry workshop next week on September 18th. Check also the meet and greet and poetry slam on the same day! https://www.instagram.com/p/B2Ms7sulIxe/?igshid=a2p4lzu73zgo

[peraltacolleges]

Celebrate #Asian & Pacific Islander American (APIA) Heritage Month in May at CoA! First event is tomorrow, Tuesday, April 30, noon-1pm, F-Bldg Pit, #free buffet lunch and Keynote Address by renown Spoken Word Poet/Educator Terisa Siagatonu. #poetry #poet @terisasiagatonu @collegealameda https://www.instagram.com/peraltacolleges/p/Bw2QCM-B3_2/?igshid=1h45k4v2kc9tx

[buttonpoetry]

At least her words will feel like a mirror critiquing its own reflection, the kind of hate that makes you feel more at home and less like the floorboards.

Terisa Siagatonu, "Note to Self"

[gomezisabellas]

SLAM POETRY PLAYLIST

Some of you may know (from following me or being my friend and listening to me ramble about it) that I am a big fan of slam poetry/spoken word. I decided to compile a list of my favorites to share with you all. Please be aware that the majority of these poems deal with sensitive subjects such as: race/racism, rape, death, homophobia, sexism, and mental illness. I will put a warning for these. If you have any poems you think I would like, send them in and I might put them here because I’m always looking for more!

Explaining My Depression To My Mother - Sabrina Benaim (Mental illness TW)

Dear Straight People - Denice Frohman (Homophobia TW)

OCD - Neil Hilborn (Mental illness TW)

In Which I Do Not Fear Harvey Dent - Brenna Twohy (Mental illness TW)

Another Rape Poem - Brenna Twohy (Rape TW)

Rape Joke - Rhiannon McGavin and Belissa Escobedo (Rape TW)

Somewhere In America - Rhiannon McGavin, Belissa Escobedo and Zariya Allen

Fantastic Breasts and Where to Find Them - Brenna Twohy

Anxiety: A Ghost Story - Brenna Twohy (Mental illness TW)

Shrinking Women - Lily Myers

Lost Voices - Darius Simpson and Scout Bostley (Racism and sexism TW)

‘Cuz He’s Black - Javon Johnson (Racism TW)

People You May Know - Kevin Kantor (Rape TW)

Halloween - #BNV13 Finals: Washington DC

There’s A War Going On in My City - #BNV13 Finals: Washington DC (Racism and Islamophobia TW)

Friend Zone - Dylan Garity (Rape TW) 

Ten Responses to the Phrase ‘Man Up’ - Guante

What Kind of Asian Are You? - Alex Dang (Racism TW)

Sons - Terisa Siagatonu & Rudy Francisco (Rape TW)

To This Day Fritos Make Me Think of Getting Busy - Brenna Twohy (Homophobia and death TW)

The Nineteen Text Messages to You Stuck in My Drafts Box - Brenna Twohy

Like G*d - #BNV13 Quarter Finals: Washington DC (Anti-semitism, Islamophobia, Israel/Palestine conflict TQ) 

Dear Mr. Anonymous - #BNV13 Finals: Albuquerque (Racism and sexism TW)

The Problem With First Dates (or, How To Really Really Really Not Get Laid) - Brenna Twohy

If I Should Have a Daughter - Sarah Kay

Hiroshima - Sarah Kay

Pavement - Rhiannon McGavin (Rape TW)

The Type - Sarah Kay

An Origin Story - Sarah Kay and Phil Kaye

When Love Arrives - Sarah and Phil Kaye

Postcards - Sarah Kay

21 - Patrick Roche (Death and alcoholism TW)

Tampon Poem - Sierra DeMulder

And the News Reporter Says Jesus is White - Crystal Valentine (Racism TW)

Nearest Exit - Brenna Twohy (Addiction TW)

Conversations About Top Chef - Brenna Twohy (Death TW)

The Fisherman Takes the Fish Home and Tells Her that He Loves Her - Brenna Twohy

Scars/To The New Boyfriend - Rudy Francisco

When The Fat Girl Gets Skinny - Blythe Baird (Eating disorder and body image TW)

The Period Poem - Dominique Christina

[feuillesmortes]

— Terisa Siagatonu, excerpt from Ink Knows No Borders: Poems of the Immigrant and Refugee Experience; “Ethnic Studies”

[mudaship39]

Too real as someone mixed Vietnamese French & Polynesian Tahitian who hates racism anti native racism antiblackness colorism & eurocentric standards of beauty