Jenna James, is a UK/US national, raised in North London, and currently writing and making in Kalamazoo, Michigan. In her creative works, she connects the dots between global and local, applying concepts of globality, both studied and stemming from experience, to homegrown scenarios whilst incorporating thought on ecological thrivation. Empathetic sociological fiction and intimate personal symbols makes their way into her design, film, theater, and artworks.
Writing at a glance
Podcast: Excerpt from Language Learning Personal Commentary
Being exposed to what linguist, Stephen Krashen describes as ‘input, input, input’ seems impossible to orchestrate in a nation that has evolved towards monocultural assimilation.
And yet, with the plethora of linguistic resources our wealthy nation is granted access to we are still tongue-tied in the face of those that do not function in America’s lingua franca. In fact, we don’t even try. Native English speakers are deemed valiant and progressive for their efforts to culturally ‘better’ themselves, function on holiday in foreign countries, even stave off the thievery of dementia via ‘language learning.’
Accessible Science Writing: A Podcast
The Rain Falls Mainly on the Plains:
Uranium Mining in the Dinétah (Episode 4)
Welcome to Episode 4 of our weekly podcast: The Rain Falls Mainly on the Plains which explores the history, language and culture of America’s Indigenous Population. Today’s episode synopsizes the research of Judy Pasternak who wrote “Yellow Dirt,” a book that sheds light on the infamous Uranium mining in Navajo Nation. Pasternak’s efforts to both witness and document the historical progression of lucrative mining in the communities of Navajo Nation as well as the painful demise of those involved with these projects, are invaluable resources. Once published and accessible, the world can the see the vital role of indigenous communities in the uplifting of American international power as well as the tragedy that swiftly followed. Let’s get started, there is much to learn.
Creative Non-Fiction
The Lumberyard
You see, we were cutting trees down like ribbons. Each piece cirque-du-soleiling down to the ground as everyone stands off to the side, the rakers and ass-haulers, with arms outstretched to meet the 300 pound wedge of cheese. After the cut, the limb is in the control of one strong-armed handler. The strong-armed handler lives at the end of the rope and relies on the weight distribution that is shared between the careening wood, a rope slung over an even taller crotch of another bough, and their rooted body weight. The rakers and ass-haulers stand, ready to drag the once espaliered canopy to the most violent of deaths: obliteration by wood chipper.
Activism Writing: Special Report on Climate Justice Talk ft. Dr Clements
2021 COP Conference
The notion of climate change as the monster of the poor reigns supreme as ‘black swan events’ are just beyond the horizon of the global north… for now. The necessity of ‘adaptation’ versus mere ‘mitigation’ in the face of mass migration from environmentally luck-stricken areas has catalyzed a building pressure that may finally flip the switch of understanding of climate crisis from zero-sum-game to non-zero-sum-game.
Perhaps necessarily, the grandiosity of speeches and esteemed guests guide the general public away from paralysis, cheerleading us towards a soft activism and a stoic move away from ignorance. However, the festive novelty of international collaboration and promise-making is dangerously subject to short-term memory loss. As everyone returns to their respective countries, the diversity of our notion of ‘home’ across the globe is equally diverse in the experience of loss of home.
Flash Fiction:
Americans
“And in America, they have restaurants where you only eat melted cheese”
“That’s ridiculous, your mother can melt cheese all day- no-one is knocking on our door to give her money and expecting napkins”
“Maybe this is an American tradition?”
“Americans have no traditions. They call themselves the melting pot- they boiled away all their rituals”
“That’s the name of the restaurant”
“What is?”
“The Melting Pot.”
While we were driving, my best friend realized that she had forgotten her bathing suit. At the store she bought a white bathing suit that was cheap and I bought a bag of cherries. When we arrived at the beach, the sand was light brown because it had rained. We ate the cherries with sandy fingers. She got in the water first and a huge wave hit her from behind. She almost lost her cheap bathing suit.
1. Can you list all of the words that indicate the past?
2. Can you list some descriptive words you found in the piece?
3. Are there any words you do not recognize?
4. Can you describe a trip you took with a friend?
Curriculum Resources: ESL Stories and Follow-up Questions
The Road Trip
Art Writing: Chinese Bi and Anish Kapoor’s Hollow
Kapoor, world renowned for his marriage of pigments, metals and man-made materials, utilizes fiberglass to create the cupping membrane. Modern technology enables the razor sharp cuts and perfection that is characteristic of Kapoor’s work. It appears free of manipulation. Despite the sterility of the sculpture that could give way to a trendy and unforgettable modernity, ‘Hollow,’ is inspiring in it’s transportation of the spiritual self back to in-vitro. Acting as a nemonic device, the art sends us, once again into a cloud of red…The iconography of the circle and it’s power evidently still speaks to us as artists and as humans. The removal of obvious meaning from these objects intrigues me. Although these pieces exude a fullness, a significant, arguably the most significant portion of them, has been taken away. We are left with the frame or membrane, like an egg without a yolk.
The charming ascent of Alma and Woodcock’s love affair is the equivalent of underpainting for what will later be a relationship of deeper affection. Anderson toes the line, at risk of creating a film that merely sugar plum dances its way through a genre that has been enumerably explored. Fortunately, the pace of Phantom Thread quickens as Alma calmly harvests fungal skull and crossbones, adding them to a simple meal, and with lackluster discretion poisons Woodcock to the brink of expiration. Her alabaster hands then bring him back to life as an artist but more importantly, a devoted lover. He is far from ignorant to this process and the diminishment of his faults renders them addicted to this routine of poisoning and resurrection. Repeatedly portrayed with an unnerving sensuality by Anderson, the overt sadism of our heroine arrests any notion that this is just another period drama.
Several desires nay improvements that I take entire responsibility for; the wish that there was even more food as there was so little sex and that Daniel Day Lewis was not wearing pajamas under his robe. I wish that the ‘money shot’ of Woodcock and Alma dancing at the fancy dress party would extend for at least an hour more so that everyone else in the cinema would have left and only I, in solitude, was able to stare at these tall strangers until my lids grew heavy, mum and dad, in love, the last thing I see. And, I wish that the one-liner that everyone has hung their hat on was not, “He likes a little belly” (McDonough et al).
Daniel Day Lewis appreciative of a little belly? I could’ve guessed.
Film Criticism: A Review
Phantom Thread by Paul Thomas Anderson
In 1991, the Soviet Union had unchained it’s components from one another, to varying degrees of success and stability. In my ignorance, I had assumed the West was somewhat ushered in, even rushed in after the loosening of Russia’s grip on Central Asian nations. But only because my father was accepted at the Ministry of Education in Kazakhstan as an English teacher. In the outset of independence, English was to be learned, industry to be nourished, resources to be found and burned.
Of course, this is my understanding because the memories have been rendered fabled, with little geopolitical context. Untethered is the anecdote of us all, seated in window seats in the first McDonalds ever opened in winter stricken Moscow, waiting for visiting American grandparents to make their way through the line that spanned blocks. My grandparents were just visiting, my family in truth were just visiting, and in turn, the whole world was also visiting this once closed circuit of culture, literature, and norms that now lay live wired, cables exposed. Stephen and Barbara, thirty and thirty-one respectively, launched into language learning, navigating religious customs and a robust Soviet drinking culture, and the impending release of their children to school days conducted in Russian and Kazakh.
Introductory Statement: Auto-ethnography Project
Kazakhstan
The U.K. is cited several times in this book as the leader of efforts in service of multiculturalism. The small, coastal land has experienced historical flows of internationals, global commerce networks and colonisation efforts. All are possible instruments with which its’ identity has been created. Linguistic shifts due to battles won and battles lost are a stark reminder of the evolution and long history of English-ness as an amalgamation of newcomers gifts and impositions… As the “urban left” activists from the U.K. were inspired by American civil rights movements to champion the cause of equality, arguably many are inspired by the U.S. in their push toward homogeneity and nationalism (Chin 248). That being said, the embrace of “saris, samosas and steel drums,” however, complicated and problematic implies an lasting portrait of visible communities that have no plans of leaving uncelebrated (Chin 266).
International Interest and Ethnographic Commentary: The Crisis of Multiculturalism in Europe, A History by Rita Chin
Some of her (Fiona Hill) more chilling comments were those that nodded to the “weaponizing of refugees,” “wanton destruction” and potential assault on food security. With Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Russia as leading suppliers of grains it led me to research additional goods the U.S. receives and sends to and from Russia. According to ustr.gov, Russia’s imports into the U.S. dwarfs that which we export to Russia and mainly consists of raw materials, many of which are utilized in domestic agriculture. However, the opposite is true for Foreign Direct Investment- The U.S. invested 14.4 billion FDI in 2019) in comparison to Russia’s 4.4 billion FDI in 2019, demonstrating that the U.S. has more than just natural gas and petrochemicals to lose from severed ties across multiple financial landscapes. This will be nothing in comparison to Russia’s future generations and the future of Ukraine who have all potential to be lost at sea during this outbreak of violence and calamitous economic downturn brought on by a marauding autocrat.
Political Writing: Fiona Hill Russia/Ukraine Crisis Talk 2022
Shafak allows Asya to explore her identity in several moments of private and public introspection. In my reading of the text, the most notable was her explanation as to why she calls her mother ‘Auntie’ and her protestation in the chatroom when asked to apologize for the sins of her father. She asserts that she is raised by Aunties, Aunties who represent the many echelons of Turkish society. Arguably, she is raised by Turkey itself. I enjoyed the notion that Turkey could be embodied by a household of women. And although she does ask forgiveness for her ancestor’s atrocities from the chatroom filled with Armenians, it compounds her warring desire to remain an enigma of individualism whilst also being curious about her roots. Perhaps she comes to terms with the discomfort regarding history as the mystery surrounding it is dispelled and fear of the unknown dissipates. A necessary maturity begins to grow in Asya as the book progresses and it is through her relationship with Armanoush that she shares the more generous parts of herself and the city that she loves.
Literary Analysis: Elif Shafak’s The Bastard of Istanbul
Under the guise of a new form of conscientious democracy that opened the doors of politics to Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese military continued to commit atrocities of arson, harassment, rape, murder and denial of citizenship. The international community, pleased with the civic progress, lifted sanctions, their Foreign Direct Investment was welcomed, and Myanmar borders became more porous to aid and outside organizations (Kham, 2021). However, as Myanmar began exporting images and stories of horrors, Narayan asserts that it is important to note that the ASEAN remains silent as aid and military investment continue to flow from China. The events known as ‘clearance operations’ have caused impoverished and terrified Rohingya (78% in poverty) to seek refuge in Bangladesh, a country who have experienced an influx of more than 720,000. This ‘stateless’ population, Narayan argues have been stripped of voting rights, limited legal documentation, banned from free movement with restrictions on access to education, employment and marriage. In retaliation to ARSA resistance and attacks, the Rohingya have felt the hand of brutal ‘justice’ that has left 7000 dead including 700 children Narayan reports from Doctors Without Borders.
Journalistic Notes: Pratima Narayan Report on Rohingya in Bangladesh
Straddling the line between nationality and globality, globality being an understanding of the world as one whole, allows these female artists to curate an embodiment of the trinity of culture, human experience and womanhood. Their communal identity as women and the other-ness experienced by all four artists as women in the arts have rendered them both outsider and insider. In explanation, their ethnographical explorations of self allow them to express themselves as essentially artist, essentially Colombian, essentially Cuban and essentially women…
The absence or belatedness of a unified global outcry at the rate at which women are subject to violence and death at the hands of male peers and family is a product of the socially gendered hierarchy that has been maintained, with few exceptions, throughout recorded civilization. As language and conceptions surrounding female violence evolves, both institution and society grapple with the omission and lamentably silent data that was neither officially recorded or even collected. And now, as evidence is laid bare the world asks, “what now?” Within this literature review I looked to scholars, particularly feminists theorists, that could provide insight on the progression of the classifying of “violence against women” and although my paper focuses on resistance of Latin American female artists, it is important to understand the nuances of to what they are resistant: a universal silence. For it is not a singular monster, the perpetrators of the acts, that are the catalysts for their pieces, though the existence of a terrorizer is evident in the subjects of their work. The artist awards no glory by way of name calling. However, there also exists no mentions of swift conventional justice within these works as for all of the victims immortalized in these works, there was none. By placing the stories of their muses in the setting of creativity they are placed center stage, the artist breaks the silence…
Suchland further analyzes, through the lenses of feminist theologians, the concepts of the “flexibilization and informalization” of female labor and the consequent atrophy of the value of the women in an exploitative world system that has in the words of Foucault, “the power to ‘make’ live and ‘let’ die” (Moss 12). One could argue that within society when violence does not necessarily end in death or conviction but rather traumatization and the maintenance of status quo in the dominating constructions of men, perpetrators and non-perpetrators, the concept could be changed to ‘make’ live and ‘make quiet.’ In strong contrast, the art works discussed in this paper do not aid the maintenance of silence or women’s unimportant status. Victim centric, their beauty (the works) act as placeholders for beauty lost- as if they are actresses set upon the stage allowed to speak at will. The art works presence in the global art scene illustrate that, “These stories fit here and everywhere,” and are not mere data points within social studies or a nation’s human rights ranking of female experience in the world…
Art made in a spirit of resistance is not necessary synonymous with always producing an ugliness, real or metaphorical. The women making art do not always have messy hair. Each of the artworks discussed in this paper utilize aesthetically pleasing elements; bold colors, the historically celebrated beauty of the female form in art, flowers, splashes of pigment, smiles. Khrebtan-Hörhager quotes Bell Hooks in their discussion of art, performance art and resistance, stating that these chosen elements, I would add beautifications within a piece are “locations” of “freedom of expression” or meeting places for the collective eye (Khrebtan-Hörhager qtd. Hooks138). The works themselves are vessels for the admiration and lamentation each artist possesses for their subjects. The process of beautification is a natural inclination for not only the feminine identifying but of those who feel…
Rape Scene (1973), Mendieta’s most explicit work- in theme and narrative- was a flexing of her growing affinity for performance art. Although the piece is glaringly graphic and as a photographic still, lacking in context, the intimate audience was at the time of the performed piece aware of the immediate historicity of the piece. Rape Scene (1973) is an homage to a sexually assaulted and murdered nursing student at Mendieta’s university. Chronicling the event via a two hour long performance and photographic captures, Mendieta amplifies the violence of the reported story and makes real. This real-ness forces the spectator to in essence maintain eye contact with the act and the victim though her face is turned away. The recreation in all of it’s detail acts as a regathering of evidence. The viewer becomes part of this process.
All is dark but Mendieta’s frame. Smeared in blood and lifeless therefore devoid of sexual allure to the general public, Mendieta recreates the manner in which the women was found, wrapped around the edge of a table, bound and expired. Having documented this piece with a camera, Mendieta recreated it only once, in the woods, for an audience that could almost be classified as passersby. One could argue that the shock tactic employed by theatre was a gratuitous display of naive work by a budding artist, however, it is in the longevity that was attained via photography and the singularity of event that acted as a reminder that Mendieta’s victim-character did not come alive after the art piece , performing matinee and evening shows…
Stationed like guards within the halls of a hungry art world, these pieces are undeniable in their service of subject not style. The ineffable tragic-beauty of the works guide the eye to the underworld muse.
Long Form Writing: Women Who Paint, An Essay
(Excerpts) Four Latin American Female Artists Resisting Invisibility of Victims of Femicide.
I am euphoric as we head to the inner chamber,
a completely marbled room,
my reflection on the ceiling,
like Kiki Smith’s Lilith.
I am waved onto the marble slab,
5 feet away from my best friend, also nude.
I watch as I am washed by a middle aged woman
in flip flops who throws plastic bags of bubbles
over my naked body and then pours buckets
of warm water over me after she has dislodged all my dead skin
that I happily relinquished
to the tile floor.
I feel like a baby I say and gesture cradling… myself.
She nods and smiles as if to say,
“Hold yourself, slippery infant”
Travel Writing: A Poem
The Turkish Bath
2018 – Current
About the Writer
Born in California, with her early years in Kazakhstan and formative years spent in London England, Jenna James eventually relocated to a small German town near the Swiss border at 17 years of age. Several years later, she returned to America, had a stint back in London, and returned to the states once again. This timeline is splattered by plethoric work experiences that brought her to a variety of industries across both nations; animal rescue, gardening, hospital clerical, tree removal, black box theater, boutique lifestyle magazine, childcare, bakery management, 2020-style pandemic grocery, studio art assistant…The cultural and social shakeup of these many roles and transitions led to a transformative artistic emergence. Harnessing art and writing as forget-me-not devices has led to successful meaning-making during and after puzzling shape-shifting, the chapters of life (mundane & revelatory) and newness of place(s).
Themes of her work include multicultural identity, international awareness whilst functioning in monocultural-forward societies, artistic criticism and creative non-fiction emphasizing relational connection, hopefulness and power dynamics.
Jenna is currently working on a series of essays titled Labo(u)r and is in the editing process for two poetry collections titled The Train and Secretary. She is in the research process for an autoethnographical multimedia piece exploring her parents experiences in Central Asia as carers of young children and international educators in Central Asia in the early 90s.