Warning to the House That Holds Me
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A Warning to the House That Holds Me builds on the milestones and mythology of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo to perform a deeply personal act of reclaiming power. Fully aware of the political significance of rejecting the dominant, Amina weaves together a series of poems that pay homage to her home country and lineage - exploring displacement, dual nationality and Somali history. Drawing on a long tradition of Somali storytelling, these poems achieve the complex balance of being as conversational as they are crafted. Brimming in them is a sense of longing for escape, yet accepting the inescapable reality of generational trauma and the ever present grip of a mother's embrace.
Amina Jama is a Somali-British writer. An alumna of Barbican Young Poetry and member of Octavia Poetry Collective, Amina has performed internationally and her work has been published in numerous anthologies. She was Assistant Facilitator for the Roundhouse Poetry Collective at the age of 19 and is now the co-host of BoxedIn.
In 2019, Amina curated the installation and exhibition Somalinimo till I dhimo x Dear Ayeeyo which toured at the Roundhouse, Black Cultural Archives and Free Word Centre in London. She has also completed commissions for the BBC, Nationwide, The Queens Gallery, Buckingham Palace and the London Mayor's Office.
Her published work includes; 'The Things I Would Tell You' (ed. Sabrina Mahfouz, 2017), and the children's books 'Rising Stars' (2017) and 'Poems Out Loud' (2019). Amina was shortlisted for the Outspoken 2018 Poetry Prize and is currently studying for a BA in English with Creative Writing at Goldsmiths University. 'A Warning to the House That Holds Me' is her debut pamphlet.