Tallawah (adj.): a Jamaican Patois word meaning “strong” or “resilient.” Jamaica’s unofficial motto is said to be Wi likkle, but wi tallawah. (We are small, but we are mighty.)
Jo (Foderingham) Brown (she/her and he/him) is a writer, giant nerd, and an ATLien expat up north.
Jo was born and raised in the Deep South with strong Caribbean sensibilities. She comes from a family of Black women committed to teaching, cultural organizing, pop culture, archival practice, and the humanities. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and an MFA in Creative Writing from American University.
Her research revolves around Black/white interracial relationships and desire, American popular culture, and multiracial identity formation in the United States. She sees television, film, social media (especially Twitter), fandom life, and professional sports (especially the NBA) as fascinating, fun, and worthy objects of study. Common subjects of her poetry are misogynoir, Blackness, interpersonal relationships, and her Jamaican heritage.
Jo loves keeping up with the NBA, nerding out over sports, watching movies on her DVD player, reading (books and fanfiction), and public libraries. She is an emo kid turned emo grown-up, an Atlanta Hawks fan, a libra, and an amateur archivist of her own life. She was mildly Tumblr famous in high school and she has a tattoo of a flip phone.
You can check out her published poetry, articles, and other writings at the Publications & Presentations tab. Jo is also quite active on Twitter and Instagram. You can also find her on Letterboxd, Goodreads, and Spotify.
Tallawah Thoughts 