Jamika Ajalon

Jamika Ajalon, born in the US, lived in Chicago and New York before she settled in London, tours with her Paris-based band Zenzile. Her searing and sensual delivery of poetry and lyrics has won her appearances at venues in Chicago, New York, Uganda and France, together with the Tony Allen Band, the Urban Poets and too many DJs to mention. She has appeared solo at the Jazz Café, the Barbican, LIFT and the Eclipse Festival in France. Her work has been anthologised in Wasafiri, Gargoyle and Bittersweet, and her award-winning short film, Cultural Skit’zo’frenia has been screened in the UK and US. She is currently working on her first novel AlienNation.
Bittersweet was nominated for Best Book in the EMMA Awards 2000 and has achieved widespread media coverage including BBC, the Guardian, The Independent on Sunday, Express, Time Out, Elle, Pride and The Big Issue. Since the book was first published in 1998 (The Women’s Press) a tour with the contributing authors was organized and has been staged at over 20 venues in Europe, including The City Arts Centre (Dublin), The Royal Festival Hall (London) and the Rome Poetry Festival. It has been adopted by the British Council for touring world wide as part of their promotion of New British Writing and will also tour Switzerland and Amsterdam in 2002.