Opal Palmer Adisa has two master's degrees from
San Francisco State University, and a
PhD from the
University of California at Berkeley. She has previously taught undergraduate and graduate courses at
California College of the Arts,
Stanford University,
University of Berkeley, and San Francisco State University. From 1993 to 2017, Adisa taught
writing and
literature, and served as Chair of the Ethnic Studies/Cultural Diversity Program at the
California College of Arts and Crafts in
Oakland. In the spring of 2010, she was visiting professor and editor at the
University of the Virgin Islands (UVI),
St. Croix Campus, and for two years she edited
The Caribbean Writer, UVI’s famous journal of
Caribbean literature. In September 2017, she was appointed to the position of Director of the Institute for Gender and Development Studies at the
University of the West Indies in
Mona, Jamaica, where she currently resides. In 2018, Adisa was awarded Professor
Emeritus status, in honor of her 25 years of contributions to California College of the Arts and in her field. An important element of her poetry is the use of
nation language, about which she has said: "I have to credit
Louise Bennett for granting me permission, so to speak, to write in Nation Language, because it was her usage that allowed me to see the beauty of our language. Moreover, there are just some things that don’t have the same sense of intimacy or color if not said in Nation language.... I use nation language when it is the only way and the best way to get my point across, to say what I mean from the center of my navel. But I also use it, to interrupt and disrupt standard English as s reminder to myself that I have another tongue, but also to jolt readers to listen and read more carefully, to glean from the language the Caribbean sensibilities that I am always pushing, sometimes subtly, other times more forcefully. Nation language allows me to infuse the poem with all of the smells and colors of home." == Artists residencies ==