Puʻuhnoua Society Celebration: Lā Hoʻihoʻi Ea Arts for Every Body
Puʻuhnoua Society, a long standing community arts and culture nonprofit, alongside local collaborator Lā Hoʻihoʻi Ea and national collaborators from the initiative One Nation One Project: ARTS FOR EVERY BODY, is demonstrating real-time how the arts can lead to healthier people and healthier communities. Artists, civic leaders, and community health providers in 18 cities and towns across America including Honolulu will simultaneously premiere an array of large-scale participatory art projects.
The culmination of over a year of supporting Hawaiʻi-based art collectives, over 80 storytellers, weavers, dancers, healers, voyagers, kapa makers, poets, musicians, photographers, lei makers, activists, creators and dreamers will come together to share their embodied understanding of EA, of self determination and sovereignty, through individual and collective acts of affirmation and resistance.
July 27th Highlights
10-3pm Keanahala and NiU NOW! share lauhala (pandanus) preparation,
weaving and ʻike niu (coconut knowledge) and practices
10-3pm Large scale banners of akua wāhine or ancient Hawaiian goddesses,
moʻolelo of place and accompanying zines
11-2pm Walt Keale and other talented local musicians invite community to sing
songs of sovereignty at Tūtū’s Hale
12-3pm 808 Breakers, Hawaiʻi’s Premiere Break Dancing Crew shares
Performances, Showcases, Intro Workshops, and Battle Competitions
1-2pm Guest speaker Uncle Walter Ritte with the Sierra Club of Hawai’i
Black Voices Matter
5th Annual Showcase of poetry, music, and comedy: Black Voices Matter is BACK!
Extremely Special Guest. Richmond, VA Poet Laureate, TedX Speaker, Comedian & Poet Roscoe Burnems is coming to island to blow us away with his incredible multitude of talents! We also have comedy by the hardest working comedian on island, Pepper Lamb, and music and poetry by the also multitalented JustDeeDee and DJ Wanderlust! All hosted by your 3x Hawaii Grand Slam Champion Z From Baltimore.
3rd Annual Juneteenth Block Party at Waikiki Shell
Welcome to the Juneteenth Block Party – a day filled with music, food, and fun.
Celebrate freedom and unity with live performances from local performers, delicious eats from local vendors, and activities for all ages including a Keiki Zone with bounce houses for the kids. Let's come together to honor this important day in history. Don't miss out on this unforgettable event!
Tau Dance Theater – IllumiNative 2023
Tau Dance Theater proudly presents its newest production, IllumiNative featuring special Guest Artist, James Pakootas. “Just Jamez”, is a modern-day story weaver, an influential, multi-award winning artist, producer, and filmmaker who cultivates change in the world through the power of words.
14th Annual Art at the Capitol
4th Annual Art at the Capitol presented by Hawaiʻi State Foundation on Culture and the Arts. Featuring:
• An invocation by poet Laureate Brandy Nālani McDougall
• Self-guided tours of artworks in the Capitol building (5pm)
• Hawaiʻi International Film Festival in the Senate Gallery
• Film by Nā Maka o ka ‘Āina in the House Gallery
• Live mele Hawaiʻi by Kamakawiwo‘ole: Osorio Band in the Lt Governor's Office
• Ballet in the rotunda
• Honolulu Theatre for Youth in the Auditorium
• Art in Conversation in Conference Room 325
U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón in The Green Room
Last month, The Green Room arts and ecology series returned to Oʻahu with U.S. Poet Laureate and Merwin Conservancy poet-in-residence Ada Limón.
Hosted at the historic Washington Place, the former home of Hawaiʻi's last reigning monarch Queen Liliʻuokalani, this special event featured a welcome reading from the newly appointed Hawai'i State Poet Laureate, Brandy Nālani Mc Dougall. This historic event was captured on video.
The event is free, and donations are welcome at the virtual “door” to support this public program, now in its tenth year. If you're unable to make the live broadcast, you can watch the replay for up to one month, as long as you've pre-registered.
Garden of Verses 2022: A Virtual Benefit for The Merwin Conservancy on the Occasion of W.S. Merwinʻs Birthday
The Merwin Conservancy will gather virtually with friends around the world to celebrate the legacy of W.S. Merwin, on the occasion of his birthday. Victoria Chang, Meera Dasgupta, Camille Dungy, Elizabeth Kolbert, Leland Miyano, Carol Moldaw, Pádraig Ó Tuama, Bill Porter aka Red Pine, Barbara Ras, Arthur Sze, and Terry Tempest Williams will read selections of William’s poetry.
The readings will weave together with the unfolding story of the palm garden—a place where imagination has long thrived. We hope you will join us for an hour of poems, palms, and stories of The Merwin Conservancy’s work to tend and share a garden that speaks to the world.
PeleKai Coffee- Poetry Open Mic
Monthly Poetry Open Mic Night. All are welcomed – any oral tradition from spoken word, short stories, poems, scenes from plays, anything!
From words you wrote or words that simply inspire you. The only rule is that you respect the safe space by showing kindness and compassion. The coffee shop will be open starting at 6p and offering Happy Hour coffee, tea and cold brew as well as the full menu, so come early, get a bevy and get ready for an interesting evening. If you'd like to participate "onstage" you can sign up ahead of time through a DM to @pelekaicoffee or email pelekaicoffee@gmail.com. You're also welcome to just show up!
ALL AGES and all loving people welcome.
Black Voices Matter: A Spoken Word Event
A Juneteenth Celebration! Black Voices Matter
Featuring Black Chakra & Shawn William with Z from Baltimore
Black Voices Matter: A Spoken Word Event
A Juneteenth Celebration! Black Voices Matter
Featuring Black Chakra & Shawn William with Z from Baltimore
Celebrate Micronesia Festival 2022: Belonging
We celebrate our many rich connections across time, place, and ocean, showing that while the pandemic presents barriers to being together, we continue to maintain connections, share cultural art, performances, poetry, stories, and resources of the islands of Micronesia. We invite you to join us in this celebration of Micronesian cultures and connections.
This will be a hybrid event, featuring virtual online discussions and in-person programming at Bishop Museum.
April Virtual Reading Challenge | National Poetry Month (April 1 - 30)
April is National Poetry Month!
This April, Hawaii State Public Library System challenges you to read and log at least 600 minutes, and complete any two (2) of the activities listed in the activities badges. These activities will encourage you to read, watch, and listen to poets’ work.
Three lucky participants will win a $25 gift certificate via a lucky prize drawing, courtesy of the Friends of the Library of Hawai‘i.
There will be additional virtual reading challenges this Spring. In May, we will celebrate Asian American & Pacific Islander Month.
Kalo Fest presented by Key Project
No plans this weekend? Swing by Key Project for this years Kalo Festival!
Food booths, coffee, snacks to fuel you through a fun-filled day of activities, entertainment and more.
Black Voices Matter featuring Brandon Leake
Manoa Valley Theatre and Volcanic Voices present the 3rd Annual Black Voices Matter
Spoken Word Poetry Showcase featuring America’s Got Talent winner Brandon Leake
Celebrate Black History Month and amplify Black voices with a 2-day showcase full of exhilarating and heartfelt spoken word poetry! Featuring the amazing AGT winner Brandon Leake! Also featuring Spoken Word Poetry legend Marc Marcel, HI Grand Slam Champion Z From Baltimore, viral sensation Poetic Prophecy, and hosted by everyone’s favorite host Temple Divine! This is sure to be a night of inspiration, introspection, laughs, goosebumps, and lots of fun!
EXCLUSIVE VIP PRE-SHOW EVENT
VIP Seating includes access to an exclusive Pre-show Meet and Greet with Brandon Leake and all the Black Voices Matter Artists. 6:00 - 7:00 PM on the Lanai at Manoa Valley Theatre. Drinks and Pupus included.
Black Voices Matter featuring Brandon Leake
Manoa Valley Theatre and Volcanic Voices present the 3rd Annual Black Voices Matter
Spoken Word Poetry Showcase featuring America’s Got Talent winner Brandon Leake
Celebrate Black History Month and amplify Black voices with a 2-day showcase full of exhilarating and heartfelt spoken word poetry! Featuring the amazing AGT winner Brandon Leake! Also featuring Spoken Word Poetry legend Marc Marcel, HI Grand Slam Champion Z From Baltimore, viral sensation Poetic Prophecy, and hosted by everyone’s favorite host Temple Divine! This is sure to be a night of inspiration, introspection, laughs, goosebumps, and lots of fun!
EXCLUSIVE VIP PRE-SHOW EVENT
VIP Seating includes access to an exclusive Pre-show Meet and Greet with Brandon Leake and all the Black Voices Matter Artists. 6:00 - 7:00 PM on the Lanai at Manoa Valley Theatre. Drinks and Pupus included.
The Haiku as Visual Form: Stanton MacDonald-Wright’s The Haiga Portfolio
In 1966-67, the American artist Stanton Macdonald-Wright created the Haiga Portfolio, while working in Kyoto, Japan. The series of experimental prints offer visual interpretations of haiku by seven Japanese poets including Matsuo Bashō, Yosa Buson, and Kobayashi Issa. Macdonald-Wright felt the immediacy of the haiku poem could serve as a model for the abstract painting he was interested in developing: It was a form that could quickly get to an essential truth while omitting extraneous detail. In the 20 colorful, quasi-abstract woodblock prints we see Macdonald-Wright revisiting the early 20th century European ideal of making visible relationships between color, abstraction and feeling. The result is a visually spectacular proto-psychedelic series testing the relationship between words and images.
Pictured: Stanton Macdonald-Wright, The Spring Sea Swelling and Falling all the Day, 1966–1967, Woodblock print on mulberry paper, 16 x 20 in.
CARRYING CULTURE: MICRONESIA—VOICES OF SOLIDARITY
Panel featuring poets from Polynesian and Melanesian cultural groups who share their words as a demonstration of solidarity with Micronesians in Hawai’i, demonstrating support in the face of rising discrimination. Moderated by Tolua Samifua of Lady Pasifika magazine and the Pacific Islands Development Program.
Hawaii Book & Music Fest - Author - Bamboo Ridge #119: Kipuka: Finding Refuge in Times fo Change
Five Young Hawaii Poets Represent Hawaii’s Oldest Literary Journal
Moderator: Donald Carreira Ching
Speakers: Joanna Gordon, Navid Najafi (aka Illnomadic), Ngaio Simmons, Doug Upp
Registration
Hawaii Book & Music Fest - Poetry - Living Nations, Living Words
Special Presentation: Poetry - Living Nations, Living Words: A conversation with Poet Laureate of the United States Joy Harjo, and Pacific Poets
Moderator: Craig Santos Perez
Speakers: Joy Harjo, US Poet Laureate, Brandy Nālani McDougall, Noʻu Revilla, Lehua M. Taitano, Mahealani Wendt
Registration
Hawaii Book and Music Festival presents Poetry - Author - Threshold Habitat
One of Hawai‘i’s leading poets responds to the threat of climate change