The past few weeks (and beyond) have inspired beautiful creative work and performances to and for the Mauna. Many of these performances are in response to a kāhea sent out as part of a #ekanikapilakakou challenge #alohaainaedition campaign wherewith local artists shared and expressed Aloha ʻĀina through words, song, and dance. This is by no means a complete list and we encourage you to explore and engage with many of the artists elsewhere whom have and continue to let the Mauna and our ʻāina move, inspire, and call them to express.

Below are some of what we’ve found.

NOTE: Hawai‘i Review does not own the rights to any of these works, which belong solely to their original producers. Please support these artists by visiting the fan pages provided, purchasing their work, and attending their performances. If you are one of the artists featured here on this page, please feel free to contact us with any concerns or credit corrections.

He loved me when no one would

He brought me wild fruit in a wooden plate

He squeezed the teats of the mother cow

whilst I opened my mouth under its bulging udder

I’ve been listening to good voices

floating across prairie nights.

Tuning in and turning my heart

catching just a few words.

I’ve been lying beneath a star blanket

thinking about the stars I can’t see.

Melody threw her handbag into the back seat and sighed. This was the last day of her day duty and she had a full week of rest before she went on night duty. Ever since the hospital had resorted to cutting down the number of days nurses reported to work in order to cut on transport and lunch costs, life had become better for most of the nursing folk. She worked two days a week from seven in the morning to seven in the evening. On the days that she was off duty she would help her husband change money illegally on the streets. Dumo-- her husband-- was a National University of Science and Technology (NUST) graduate who had never used his engineering degree to earn a living. Soon after graduation his mother had introduced him to money changing.

His mother, Mrs Hadebe was a well-known money changer who ‘owned’ the whole of Herbert Chitepo street. She was still a beauty whose looks were slow to succumb to the ravages of time. She always spotted fancy bright coloured hairpieces. Her face was a perfect exhibition of art: painted eye lids, rogue cheeks, darkened eyebrows, bright red lips and glistening earrings. Her fingers also had numerous rings. At one time in the past before the year 2016 her head was always covered in a white doek but she had since renounced that faith. She was the queen of the territory and every illegal money changer reported to her at the close of business. The word ‘illegal’ there is debatable but, well, that's a topic for another day.

Hula is not a universal spiritual practice. It belongs to Hawaiian people and this ‘āina. Even beginning hula students know that hula recounts and honors the reciprocal and familial relations Kānaka Maoli share with this archipelago and its inhabitants–the plants, animals, ancestors, natural energies, and land. Hula practitioners know that Mauna Kea is a sacred dwelling place of akua, a beautifully unique ecosystem, and a living ancestor of Kānaka Maoli.

Da buggah is looking for new notes

and meandering kine stories.

It kind of makes you wonder

what goes on inside                                                                            

of his accordion mind

to make him play.

Community Organization: Hope Services Hawaiʻi

• Hawaii Community Foundation’s Hawaii Island Volcano Recovery Fund is accessible here: https://www.hawaiicommunityfoundation.org/volcanorecovery

• Hawaii Life Charitable Fund’s current appeal to support the micro-unit project is accessible here (please note, Hawaii Life Charitable Fund has committed to matching the first $20,000. A similar appeal was created following the Kaua`i floods): http://www.give.hawaiilife.com/donate/

• HOPE Service’s site can be used for direct donations to our agency here: http://hopeserviceshawaii.org/take-action/

Hawaiʻi Review is thinking of Hawaiʻi Island. Images by the artist Vamonos are paired with links to community organizations offering services to those displaced and impacted by the eruptions.

Community Organization: Pu‘uhonua o Puna Info & Supply Hub

Manifestasyon 

After an earthquake ravages through Haiti, a team of artists and socially conscious people of color return and help the people of Leogane process and grieve. Although well-intentioned, as their manifesto suggests, their motives and also the motives of other forms of charity (remittances, fundraising) go awry.

Jennifer Celestin is a writer, performer, and facilitator. She received her B.A. from Wesleyan University, an M.A. in Humanities at NYU and an M.F.A. in Fiction at CUNY: Queens College. She is presently working on a novel and knows ou kapab leer esto. Li invite'ou to her multilingual imaginación. 

The Classic of Mountains and Seas is an independent and experimental animation ( or moving illustration). This work is very different with most of the animation, I try and discover many new forms basing on the interesting concept, such as “black space”,“wired text”, “narrative sound” and “construction of mythical creatures” into this animation. This animation is not very dynamic, it looks like a moving imaging even moving illustration work, under those peaceful movements, a fantastic and mysterious world is showed gradually. 

My name is Lehuanani Marie Taitano.

I would prefer no religions at all.

I am Chamoru.

C-H-A-M-O-R-U

C-H-A-M

C-H

But

the assistant shakes

her head, scrolls through a drop-down

list of pre-existing ethnic

conditions.

She shakes her head,

brow furrowed, pointer finger

clicking, tapping, wagging no.

That’s not an option.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lehua Taitano | Lehua M. Taitano, a native Chamoru from Yigo, Guåhan (Guam), is a queer writer and interdisciplinary artist. She is the author of two volumes of poetry–Inside Me an Island (June 2018) and A Bell Made of Stones. Her chapbook, appalachiapacific, won the 2010 Merriam-Frontier Award for short fiction, and her most recent chapbook, Sonoma, was published by Dropleaf Press in 2017. She hustles her way through the capitalist labyrinth as a bike mechanic who sometimes gets paid to make art.

Ocurre que el sueño se interrumpe por diferentes razones. Algunas provienen del pensamiento, otras de los ruidos que traspasan nuestros párpados. Ambas son inciertas y difusas. Lola se despertó porque creyó advertir un ruido inesperado. Se sentó en la cama y se quedó muda, como si el sonido de sus propios movimientos fuese a opacar aquella señal que la sobresaltó. Permaneció con la mirada atenta en la oscuridad de la habitación, pero el ruido no se repitió. Miró a su marido sobre la almohada, le envidió la respiración dulce del sueño profundo. No quiso compartirle esa extrañeza.

———————————————————————————————————————————————

As it happens, sleep is interrupted in various ways. Sometimes by dreams, sometimes by noises that penetrate consciousness enough to open our eyelids. Lola woke because she thought she heard something unusual. Finding herself sitting up in bed, she stayed still, as if the rustle of her own movements would overshadow the sound that had startled her awake. She stared attentively into the darkness of the room, but the noise didn’t repeat. She lookedLooking at her husband’s head on the pillow, she envied his soft, deep-sleep breathing. Lola did not want to share this oddity with him.

Lanaʻi Elementary Presents

Canoe Plants

As part of their Fourth Grade studies, students at Lanaʻi Elementary School researched plants brought by early Polynesian voyagers.

Once they discovered the description, growing habitat, and ethnobotanical uses of their plant, they wrote poems to honor the plant.

Finally they created illustrations of their plants using oil pastels and black tempera paint.

Materials for the illustrations were provided by Donors Choose sponsors: NEA, Chevron, and Roseanna Vierra.

Publication of Canoe Plants coordinated with instructor Christi Barrow.

Artistic Resistance: Creating a Transformative Teaching Praxis Through Hip-Hop

Abstract

As an urban art form of creative expression, hip-hop has profound significance for education. Theories of cultural production contextualize rap as a powerful resistance-oriented transformative tool. Building upon aesthetic education models, this article moves from theory to practical application by providing a critical analysis of over 1,000 rap lyrics, giving particular attention to the ways a select group of artists conceptualize knowledge, learning, and school. Within the music, the rappers draw upon personal experience and social commentary to argue for community-based culturally relevant schooling and high expectations. These lyrical lessons add to the general discussion about how to utilize the arts in urban schools.

Key Words: youth culture, hip-hop, aesthetic education, urban education, literary arts