Manifesto!

That was the title of a poem by deceased Hawaii poet Wayne Westlake that the audience read, initiated by fellow poet Richard Hamasaki. Memorable line: "Hawaiians eat fish and the fish eat the Hawaiians" or something like that. This night at the Louis Pohl Gallery, Al Wendt gathered together a group he called his silver-haired friends: Hamasaki, Imaikalani Kalahele, Mahealani
Kamau`u Wendt, and Haunani-Kay Trask.



In the audience: UH English Dept. Graduate Director Paul Lyons, UH South Asia librarian Monica Ghosh, and grad student/poet Brandy McDougall in the background.

September's Showdown in Chinatown

Theme: Conspiracy
Props: a shovel and an ashtray
Line of dialogue: "Open sesame"

So were the guidelines for this month's Showdown in Chinatown, Honolulu's 48 hour short film challenge and monthly party for local film afficianados and the Hawaii film industry crowd. The twelve entries were screened at NextDoor in Chinatown (hence the name) on Saturday, September 8, and somehow I got to be a judge for the night. Totally random and unexpected, but completely a good time.
Showdown in Girltown
Saturday, November 17 at NextDoor
Theme: Overcoming
prop: a tape measure
Line of Dialogue: "Do you think you know me?"
For more info, visit the Showdown in Chinatown website:
http://www.ourfilm.org/index_flash.html

First Friday: GirlFest at Arts at Marks

The mix-media sculpture in the middle of the Arts at Marks Garage drew curious looks from the more than 2,000 (!) visitors during September's First Friday gallery walk in downtown Honolulu. California artist China Tamblyn's contribution to this year's GirlFest visual arts exhibit elicited hesitant responses, such as that from Professor Val Wayne, from the UH English Dept.: "It looks so real." The all-natural materials fastened together in skeletal shape evoke a view of the body we tend to ignore: organic material in various stages of decomposition...

From the heady to the surreal to the documentary (Ed Greevey, who has the honor of being the first male participant, showed images of women from the Kanaka Maoli renaissance), the ten artists of local, Kanaka Maoli, and continental origins offered their individual takes on this year's theme: "Legacy." New Yorker Alice Mizrachi's "Rebel Women" (detail below) illustrates African American women who rebelled against slavery in America.
"Legacy" is on display from September 6 - October 6, 2007. For more info: http://www.artsatmarks.com

First Friday, Honolulu: Al Wendt

Albert Wendt has spent the past three years in the UH-Manoa Department of English, teaching literature of the Pacific (co-taught with his partner, Reina Whaitiri), fiction and poetry. In between his Citizen's Chair duties, he has also spent time meditating on the Koʻolau Range, visible from his Manoa Valley home. We can view his contemplations on canvas, at the Louis Pohl gallery in downtown Chinatown.
I stopped by during the September First Friday and was lucky to catch Al and Reina during a rare lull in the crowds. Several of his paintings had been snatched up by an anonymous buyer from the West Coast. But it was a wall of paintings that were not for sale that I noticed; these, Al explained, were for his family - the top painting a soaring pattern of birds spread thick across an indigo and gold sky: "My mother," the artist explained, then pointed to an equally characteristic painting below: "My father." Other paintings showed Al's passion for the sky, for volcanoes, and the ocean but these - the "family" wall - stayed with me for the rest of the night.