Arts & Culture

Some 161,000 Hawai’i residents filed for unemployment in March.  The University of Hawai‘i’s economic research arm, UHERO, projected unemployment could temporarily spike to 25 percent due to the impact of COVID-19 on the economy.  In Hawai‘i, however, some companies need even more workers.

Tens of thousands of bar and restaurant employees across Hawai‘i have been laid off in the wake of COVID-19 restaurant closings. Some restaurants have trimmed staff, but managed to transition to take- out or delivery service. Hawai‘i’s food supply and distribution systems may depend on how many restaurants can be kept open.

The Covid 19 pandemic is highlighting the risks and benefits of being so physically and virtually connected across the globe. Like a virus, information has many avenues by which to travel quickly these days. Here, a communications expert discusses best practices for steering through the deluge of information you may be experiencing.

Cruise ships entering Honolulu Harbor may not be a welcome sight right now, but in the 1950s and 1960s, Boat Days were a cause for celebration. Many of the passengers aboard based their visions of Hawai‘i on the songs they heard on film and radio. In those days, visitors could choose from the Tapa Room, Chuck’s Cellar, Duke’s, and many other live music venues featuring fine singers of the day.

Chozen-ji, the Zen temple in Kalihi valley, was known as a center for Honolulu powerbrokers in the 1980’s and 90’s.  Political and business deals were reportedly hashed out around a low table, in front of calligraphy by Miyamoto Musashi.  HPR’s Noe Tanigawa visited recently as they prepare for an open house and art exhibition.

NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts have become a powerful launch pad for musicians, since they started in 2008. Its most popular video, of Anderson Paak, has racked up more than forty million views. Bob Boilen, host of All Songs Considered, curates the series, which has helped millions of listeners discover new artists. Now, a musician from Hawai‘i has made the cut.

Thanks to  Pow!Wow! Hawai‘i 2020, there are more than fifty new murals in Kaka‘ako, from the Children’s Discovery Center to Ward Theatres, to Mother Waldron Park. The street murals are the most visible evidence of a small business shift in the area.  Developer Christian O'Connor discusses how the huge changes in Kaka‘ako are supposed to work for Honolulu as a whole.

From coral bleaching to rising sea temperatures, Hawai’i is full of evidence of climate change. But a prominent UK scientist says Hawai’i may also have an important role to play in a new effort: climate repair. Find out more in today’s episode of “Planet 808: Climate Change in the Islands.”

Climate change is affecting human lives, and that experience is showing up in the arts. Tonight in Honolulu, five contemporary Australian musicians will share experiences of nature from Down Under. In this concert, visions of the natural world include pastoral landscapes, majestic vistas, and much more.

If you love the Pacific islands, don’t leave Honolulu in June. Twenty-eight Pacific nations will be represented here at a mammoth gathering of tribes. The Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture has grown to include political, scholarly and business concerns as well. Hawai‘i has been sending groups to these gatherings since 1976. But FestPac 2020 marks the first time Hawaii is the festival host.

Over a hundred artists are converging this week for Honolulu’s tenth annual Pow!Wow! street art festival. Key locations will have fresh new works of art as live painting continues all this week along the streets and byways of Kaka‘ako. Best of all, a generation is growing up in Honolulu with paintings by internationally renowned artists all around them.

For many people, UN reports and scientific papers do not really convey what climate change will be like. Part of the problem is that scientists are warning about effects we never imagined on the economy, migration, health, and human relations. In this edition of HPR’s Planet808, we look at one journalist's estimation of how the Earth's worst and best case scenarios have changed. 

The Lunar New Year begins this Saturday. It’s the year of the metal rat and celebrations hit a peak Friday night through Saturday. Lion dances, firecrackers, even the foods of the season, are slipping from sight in Honolulu, but there's a spot at the Vineyard Boulevard edge of Chinatown that will be hopping Friday night.

Communities large and small have been trying to deal with their own garbage since the dawn of civilization.  The first municipal waste dump in the Western world is credited to Athens in the 5th century B.C., and that’s the solution nearly every community takes, at least for starters. We’ve spent the last two weeks looking at solid waste management across this state, and while methods and incentives have differed over the decades, experts in the field are coming to one conclusion.

In just twenty years, awareness of climate change has progressed to climate anxiety. According to Time Magazine, mental health studies show “eco-anxiety” exploded last year from Greenland to Australia. A new exhibit at UH Mānoa aims to work through the grief and denial toward community action.

The Arts at Marks will go on! One person, well, two, have made all the difference. Last September, the Arts at Marks Garage was looking at closing completely.  Since opening in 2001, Honolulu Chinatown’s experimental art space has been a hub for theater, visual arts, fashion, film, spoken word, community meetings, and much more. 

Over the last decade, people across the globe began to grapple with the effects of global warming.  Here in Hawai‘i, effects have ranged from wildfires to flooding and coral bleaching, with more frequent and intensified weather events.  In this edition of Planet808, climate change across the islands, HPR takes a look at the road ahead.

John John Florence of Hale‘iwa will join fellow Hawai‘i surfer Carissa Moore on the U.S. Olympic Surfing team.  That was decided Thursday during the Pipe Masters at ‘Ehukai Beach.  Events continue today on the North Shore.  We found out more about what goes on under the waves, with a leading authority on O‘ahu’s beaches.

Honolulu’s most respected fine art and antique dealer, Robyn Buntin of Honolulu Gallery, will close after this Sunday. An artist himself, Buntin developed contacts in Asia and the Pacific and through the late 1980s and 1990s. The gallery was well known on the international circuit of antique art fairs. Now, a new phase is about to begin.

You will not find any plates, mugs or vases at the ceramics show on view now at the UH Mānoa Art Gallery. Associate professor Brad Evan Taylor has shown his work primarily in Asia, where he is known for giant wedges of rock, like sections of a mountain ridge that appear to be thrusting upward. Taylor says the natural processes his pieces go through leave their mark.

Hawai‘i’s green energy goals are among the most ambitious in the nation, and other states are closely watching our progress. Hawai‘i’s stated goal is 100 percent renewable energy generation by 2045, an ambitious target that requires tackling the problem of airline fuel. Nearly a third of the petroleum consumed in Hawai‘i is for jet fuel. In this edition of Planet808, HPR visits this past week’s Hawai‘i Aviation and Climate Action Summit.

Thanksgiving usually kicks off a season of increased generosity.  Social service agencies notice an uptick in volunteers as Christmas approaches, and people who want to make a contribution wonder how to be most useful. Here are recommendations from a professional who knows the value of contributing to a cause.

This cat is a very custom maneki neko. The cats are a familiar sight in restaurants and retail establishments all over Hawai‘i and Japan--but not in front of homes. Why? Usually, the sculpture depicts a white cat with orange patches, a calico with one paw raised. What does this cat signify? Also, The new Downtown Art Center Shop welcomes artists.

In 2017, Hawai‘i set high tide records for four straight months. It turned out to be because of a combination of factors including sea level rise, and an El Nino effect. Today, HPR’s Planet808 takes a look at the high tides we’ll be experiencing this week.

Restaurant Week starts today, so if you’re on O‘ahu, you can dine out for a cause until November 24th.  Over 75 diverse restaurants around Honolulu have prepared special menus or are running deals, and donating proceeds to the Culinary Institute of the Pacific. Travel and food videos have raised expectations for the next generation of chefs.

After a national search lasting nearly a year, the Honolulu Museum of Art has selected a new director. Hālona Norton-Westbrook is currently director of curatorial affairs at Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio. Norton-Westbrook recently talked about the Honolulu museum’s size, quality collection, and connection to the community as key assets. 

Black and white photographs are offering a glimpse into Honolulu’s colorful past, at UH Mānoa’s John Young Museum. The A‘ala Park area on the west end of Honolulu was once bustling around its train station, but by the 1960’s decay had set in, and redevelopment was on the way. That’s when photographer Francis Haar decided to document the changes.

Some very high tides are expected later this month, Nov. 25 to Nov. 28. Hawai‘i’s last "king tide" event happened at the end of July. Combined with a freak south swell, ocean levels rose over three feet and reached their highest point of the year so far. One water expert explains how Honolulu will cope with rising sea levels.

Kaka‘ako Makai’s sidewalks are cleared of campers now, but where have they all gone? And, O‘ahu’s homeless youth just got $3.8 million from HUD for programs homeless youth will help develop.