Arts & Culture

People living on the sidewalks is hard to get used to, yet Hawai‘i residents on every island see it every day.  Recently back from a statewide homeless tour, Lt. Governor Josh Green says two new initiatives on O‘ahu hold promise for making a difference. H4 services and the Kauhale housing initiative would dovetail with successful programs already underway.

The federal government says no state in the country has a more severe homeless problem than Hawai’i. That’s been the case for a number of years—but the approach to dealing with the issue is changing. One idea is to move hundreds of people at a time into new communities. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa found that Lieutenant Governor Josh Green is embracing a Kauhale village model that some homeless are eager to try.

Eating Around -- we all do it! It’s time to take stock of what we’re eating and how we can leverage that to work for us, economically and culturally. In this episode, we see what made Hawai‘i Regional Cuisine important, and a chef/educator throws down the gauntlet to the new generation.

Europe’s record-shattering heatwave last week contributed to the hottest June ever recorded on earth.  It’s been hot in Hawaiʻi lately as well, although it hasn’t threatened public health. In 2003, a European heatwave killed 70-thousand people. Authorities and residents have learned lessons since then---but in Hawai‘i, how prepared are we for dangerous heat?  University of Hawaiʻi climate expert Chip Fletcher has some answers.

Food is a shared national obsession these days, and the way we eat now has its roots in a movement that began in California in the 1970’s.  Increased awareness of fresh and local became the basis for Hawai‘i Regional Cuisine in 1991, and it got us excited about Hawai‘i’s rich food culture.  HPR’s Noe Tanigawa looks at where we are, thirty years later.

A Google search of music jobs in Hawai‘i unearths 28 “opportunities,” about a third are volunteer, and only one is for actually playing music, part time, for $17.75 an hour in the Hawai‘i County Band.  This illustrates the reason so many musicians in the islands work other jobs and create their own opportunities to play what they like.

Honolulu welcomes an expected 300 mayors this week for the 87th U.S. Conference of Mayors.  Eight resolutions at the conference take aim at homelessness and housing affordability. They include one sponsored by Mayor Kirk Caldwell, who presides over one of the worst homeless situations in the country. That crisis is playing out on the streets in Kaka’ako, where major sweeps have been underway. 

Today, on the summer solstice, HPR starts a closer look at how climate change is playing out in Hawai‘i.  We’re calling these reports “Planet808: Climate change in the islands.” And we begin with UH Professor, Chip Fletcher, author of Climate Change: What the Science Tells Us.

Despite concerns, last Saturday’s Keiki Swap Meet at the Children’s Discovery Center went off without a hitch, the Center says, right in a park known for homeless activity. Homeless residents in the area have begun holding weekly cleanups, attending Neighborhood Board meetings, and reaching out to the Center, and others. Here, meet Aura Reyes, a leader of Ka Po‘e o Kaka‘ako, a hui working toward a permanent community shelter arrangement.

In January, Loretta Yajima, board chairwoman of the Hawaii Children’s Discovery Center warned the center may be forced to close due to drugs, filth and violence nearby in Kaka‘ako Makai. Sweeps of the homeless continue, but she says conditions have improved and the center will hold its popular Keiki Swap Meet Saturday, June 15, in the park.  

Today is Kamehameha Day, a state holiday honoring the chief who first unified the Hawaiian Islands. Some say the most heartfelt celebrations happen on Hawai‘i island, in Kohala, where Kamehameha was born.

Charles “Chip” Fletcher is a Professor of Earth Science at UH Mānoa. He’s also Vice-Chair of the Honolulu Climate Change Commission and has recently published the second edition of his textbook on climate change.  This lengthy examination of the topic has been a life changing journey.

Hui No‘eau is a sturdy arts non-profit in Upcountry Maui.  They offer community facilities for glass, jewelry making, printing, and more, and are open to the public daily, free of charge. Now through July 26th, they are showing artwork based on Six Word Memoirs.

A lot of local threads run through Darrell Lum’s new play, Da Beer Can Hat, an adaptation of his iconic short story.  Family dynamics, peer pressure, and simple pleasures add dimension to a story about friendship in rural Honolulu in the 1970’s.  

Today, nearly thirty years after the Hawai‘i Regional Cuisine Movement began, it’s hard to believe how much eating in Hawai‘i has changed.  Recently, a Pomona College Professor was at UH Mānoa discussing the Japanese influence on fine dining and how Honolulu’s contemporary food scene has roots in that evolution.

John Melville Kelly was a printmaker at a time of transition in Hawai‘i.  His iconic images graced the menu covers at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, and much more.  While his work is available online, an opportunity to see originals has just been extended at the Halekūlani.

This week, while a delegation of four Pacific atoll nations lobbied President Trump in Washington, Hawai‘i's  Chip Fletcher headed to one of those nations, the Marshall Islands, to keynote a conference on their greatest concern:  climate change.  Just back, Fletcher reports the options the Marshalls face could be considered in Hawai‘i.

With immigration and citizenship under scrutiny now in the U.S., a Japanese-American artist is drawing attention to a time when citizens were imprisoned because of their ancestry.  Hawai’i’s Honouliuli internment camp was the final stop in Setsuko Winchester’s Yellow Bowl Project, an odyssey linking these sites of infamy.

A year ago, Hawai‘i Opera Theatre was adjusting to the abrupt departure of its executive director, and a debt of about $2 million. It cancelled one production this season, but a new leader is in place, and the season closer has all the makings of a hit.

Artist Mayumi Oda who lives in Kealakekua is represented in major international collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Since 1992, Oda has dedicated herself to a nuclear free world, and she’s showing some of her best work in Hilo now.

The live music experience is easy to fall out of, what with anything you want available, any time you want it, wherever you are.  The thing is, being in a room with musical instruments vibrating, and musicians leaning into their efforts, is a very different experience and Honolulu offers some bracing encounters you may not have expected. 

In gratitude for the thirty years Hawai‘i has nurtured his professional life, Hawai‘i Symphony principal oboist Scott Janusch came up with a novel idea. He would use a piece of endemic Hawaiian wood to create a very special oboe, one that can be passed on to future generations.

Elmer Omar Pizo was born in the Philippines, where he went to seminary school, then worked in Saudi Arabia.  Twenty nine years ago, Pizo immigrated to Hawai‘i and has worked in vector control, landscaping, carpentry, and security, all the while, quietly writing poetry.  HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports, his first collection is a window into Filipino life.

Today, the last day of Poetry Month, we hear from the late W.S. Merwin, award winning U.S. Poet Laureate. He spent his last three decades cultivating a palm garden at his home in Peahi, Maui.  His narrative, The Folding Cliffs, combines western epic poetry with Hawaiian chant.  In 2008, HPR’s Noe Tanigawa talked with Merwin about achieving that synthesis.

Graphic artist Byeok Song created propaganda for the North Korean regime in the 1990’s.  During the economic depression there, hunger led to prison time for him, and to his escape through China to South Korea.  Song now works under an alias to protect his family, using art to bring attention to his homeland.  HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports.

Painter Reem Bassous drew on history, psychology, philosophy, current events, and her childhood experiences in war-ravaged Beirut to create her current paintings.  HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports, her students at Leeward Community College are given tools for expression and an opportunity to do research and synthesize their own experiences too.

Honolulu is having an Art Moment, and now is the time to take advantage of it.  Many offerings are free!

Creativity is the number one soft skill sought by employers, according to LinkedIn.  Beginning today, HPR’s Noe Tanigawa looks at two artists who approach creativity in different ways – starting with artist and educator Duncan Dempster.

Recently, educators from Kamehameha Schools’ Ho’olaukoa Design and Strategies team gathered at Ho‘omaluhia Garden to experience a new teaching method called Arting and Writing.  This approach uses Hawai‘i based ideas and the environment to help learners find their own motivation. 

Twenty-six percent of adults in the U.S. have some type of disability, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s one in four Americans.  As part of a movement to understand people with disabilities, a new dance approach has emerged – and it challenges norms onstage.