Arts & Culture

A new play opening in Honolulu links history, family, culture, and modern life in Hawai‘i.  It’s the final episode in a trilogy that started 25 years ago, and has made some waves along the way.  The author agreed to an interview in Kakaako park, well aware that many of the issues dealt with in the play come to a head in the park daily.

Artist, designer Pegge Hopper has helped shape the world’s view of Hawai‘i.  Her most famous paintings feature cool, design centered compositions of women, mostly Hawaiian women, and large areas of flat color.   At 84 years old, HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports, Hopper is selling her gallery on Nu‘uanu and starting a new life.

Each year, an estimated 500 to 600 wildfires sweep across parts of Oahu. But those fires are different than the ones that burn on the mainland, and in many ways, the charred fields are just the beginning of the problem. 

Though not in the news every day, the 2018 Kīlauea eruption continues to reverberate in people’s lives. Currently, at the East Hawai‘i Cultural Center, an artist’s experience of total devastation has given rise to an installation that reflects on roots.

If you’re looking for a different place to shop and eat in Honolulu, ‘Ohana Hale Marketplace might interest you.  The Marketplace is basically street stalls in air conditioning, and more than fifty of the stalls are food vendors, inside the former Sports Authority on Ward Avenue. New shuttles from Waikīkī should improve traffic for the hopeful entrepreneurs.

This weekend, organizers expect about ten thousand people will attend the 8th annual Pacific Ink and Art Expo in Honolulu. More than 450 tattoo artists will be plying their trade. Why do some of these artists have more than three million followers on social media?

Singer, songwriter Maryanne Ito is a single mother of two, and she was serious about her full time insurance career, when her debut album reached #4 on the U.K. Soul Chart. That was 2014. Five years later, HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports the Hawai‘i-based singer is back from a smash tour of Japan, and ready to release her latest album.

Last year, a spark from a hammer was enough to ignite dry grass, and contribute to the largest wildfire in California history. All across the Western U.S., firefighters are wondering what might lie ahead this season. Here in the Islands, thousands evacuated earlier this month as a wildfire tore through central Maui.  In this edition of Planet808, HPR’s Noe Tanigawa looks at Hawai‘i’s increasing risk for wildfires.

The Downtown Art Center has just opened in the City's Chinatown Gateway Plaza, the big pink building at Nu‘uanu and Hotel. Looking forward to a lot more action there when the new Satellite City Hall moves in. Meanwhile, First Hawaiian Bank Center has a new show up, and look what's on the walls at Pig and the Lady!

Local boy, Zak Noyle is recognized as one of the best water photographers in the world.  His shot of trash arcing overhead in a wave in Indonesia is featured in National Geographic right now, and you’ve seen his work in Sports Illustrated and on ESPN.  He was senior staff photographer at Surfer magazine by age 25, but he’s seen the business change. He’s hoping this year’s Doris Duke Surf Film Festival will put a new generation of surf filmmakers on the map.

It’s the height of Summer 2019, and Honolulu is having an art and design moment, with interesting shows scattered around town, and an installation featuring local designers and makers at South Shore Market. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports that public spaces in the Market are now the Shape of the Wave to Come gallery-- featuring a new wave of local creatives.

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.

eady availability of local produce is one lasting contribution consumers enjoy, thanks to recent combined efforts of chefs creating cachet and demand, farmers being encouraged to grow and expand offerings, and the counties and other entities that have supported farmers' markets.Credit Noe TanigawaEdit | Remove

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.