past outreach & promotion
» August and October 2006 VARUA TUPU events
The publication of VARUA TUPU, the winter 2005 issue of MANOA, was marked by events in Hawai‘i, Tahiti, and Huahine.
» Media reception
1 August 2006, Outrigger Waikiki, Honolulu, Hawai‘i. See Honolulu media reception page.» Book launch
15 August 2006, La Maison James Norman Hall, Arue, Tahiti, French Polynesia. See Tahitian book launch page.» Reception
17 August 2006, Fare Pote‘e, Maeva Village, Huahine, French Polynesia. See Huahine reception page.(For more information on Huahine—one of the most sacred and beautiful islands in French Polynesia—see this article in Hana Hou magazine.)
» Reading and book signing
3 October 2006, Native Books/Na Mea Hawai‘i, Honolulu, Hawai‘i. See Honolulu reading page.» Colloquium
5 October 2006, Univ. of Hawai‘i at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawai‘i. See UH colloquium page.» Reception
5 October 2006, Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawai‘i. See Bishop Museum reception page.
» January 2006 reading by Terry Tempest Williams
Called by Utne Reader “a visionary and person who could change your life,” award-winning essayist and environmentalist Terry Tempest Williams read Jan. 4, 2006, at 7 p.m. at Orvis Auditorium on the UH-Manoa campus. Williams is the author of two dozen books and numerous articles in such places as The New Yorker, the New York Times, Outside, and Audubon. She is perhaps best known for her book Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place.
An epic narrative, Refuge chronicles the story of the Great Salt Lake while recounting her mother’s diagnosis and death from ovarian cancer. The illness was believed to be caused by radioactive fallout from nuclear tests in the Nevada desert in the 1950s and 1960s.
Williams’s most recent book, The Open Space of Democracy, is a collection of essays originally published in Orion magazine. They present a sharp-edged perspective on the ethics and politics of place, spiritual democracy, and the responsibilities of citizen engagement in a healthy society. She is the Annie Clark Tanner Scholar in the Environmental Humanities Program at the University of Utah.
Presented by the Pacific Writers Connection and MANOA with sponsorship from the University of Hawai‘i Foundation and the University of Hawai‘i Alumni Association. Info: 808-781-6147 (PWC) or 808-956-3070 / mjournal-l@hawaii.edu. [Larger image of poster]
» February 2005 reading by Barry Lopez
Acclaimed essayist, environmental author, and fiction writer Barry Lopez read his work at this free event. After receiving the National Book Award for Arctic Dreams, Lopez emerged as one of America’s premier essayists on the ecological and ethical issues of our time.
His eight books of fiction have been praised for their stylistic purity and keen intelligence. The most recent, Resistance, is called by Booklist “boldly conceived and beautifully formed,” containing “bracing and courageous tales of spiritual awakening and ecological perceptions” of how a person of conscience might live in these polarized times.
Lopez is a regular contributor to Harper’s Magazine and has appeared locally in MANOA. [Larger image of poster]
» November 2004 presentation of “The Art of praCh”
Professor Chhany Sak-Humphry welcoming praChLong Beach rap artist praCh brought his music and unique message to UH Manoa’s Architecture Auditorium on Tuesday, November 30, in "The Art of praCh." [Poster]
Called "Cambodia’s first rap star" by Asiaweek, praCh is a Cambodian-American hip-hop artist who raps in both Khmer and English and mixes contemporary hip-hop beats with traditional Cambodian forms of music. His songs are about the Khmer Rouge, the struggle of Cambodian immigrants in the United States, and his family.
His first album, Dalama…the end’n is just the beginnin’, was recorded in his parents’ garage and distributed to friends as a CD in 2000. Without his knowledge, the CD made its way from his home in Long Beach to Cambodia, and a pirated version omitting his name became the number-one album in the country. His second album, Dalama…the lost chapter, was released in 2003. He is also the CEO of Mujestic Records and recently traveled across the country with "Spirit of Cambodia," a tour commemorating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the fall of the Khmer Rouge.
praCh has been featured in Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and the New York Post, among other publications. He is working on a documentary for PBS and was recently featured in a television program on NHK (Japan Broadcasting Company). His lyrics were published in In the Shadow of Angkor, the summer 2004 issue of MANOA.
The performance was cosponsored by the UHM Khmer Language Program and the Cambodian Students Association.
The reception featured a wonderful spread of Cambodian food.
praCh was interviewed by Noe Tanigawa at KHPR the day after the performance.
While in Hawai'i, praCh also appeared at a local high school, met with the staff of the East-West Center, and performed at the Hawaiian Hut as part of the First Thursdays slam-poetry series. Above are pictures of him at the Hut.Produced by MANOA, this event was cosponsored by the UHM College of Languages, Linguistics, and Literature, the UHM Department of English, the Khmer Language Program of the UHM Department of Hawaiian and Indo-Pacific Languages and Literature, the Cambodian Students Association, and the Manoa Foundation. Funding was provided by a Diversity and Equity Initiative Award from UHM. Special thanks to KTUH-FM for its help and support.
» January 2004 production of Ka-Shue (Letters Home)
Chinese–New Zealand playwright and actress Lynda Chanwai-Earle came to Hawai'i for two performances of her play. The following is an excerpt from her note to the play:
I am Eurasian by ethnicity, a fourth-generation New Zealander. Based on the Chinese side of my family (the Tung clan of Bak-Chuen), Ka-Shue uncovers some of the last 150 years of a buried history in New Zealand. There has been a noticeable absence of a Chinese voice in this country. Perhaps it is because the Chinese community has been producing its own work for its own people, but this work has been largely inaccessible to a wider public until now. The material has often been spoken in Chinese, and not produced for mainstream audiences.... Ka-Shue spans the cultures of New Zealand and China, encompassing a broad sweep of the political events between the two countries as a backdrop for the personal dramas of the characters.
Ka-Shue explored such issues as cross-cultural understanding, cultural dislocation, assimilation, gender equity, and intermarriage. It was produced by MANOA, directed by David Farmer, and performed by Chanwai-Earle at Windward Community College’s Paliku Theatre. Cosponsors were the theater, the UH-Manoa Center for Pacific Islands Studies, and the UH-Manoa College of Languages, Linguistics, and Literature. Funding was provided by a Diversity and Equity Initiative Award.
» January 2003 exhibition at Bishop Museum
In conjunction with the publication of Century of the Tiger: One Hundred Years of Korean Culture in America, the Bishop Museum held a three-month-long educational exhibit. Frank Stewart, editor of MANOA, was the principal consultant on content and design.
Bishop Museum Newsletter • Newspaper Ad
» Summer 2002 class in Vietnamese literature and film
at Punahou School
MANOA is also engaged in efforts to produce curricular materials for secondary schools. In summer 2002, the journal's editor, Frank Stewart, taught a Punahou School class with Vietnamese American author and translator Nguyen Qui Duc. The class was a pilot project designed to establish educational exchange between Viet Nam and Hawai'i; Two Rivers, the summer 2002 issue of MANOA, was used as a textbook. Based on the literature and film of Viet Nam, the class was attended by secondary-school students, their families, and Vietnamese secondary-school teachers.
» Summer and fall 2000 tours by Indonesian writers
This project was conceived of by MANOA and the Lontar Foundation to celebrate the publication of Silenced Voices, the summer 2000 issue of Manoa. Silenced Voices was supported by the Ford Foundation, Lontar Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Hawai‘i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry, and University of Hawai‘i College of Languages, Linguistics, and Literature.
In summer and fall 2000, MANOA coordinated a series of public dialogues featuring the Indonesian writers Ratna Sarumpaet, Putu Oka Sukanta, and Ahmad Tohari. The institutions that cosponsored these events included Univ. of Hawai‘i, Univ. of California at Berkeley, Univ. of California at Riverside, Univ. of Wisconsin at Madison, Bard College, Cornell University, Princeton University, and Univ. of Michigan at Ann Arbor.
Summer 2000: Ratna Sarumpaet
Playwright and activist Ratna Sarumpaet, the author of the play Marsinah Accuses, toured the mainland U.S. and Hawai‘i. She spoke on the vital role of free expression in emerging democracies. In some cities, her play was performed; actress Tikka Sears played Marsinah under the direction of Jude Domski.
Marsinah Accuses was translated by John H. McGlynn for publication in Silenced Voices. It is based on the true story of a young woman who was tortured, raped, and murdered for trying to increase the low wages in the factory where she worked. Marsinah’s murder remains unsolved, and Sarumpaet was imprisoned for writing about it and performances of her play were banned.
PlaybillFall 2000: Putu Oka Sukanta
Indonesian writer Putu Oka Sukanta traveled to the U.S., Canada, and Europe to speak about his writing and alternative health activities: the state of censorship in Indonesia as the country moves toward full democracy and appreciation of basic human rights; his experience with alternative medical treatment for HIV/AIDS patients; and the need to promote a paradigm shift in the way we view medical care. Pak Putu has written several volumes on alternative medical treatment and received a grant from the Ford Foundation to write a book on people living with HIV/AIDS.
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