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Kamahana Kealoha, Samson Tafolo, Lee Kava, Melvin Won Pat-Borja at the March 7 Pacific Verse Workshop.

Pacific Verse, a project focused on developing and encouraging indigenous Pacific languages in songwriting, will be holding its first public performance on Thursday, April 17 at the PACITA: Pacific Islanders in the Arts Festival at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. The project began in March 2014 with a music workshop and will be followed by public performances, recording sessions and future follow-up sessions with the participating musicians.

Pacific Verse is organized by Leora Kava, a graduate assistant and MA student at UH Mānoa Center for Pacific Islands Studies. Looking for ways to promote Pacific-language songs, Kava, a poet and musician, has developed this series of events in the hope that it will lead to a music festival.

To enable Pacific Verse to reach out to the wider community, Kava will also host a Pacific Islands music workshop at Pālolo Homes as part of the Pālolo Pipeline program through the Pālolo ʻOhana Learning Center.

Pacific Verse is sponsored by the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Center for Pacific Islands Studies, the Office of Student Equity, Excellence and Diversity, and Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge and Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies.

A UH Mānoa news release

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