Broadcast journalist Heidi Chang‘s story on Gabe Baltazar Jr. as a pioneering Asian American jazz musician aired internationally on Voice of America. The show is archived on the VOA website; click here to read and listen (and comment!). It reveals just a sampling of what is in Gabe’s autobiography, If It Swings, It’s Music.
On January 24 at a ceremony at the Honolulu Consulate General of Japan, University of Hawai‘i professor emeritus George J. Tanabe, Jr. was conferred with the Government of Japan’s Imperial Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, in honor of his contributions toward the strengthening of academic and cultural exchanges between the United States and Japan. The award recognizes his work in promoting Japanese culture and values through research and studies in Japanese religions.
Dr. Tanabe joined the faculty of the Department of Religion at UH Mānoa in 1977 and served as department chair from 1991 to 2001. Among his titles published by UH Press are Japanese Buddhist Temples in Hawai‘i: An Illustrated Guide, which he wrote and researched with his wife Dr. Willa Tanabe, and Practically Religious: Worldly Benefits and the Common Religion of Japan, co-authored with Ian Reader. He is also general editor for the Topics in Contemporary Buddhism series.
For more information on Dr. Tanabe’s accomplishments, read the announcement on the award issued by the Consulate General.
Associate professor of art history Julie Nelson Davis was interviewed by The Daily Pennsylvanian about the recent donation of 1,300 books and periodicals on Japanese art to University of Pennsylvania libraries. Davis, author of Utamaro and the Spectacle of Beauty, called the endowment by Shirley and Marilyn Luber (wife and daughter of the late Philadelphia art collector Gilbert Luber) “one of the broadest and deepest private collections of books about Japanese prints I have ever encountered.” She hopes her students will be able to use the collection in her curatorial seminar this spring.
Professor Davis’ forthcoming Partners in Print: Artistic Collaboration and the Market for Ukiyo-e in Late Eighteenth-Century Japan is scheduled for spring 2015. Illustrated with more than a hundred color and black-and-white photographs, Davis’ account of collaboration in ukiyo-e will offer a new approach to understanding the production and reception of the images of the “floating world” in early modern Japan.
Conservation biologist and wildlife photographer Robert Shallenberger will share his exceptional images and knowledge on the seabirds of Hawai‘i on Thursday, December 12, 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. at Bishop Museum. The basis for his talk is Dr. Shallenberger’s UH Press book, Hawaiian Birds of the Sea: Nā Manu Kai, which showcases many of his photos accompanied by informative text on the natural history and behavior of Hawai‘i’s seabirds. His illustrated lecture is part in the museum’s Traditions of the Pacific educational program series. Click here for more information and to RSVP online.
Aloha friends! Please join us at Native Books/Nā Mea Hawai‘i on Sunday, December 8 from 2 to 4 pm for the official launch of I Ulu I Ka ‘Āina, the second volume in the Hawai‘inuiākea series. Enjoy short readings by editor Jonathan Osorio and other contributors, music by Tuahine Serenaders, and light refreshments. For more details, visit the Hawai‘inuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge website.
SoulTrex, a unique outdoor-gear shop in Windward Mall, will host a signing by Stuart Ball, Jr. on Saturday, November 23, from 2 to 4 pm, for his newly released book, The Hikers Guide to Oahu: Updated and Expanded edition. Trek on by and meet the master!
On Tuesday, November 19, 5:30-8:30 p.m., the National Press Club will hold its 36th Annual Book Fair & Author Night at the NPC headquarters in Washington, D.C. (529 14th Street NW). UH Press author Michael French Smith will sign copies of his latest book, A Faraway, Familiar Place: An Anthropologist Returns to Papua New Guinea, joining more than 90 other writers, including national luminaries Alice McDermott, Jim Lehrer, Mark Leibovich, Gov. Bill Richardson, David Wiesner, and many others, in this exciting literary event.
The book fair is open to the public with ticket purchase and is a fundraiser for the NPC’s Journalism Institute. Books will be sold in partnership with independent D.C. bookstore Politics & Prose. For more details, click here.
This Thursday, November 7, at 3:30-5:00 pm, author Anwei Skinsnes Law will give a public lecture on “New Perspectives on the History of Kalaupapa” in Hamilton Library Room 301. The talk is based on her book, Kalaupapa: A Collective Memory, and ties in with the historical exhibit, “A Source of Light, Constant and Never-Fading,” first developed by Ka ʻOhana O Kalaupapa for display at ‘Iolani Palace and now installed on the 1st floor of the library through fall.
Click here for more details.
On Sunday, October 27, at 3 pm, all-volunteer independent Revolution Books (Honolulu) will host a reading by Gary Pak for his new book, Brothers under a Same Sky. Here’s the store’s perspective on the book:
This is a fascinating novel about the psychological toll on Korean Americans during and after the Korean War and the ethical and moral decisions they were forced to make. Those of you who know Gary Pak, know that in this novel he’s speaking very personally. Perhaps the dedication “in the memory of Uncle Kenam” says it all. While the book directly relates to the Korean War, it is especially fitting that this reading will take place near the 12th anniversary of the U.S. war on Afghanistan – a war where hundreds of thousands of young men and women had to make similar decisions as those Nam Ki faced.
Warm congratulations to philosophy professor Roger T. Ames on being awarded a 2013 Confucius Culture Prize at the Sixth Annual World Confucian Conference in Shandong, China. The Confucius Culture Prize was established in 2009 to honor both institutions and individuals for their exceptional contributions to Confucian studies. Dr. Ames is the first non-Chinese to receive the award. His most recent book is Confucian Role Ethics: A Vocabulary; among several previous titles that he has coauthored or edited are: The Chinese Classic of Family Reverence: A Philosophical Translation of the Xiaojing and Focusing the Familiar: A Translation and Philosophical Interpretation of the Zhongyong.
For more information, read the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa news release and visit the UHM College of Arts & Humanities and the UHM Center for Chinese Studies websites (the latter also has links to a video documentary about Dr. Ames, or click here).
On Friday, October 18, 12:30–2:00 pm, author L. Ayu Saraswati, assistant professor in women’s studies at UH-Manoa, will speak on the topic of her book, Seeing Beauty, Sensing Race in Transnational Indonesia. Dr. Saraswati recently received the 2013 National Women’s Studies Association Gloria Anzaldúa book prize for her work, which explores and analyzes Indonesia’s changing beauty ideals.
Sponsored by the UHM Women’s Studies Colloquium Series and the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, the free event will take place in Saunders Hall 244. University of Hawai‘i Bookstore will have books available for purchase. The public is invited to the talk, followed by a book signing and refreshments.
As part of the celebration to mark the 110th anniversary of the first Korean immigration to Hawai‘i, four Hawai‘i-based Korean American writers will read and discuss their work on Thursday, September 26, 7:00 p.m., at the Center for Korean Studies, UH Mānoa. Presenters with UH Press books include novelist Gary Pak (Brothers under a Same Sky; A Ricepaper Airplane; Children of a Fireland) and documentarian Roberta Chang (The Koreans in Hawai‘i: A Pictorial History; When the Korean World in Hawaii Was Young). The other two participants are award-winning author Chris McKinney and poet/fiction writer Brenda Kwon.
The event is free and open to the public. For more information, see the CKS announcement, or call the Center at (808) 956-7041.
Related link: Listen to the Hawai‘i Public Radio interview with Gary Pak about his most recent book, Brothers under a Same Sky.
