Category: General Interest

A History of the Ukulele

Posted on by stephchun

The UkuleleSince its introduction to Hawai‘i in 1879, the ‘ukulele has been many things: a symbol of an island paradise; a tool of political protest; an instrument central to a rich musical culture; a musical joke; a highly sought-after collectible; a cheap airport souvenir; a lucrative industry; and the product of a remarkable synthesis of western and Pacific cultures. The ‘Ukulele: A History, by Jim Tranquada and John King, explores all of these facets, placing the instrument for the first time in a broad historical, cultural, and musical context.

“Here, at last, is the complete story of the ‘ukulele. Thanks to the authors’ years of tireless research, the instrument’s incredible journey is brought vividly to life. This book is a labor of love and a gift of enduring scholarship.” —Jim Beloff, author of The ‘Ukulele: A Visual History

May 2012 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3634-4 / $20.99 (PAPER)

The Painted King Wins Historic Hawaii Preservation Award

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The Painted KingThe Painted King: Art, Activism, and Authenticity in Hawai‘i, by Glenn Wharton, will be among the books receiving this year’s Historic Hawai‘i Foundation Preservation Media Award.

The award ceremony will be held on Friday, May 11, 2012, at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center in Honolulu in the Pīkake Room at 4:00 pm. A reception will follow the presentation program. Tickets to the awards ceremony may be purchased for $45 each (HHF members) or $60 (general admission). Visit http://www.historichawaii.org/ for more information.

Hiking and Trail Building on Oahu

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Native Paths to Volunteer TrailsO‘ahu has a varied, extensive, and distinctive network of mountain hiking trails. In Native Paths to Volunteer Trails: Hiking and Trail Building on O‘ahu, Stuart M. Ball, Jr., author of The Hikers Guide to O‘ahu, explores the history behind many of the island’s trails, beginning with early Hawaiians who blazed routes for traveling, plant and wood gathering, and bird catching. Sugar plantations constructed paths to access ditches that tapped stream water for thirsty cane. The U.S. Army built trails for training and island defense, while those developed by the Territorial Forestry Division and the Civilian Conservation Corps were mainly for reforestation and wild pig control. Most recently, volunteers and hiking clubs have created additional routes solely for recreation. The result of all this varied activity is a large network of just over a 100 mountain trails, a precious resource on a small, populous island. The book compiles the history of 50 of these trails.

April 2012 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3560-6 / $21.99 (PAPER)

More March Author Events

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Sunday, March 18, 2-3:30 pm, Native Books/Nā Mea Hawai‘i: Wendy Arbeit, author of Links to the Past: The Work of Early Hawaiian Artisans, will give a free talk on how she researched Links, what she discovered, and why drawings can offer more information than photographs. The discussion will be preceded by live demonstrations by cultural practitioners and followed by a book-signing by the author and light refreshments. Books will be available for purchase at the shop, located at the ‘ewa end of Ward Warehouse, 1050 Ala Moana Blvd. (phone: 596-8885).

Monday, March 19, 6:30-7:30 pm, Thinking Out Loud: Talking Issues, Taking Action (KZOO-AM 1210): Don Hibbard, coauthor of Hart Wood: Architectural Regionalism in Hawai‘i and other books on architecture, will be interviewed by radio host Willa Tanabe. The program is sponsored by the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai’i.

UH Press Author Events on March 8

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Glenn Wharton will hold a book launch for The Painted King: Art, Activism, and Authenticity in Hawai‘i at 6:00-7:30 pm, Department of Social and Cultural Analysis, New York University, 20 Cooper Square, 4th Floor. Presenters at the event will also include Mitchell Duneier (Professor of Sociology, Princeton University), John Haworth (Director, George Gustave Heye Center, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian), Harriet Senie (Professor of Art History, CUNY Graduate Center), and John Kuo Wei Tchen (Founding Director, Asian/Pacific/American Institute).

Victoria Kneubuhl will be one of the featured writers at the Friends of Waialua Library’s annual Authors Night, 6:30-8:30 pm. Her new mystery, Murder Leaves Its Mark, will be of special interest to area residents since the old Haleiwa Hotel is a setting for the novel.

Gardens that Look Good Enough to Eat

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The Ornamental Edible GardenCombine creativity, aesthetics and practicality in your very own garden with an inspired mix of fruit, vegetable, herbs and flowers. The beautifully illustrated The Ornamental Edible Garden gives practical information on everything you need to know to design and plant an ornamental edible garden, including advice on laying pathways and edgings, building raised beds, erecting plant supports, hedging and enclosures, how to espalier, as well as plans for traditional ground layouts for any garden size or shape, and much, much more. Full color photographs throughout.

February 2012 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3672-6 / $24.99 (PAPER)

The Painted King Author Interviewed

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Glenn Wharton, author of The Painted King: Art, Activism, and Authenticity in Hawaii, recently spoke about his book, queer conservation, and the complexities of community-based cultural engagement. The interview appeared online in both San Francisco’s Bay Area Reporter and Chicago’s Windy City Times.

On Wharton’s attraction to Hawai‘i: I’ve always been attracted to Hawaiian culture, in part because of the falsetto singing, ukulele music, and storytelling through dance, but also because of the gentle nature of many Hawaiians that I’ve met over the years. As an island culture, everything moves more slowly. People in semi-rural areas like the one that surrounds the Kamehameha I sculpture embrace outsiders with warm aloha, but only after the outsider has proven that they have a genuine love for the culture and the land.

On the decision to restore the Kamehameha statue to its painted form: “As I got deeper into the community, I learned there were many voices, and they didn’t all agree on the sculpture’s meaning or how to go about conserving it. Indeed, some of my colleagues on the mainland did accuse me of ‘going native’ in that I was sharing professional authority with people who didn’t ‘understand art history,’ and that we should honor the original artist’s intention no matter what local residents think today. Maintaining the rather quirky tradition of painting the sculpture in life-like colors that’s evolved since its 1883 installation was going a bit too far for some of my colleagues.”

Press Author Interviews

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Mark Panek, author of Big Happiness: The Life and Death of a Modern Hawaiian Warrior, will be interviewed by Willa Tanabe as the featured guest on the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii’s “Thinking Out Loud” radio show on Monday, December 26, 6:30-7:30 p.m. The show broadcasts live from the KZOO-AM 1210 studio at Shirokiya in Ala Moana Center and will be archived for later listening. More details about the radio program can be found here: http://jcch.com/thinking-out-loud.asp

Victoria Kneubuhl will be interviewed on Hawai‘i Public Radio’s weekday morning show, The Conversation, on Tuesday, December 20, 8-9 am. Listen live on KIPO FM89.3 and KIPM FM89.7.

Ms. Kneubuhl also talked in-depth about her work, including her latest mystery, Murder Leaves Its Mark, on the KZOO “Thinking Out Loud” program. Her November 28 interview can be heard here: http://www.kzoohawaii.com/jp/programs/tol.html

Big Happiness: One of the Best Local Books of 2011

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Big HappinessBig Happiness: The Life and Death of a Modern Hawaiian Warrior, by Mark Panek, is called “one of the best local books of 2011” in a review at Hawai‘i Book Blog:

“Big Happiness is an account of the amazing and tragic life of Percy Kipapa, local boy turned professional sumo wrestler. In my opinion it’s an important work of creative nonfiction and one of the best local books of 2011. Using a combination of personal experiences with Kipapa, interviews, newspaper articles and court documents, Panek has seamlessly composed a narrative that tells the story of how Percy Kipapa came home a hero only to end his life as a terrible reminder of the destructive power of “meth” addiction. It’s an unofficial biography of a man and a community struggling to stay afloat in a world changing too quickly.”

Read the entire review here: http://www.hawaiibookblog.com/articles/book-review-big-happiness/.

The Work of Early Hawaiian Artisans

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Links to the PastThe work of Hawaiian artisans at the time of Western contact was woven seamlessly into their everyday lives and culture—the details of which are now lost. Although we can no longer comprehend the objects left to us with the same depth of understanding as early Hawaiians, we can appreciate their aesthetic qualities and the skill used in their construction, particularly when numerous pieces of the same type are viewed together. Links to the Past: The Work of Early Hawaiian Artisans, by Wendy S. Arbeit, makes this possible by reuniting more than a thousand eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Hawaiian artifacts from over seventy institutions and collections worldwide.

November 2011 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3476-0 / $75.00 (CLOTH)

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