Category: Hawaii

Beyond East-West Binaries in (Auto)Biographical Studies

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Locating Life Stories
The thirteen essays in Locating Life Stories: Beyond East-West Binaries in (Auto)Biographical Studies, edited by Maureen Perkins, come from Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Malaysia, South Africa, and Hawai‘i. With a shared focus on the specific local conditions that influence the ways in which life narratives are told, the authors engage with a variety of academic disciplines, including anthropology, history, media studies, and literature, to challenge claims that life writing is an exclusively Western phenomenon. Addressing the common desire to reflect on lived experience, the authors enlist interdisciplinary perspectives to interrogate the range of cultural forms available for representing and understanding lives.

A Biography Monograph
September 2012 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3730-3 / $28.00 (CLOTH)
Published in association with the Biographical Research Center

A Journey into Hawaiian Ways of Knowing

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Ancestry of Experience
As Hawaiians continue to recover their language and culture, the voices of kupuna (elders) are heard once again in urban and rural settings, both in Hawai‘i and elsewhere. How do kupuna create knowledge and “tell” history? What do they tell us about being Hawaiian? Adopted by a Midwestern couple in the 1950s as an infant, Leilani Holmes spent much of her early life in settings that offered no clues about her Hawaiian past—images of which continued to haunt her even as she completed a master’s thesis on Hawaiian music and identity in southern California. Ancestry of Experience: A Journey into Hawaiian Ways of Knowing documents Holmes’ quest to reclaim and understand her own origin story.

“Part memoir of a Kanaka academic in the diaspora searching for her ‘ohana, part historical and ethnographic celebration of Hawaiian culture, and part documentation of the reality of Kanaka ʻŌiwi constant communication with our kūpuna o ka pō (those who have passed into the pō), Ancestry of Experience is that rarity of rarities: an academic page-turner. Leilani Holmes’ book will bring readers to tears in its evocation of the enduring love and spiritual connection in an ʻohana that spans many generations, and make them gasp at the incredible series of ‘coincidences’ that leads to Leilani’s re-connection with her ʻohana.” —Noenoe Silva, professor of political science, University of Hawai‘i, and author of Aloha Betrayed: Native Hawaiian Resistance to American Colonialism

September 2012 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3129-5 / $39.00 (CLOTH)

Growing Organic Fruit and Vegetables at Home

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The Small Food Garden
Fresh food straight from the garden—it’s got to be good for you. No matter what size your outdoor space, you can plant, grow, and harvest fresh organic produce using the information in The Small Food Garden: Growing Organic Fruit and Vegetables at Home, by Diana Anthony. Included are vegetables, herbs, and fruit, with tips on planting, growing, and caring for each plant. Investigate the options: look at containers, grow bags, raised beds, and window boxes. Discover what to plant where and how to provide water and nutrients to ensure you grow healthy, productive fruit and vegetables.

September 2012 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3731-0 / $19.99 (PAPER)

Conversations with UH Press Authors

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Besides the NPR “Crime in the City” interview with Victoria Kneubuhl that aired August 13, other “talk stories” with UH Press authors took place in the past month:

Hawai‘i Public Radio‘s The Conversation interviewed jazz saxophonist Gabe Baltazar about his memoir, If It Swings, It’s Music. Listen to the  “Book ’em, Gabe-o…with a new autobiography” in the HPR archives for August 7.

Gabe was also featured in the “Old Friends” column that appeared in the August 29 edition of MidWeek, mailed to over 270,000 homes in Hawai‘i. Read the online version here.

On August 27, HPR’s The Conversation caught up with Jim Tranquada at Occidental College to talk about The ‘Ukulele: A History. Listen to the “Madeiran melody maker morphs into a jumping flea…” in the archived show.

The editor of MauiTime interviewed author Tom Coffman about his inspiring new book, I Respectfully Dissent: A Biography of Edward H. Nakamura. Read Coffman’s take on Justice Nakamura’s legacy as a labor attorney and Supreme Court justice in the August 23 cover story, “Standing Alone.”

Victoria Kneubuhl Featured on NPR’s Crime in the City

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Each summer, National Public Radio’s Morning Edition airs its Crime in the City series featuring mystery writers as they take listeners on insider tours of their home cities. The August 13 installment highlights Honolulu when author/playwright Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl guides NPR correspondent Renée Montagne to the locales described in Murder Casts a Shadow and Murder Leaves Its Mark. The two mysteries bring to life 1930s Hawai‘i, with journalist Mina Beckwith and playwright Ned Manusia as an unlikely pair of sleuths, a colorful cast of characters, and a rich sense of time and place.

Catch the program by tuning to your local NPR Morning Edition broadcast on Monday, August 13. Hawaii Public Radio will air the segment at 6:50 a.m. on FM88.1 KHPR. (Other U.S. locations are scheduled for 6:50 a.m. & 8:50 a.m. EDT and 5:50 a.m. & 7:50 a.m. PDT.) UPDATE: The show is archived on the NPR website.

Read an excerpt from Murder Casts a Shadow here.

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Damien by Aldyth Morris Revisited

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Saint DamienThis weekend, July 28 and 29, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Outreach College presents two performances of DAMIEN, the award-winning one-man play by Aldyth Morris. The riveting drama of Saint Damien’s life in Hawai‘i will be performed by actor Dann Seki and directed by Tim Slaughter. The entire playscript is included in Almost Heaven: On the Human and Divine (Mānoa 23:2), which will be available for sale at the performances. The 1980 edition of the play is still available by order from UH Press.

Act One opens with a chant, written originally in Hawaiian by a composer and hula master who contracted leprosy and died at the Kalaupapa settlement on Moloka‘i. “Song of the Chanter Ka-‘ehu” begins:

What will become of Hawai‘i?
What will leprosy do to our land—
disease of the despised, dreaded alike
by white or brown or darker-skinned?

Strange when a man’s neighors
become less than acquaintances.
Seeing me they drew away.
They moved to sit elsewhere, whispering,
and a friend pointed a finger:
“He is a leper.”

In Memoriam – Will Kyselka (1921-2012)

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Author and teacher Will Kyselka, a key figure in the revival of Polynesian wayfinding who sailed aboard the escort vessel for Hokule‘a on its 1980 voyage, passed away on July 1 at the age of 91. He was a lecturer at the Bishop Museum Planetarium and a retired associate professor at the University of Hawai‘i Curriculum Research & Development Group. Long fascinated with modes of learning, in An Ocean in Mind he told the story of the 1980 journey while exploring how the mind acquires, utilizes, and transmits different forms of knowledge.

The ‘Ukulele: A History Book Launch

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The Ukulele book launch inviteJim Tranquada, director of communications at Occidental College in Los Angeles, will visit Honolulu to launch the book he co-wrote with the late John King, The ‘Ukulele: A History, on Saturday, July 21, 4:00 to 6:00 p.m., at Native Books/Nā Mea Hawai‘i  in Ward Warehouse (‘ewa end, 1050 Ala Moana Boulevard). He will give a short talk and gather family, friends, and ‘ukulele fans to celebrate the book’s publication. Refreshments and kanikapila (informal jam session) will follow his presentation. The public is invited to the free event and encouraged to bring their ‘ukulele to join in the fun.

A former newspaper reporter, Tranquada is a great-great grandson of ‘ukulele pioneer Augusto Dias. John King was widely acknowledged as one of the modern masters of the ‘ukulele.

Tranquada’s visit is timed so he can enjoy the 42nd Annual Ukulele Festival Hawaii on Sunday, July 22 at the Kapiolani Park Bandstand in Waikiki.

UH Press Around the Web

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Tom Coffman’s recent biography of Edward Nakamura, I Respectfully Dissent, is enjoying great press in the Hawai‘i media. In addition to Richard Borreca’s piece “New book makes it clear why Nakamura mattered,” the Honolulu Star-Advertiser covered the book in a review by Dave Shapiro:

“If your idealism needs a reboot, read political historian Tom Coffman’s new book I Respectfully Dissent. . . . The book provides a history of the times as well as a biography of the man, following Nakamura through his service in the 442nd, his career as a top labor lawyer, his time as a University of Hawaii regent, his term on the Supreme Court and his ‘retirement’ years as perhaps the most influential critic of the Democratic revolution that had given way to greed and malfeasance. Nakamura was defined by personal modesty, an immense intellect, a true ethical compass and an unwavering belief in democracy in its broadest sense.” (Star-Advertiser subscribers can read the full review here.)

Honolulu Civil Beat’s Chad Blair calls the biography “reverently, warmly and revealingly told”:

“[I]t is a remarkable story. . . . What Coffman has done is to share Nakamura’s story in a fresh, instructive way that reminds Hawaii of, as Lincoln put it, the better angels of our nature. . . . Coffman makes history seem less distant and gives life to a man who may have been forgotten by many.” (Read the full review here.)

Legendary sax man Gabe Baltazar will be performing tonight (Friday, July 6, 6 pm) in the Hawai’i State Art Museum’s A Star-Studded Evening of Jazz. Baltazar will also be signing copies of his autobiography If It Swings, It’s Music:

“Open it on almost any page and it will be difficult to stop reading. Written in conversational style with assistance from music fan Theo Garneau, Baltazar’s book will appeal to several distinct audiences, including jazz fans and longtime Baltazar admirers. His stories of life here in the ’30s and ’40s will fascinate anyone with an interest in what things were like ‘back in the day,’ while another section of the book shares an insiders’ look at the national jazz scene of the ’50s and ’60s.” (Read the full Honolulu Pulse (Star-Advertiser) article here.)

Family Torn Apart Roundtable Discussion

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Join Lily Ozaki Arasato for a roundtable discussion of Family Torn Apart: The Internment Story of the Otokichi Muin Ozaki Family on Saturday, June 23, 10:30-11:30 am, at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i’s Community Gallery. Ms. Arasato is the daughter of Otokichi Ozaki, who was a Japanese language school teacher and tanka poet in Hilo. Family Torn Apart traces Ozaki’s WWII incarceration at eight different camps, his family’s life in Hawai‘i without him, and later their move to join Ozaki in the camps.

Family Torn Apart is distributed by UH Press for the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i.

Uke Hunt Reviews The ‘Ukulele

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Al Wood’s Uke Hunt review of The ‘Ukulele: A History, by Jim Tranquada and John King, is full of praise:

“Context Finally! . . . Thought Provoking . . . Great Pictures . . . Well Researched. . . If you care about the history of the ukulele you have to buy [this book]. It’s the definitive book on the subject. There’s no other book that comes close to it.”

For the complete review, go to: http://ukulelehunt.com/2012/06/20/the-ukulele-a-history-by-jim-tranquada-and-john-king-review/.

Live Ukulele at Book Expo America!

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A big mahalo to Markie, Nicky, and Sean (a.k.a. Ikeda Katsu), who drove all the way from Boston to NYC to perform at UH Press’ booth at Book Expo America! The guys played two songs, “Over the Rainbow” and “Higher and Higher,” to promote Jim Tranquada and John King’s The ‘Ukulele: A History.

Mahalo also to Sue Wilhite of East West Bookshop for the video!

UPDATE: Another video of Ikeda Katsu at BEA performing “Higher and Higher” but this time . . . the guys are sitting down! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6445ONInMpk

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