HURAITI MANA
  • Home
  • About
    • Mission
    • Gallery
  • Programs
    • Dance Classes
    • Performance
    • Fresh Flower Lei-Making
    • Workshop Series
    • Annual Fa'a'ori
  • Current Events
  • Contact

The Story of Hula - Storytime with Huraiti Mana at Seattle Children's Festival 2018

9/22/2018

 
Picture Kalei'okalani of Huraiti Mana takes a break from hula dancing during her workshop at the Seattle Children's Festival to share the Story of Hula by Carla Golembe
Kalei'okalani of Huraiti Mana takes a break from hula dancing during her workshop at the Seattle Children's Festival to share the Story of Hula by Carla Golembe. Note: it's a surprising coincidence looking back that I match the teacher in this story!
Every workshop is different. Every workshop spent in the Armory Court on behalf of Huraiti Mana is a different experience. They're each exciting and each a beautiful moment of community. Today, I returned to participate in the 5th Annual Seattle Children's Festival, Saturday, September 22, 2018. But no matter how many times we return to the Seattle Center with Northwest Folklife, I learn something new and amazing, whether it be the curiosities of children, the insight they have, the understanding they possess for their cultures and cultures not of their own in our storytelling workshops; or whether it be the cultural exchange shared among people of all walks of life in our kahiko and language workshops. I am so grateful to those who organize the many events Northwest Folklife creates year-round - all free, all jam-packed with cultural performances, and all the perfect family outing excursion. Mahalo nui loa for your community work and dedication to building our families in Seattle! 

Special Experience with powerful cast at book launch for Sharon H. Chang

9/22/2018

 
Picture Left to right, Kalei'okalani Onzuka, Marian Macapinlac, Sharon H. Chang, Selena Velasco, and Moonyeka all pose together with Sharon's newest book and first memoir, Hapa Tales and Other Lies. A powerful cast of social justice and community-minded warriors
Left to right, Kalei'okalani Onzuka, Marian Macapinlac, Sharon H. Chang, Selena Velasco, and Moonyeka all pose together with Sharon's newest book and first memoir, Hapa Tales and Other Lies. A powerful cast of social justice and community-minded warriors! Photo by Devon de Leña
Picture Sharon H. Chang and Kalei'okalani Onzuka together following the performance and book reading curated by Sharon's amazing devotion to the community and bringing together a cast of powerful individuals.
Picture Sharon H. Chang and Kalei'okalani Onzuka together following the performance and book reading curated by Sharon's amazing devotion to the community and bringing together a cast of powerful individuals. Photo by Amy Pak of Families of Color Seattle
Over 100 community members packed into the small basement event space of the Elliot Bay Book Company on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, September 19, to celebrate with Sharon H. Chang the launch of her newest book and first memoir, Hapa Tales and Other Lies. Sharon kindly invited me to perform opening and closing ceremonies as well as share a couple mele (specifically, a couple hula performances). This experience was powerful, inspirational, and fulfilling regarding womxn and femme power, a force of indigeneity, vulnerable sharing and deep cultural exchange, a multi-racial community's pains and triumphs, and a breath of fresh intellectual enlightenment and prosperity. 

I feel so blessed to be in the company of greatness. Sharon's excerpts chosen in her book reading were equal parts eloquent and down-to-earth, simultaneously humorous and bluntly painful. Although she and I have very different relationships to Hawai'i - I being Native Hawaiian and she being mis-identified as such - I find my questions and emotions completely seamless with her own. For example, she questions the changes in expectations and justifications from having dark skin in the tropical places where she had grown up - she in California while I was on O'ahu -  but now living as a light-skinned mixed person in cloudy Seattle. People treated us differently than when we had been growing up elsewhere. We have been identified, misidentified, claimed, and disowned and singled out. Where is home? 

I can't wait to sit down and read voraciously through this memoir. Stars Marian Macapinlac, Selena Velasco, and Moonyeka feel the same. Marian's voice began the set of performances with sweet rock and roll - her voice echoing smooth melodies throughout the room. Selena's slam poetry piece with artistic interpretive dance moved me - her vulnerability is her strength; her body is her own, now. And so is mine. And Moonyeka smashed onstage with a super-chill-cool dance set and disturbingly great video  montage. Watch them. These individuals, led by the community Sharon H. Chang is drawing together, will shake the world as we know it. 

Mahalo nui loa to Sharon for the opportunity to share in such an incredible night I will always remember. Me ke aloha e ku'u 'ohana hou!

Lei-Making Workshop at the Wing Luke Museum

9/14/2018

 
Picture

LEI-MAKING WORKSHOP
SEATTLE, WA
Sunday, November 11, 2018 | 11:00AM - 1:30PM
Wing Luke Museum 719 S King St 

Huraiti Mana's Kalei'okalani will be celebrating the closing of Visions of Pasifika with a lei-making workshop. Join her at the Wing Luke Museum to participate in an in-depth lei-making workshop in Seattle's Chinatown-International District.
Kalei'okalani will be hosting a Lei-Making workshop in Seattle, featuring the wili or wrap style of Hawai'i, as pictured here.

​Event: Lei-Making Workshop
Date: Sunday, November 11, 2018
Time: 11:00AM - 1:30PM 
Location: Wing Luke Museum 719 S King St, Seattle, WA 98104​
Prices: 
  • $30 General 
  • $25 Members of the Wing Luke Museum​
  • RSVP Required
  • Limited capacity - tickets on sale now

Fresh flowers, fragrant greens, and endless results. Join us!

One of the four Pacific Islander artists featured in the Wing Luke Museum’s Visions of Pasifika Light from Another World, artist and lei-weaver Kalei'okalani will direct a 2.5-hour lei-making workshop with fresh lau and pua (leaves and flowers), woven together in the wili or wrap style at the Wing Luke Musuem in Seattle's Chinatown-International District. 

Participants will learn about the significance of lei-making and how this Polynesian tradition is integral in the perpetuation of cultural values. This is a challenging exercise and is recommended for 12+. No experience necessary.

Lei are not simply decorative pieces; they share a spiritual connection with and are representative of the land they come from, the people who create them, and the people for whom they are made. Lei is a cultural, personal, and spiritual exchange of aloha (love), mana (spiritual power), and mana'o (knowledge). Learn about how lei-making strengthens our connections to the land and to each other. Share in company, stories, and laughter in this labor of love. 

​What to bring:
  • Your bottle of water
  • Any snacks
  • A small towel
What’s provided:
  • All your lei materials

Sharon H. Chang Book Launch: Hapa Tales and Other Lies

9/11/2018

 
Sharon H. Chang has brought together an amazing cast of Pacific Islander womxn who will share in the celebration of her first memoir, Hapa Tales and Other Lies. Join us on September 19 at 7:00PM at the Elliot Bay Book Company in Seattle, WA.
Sharon H. Chang is an award-winning renowned activist, author, and photographer whose works and perspective shed light and insight on the racial relations of the Asian American and Pacific Islander diaspora. Her first publication, Raising Mixed Race: Multiracial Asian Children In a Post-Racial World, is a critically acclaimed academic work focusing on the contradictorily underrepresented children of color that make up the vast majority of the under-5 population. Now, she's launching her first memoir book Hapa Tales and Other Lies, a beautifully woven story of mis-identity, hidden histories, and a search and understanding of home. For this highly anticipated work, Sharon, in her usual fashion, has curated together a community-collaborative, which, by sheer power of community, features many artists with whom Huraiti Mana has performed across the Asian American, Womxn/femme, Pacific Islander, women of color, and social justice art activist scene. 

Huraiti Mana (Kalei'okalani) last collaborated and shared the breath of life with Selena Velasco for the Wing Luke Museum's Visions of Pasifika exhibit and with Moonyeka as a peer teaching artist for Arts Corps. Alongside the amazing performance artist Selena, dance artist Moonyeka, and musician Marian Macapinlac, Kalei'okalani of Huraiti Mana will be performing hula and sharing ceremonial oli as a part of Sharon's book launch and opening. 

Join us for an amazing conversation about the complex identities of, in, and with Hawai'i that so many people share in so many different ways. We are so incredibly honored for this amazing opportunity to participate with our community of "Pacific Islander, Indigenous, Asian Am, and Mixed Race womxn/femme performers" and with Sharon H. Chang; her brilliance is an inspiration to us all, and her leadership drives a path for our voices and our stories. 

  • Event: Sharon H. Chang Book Launch
  • Date: Wednesday, September 19, 2018
  • Time: 7:00PM
  • Place: Elliot Bay Book Company 1521 10th Ave Seattle, WA 98122

Huraiti Mana seeking Tahitian Drummers

9/5/2018

 
Huraiti Mana is hoping to grow the community with adding drummers to the ori 'ohana. If you know of anyone who may be interested in learning more about Tahitian drumming style and techniques, please do contact huraitimana@gmail.com
Huraiti Mana is looking for Tahitian drummers to join or partner with us as we continue our journey as one of Seattle's newest Polynesian dance troupes. We're looking for the following drummer talents and leads including but not limited to: 
  • Toere drummer
  • Fa'atete drummer
  • Pahu/bass drummer
  • Drumming instructor/teacher
Where applicable, Huuraiti Mana will be able to purchase & store new drumming equipment as well as provide & pay for venue spaces to accommodate additional drumming practices. 

If you are interested or know of groups that may be interested, please contact Kalei at huraitimana@gmail.com. Mauruuru roa! 

    CONTACT
    huraitimana@gmail.com
    ​Seattle, Washington

    CATEGORIES

    All
    Competition
    Events
    Hosted Workshop Series
    News
    Performance
    Workshops

    ARCHIVES

    March 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    May 2016
    November 2015

    RSS Feed

    Organizations we love

    • 4 Culture
    • 4 Days of Aloha
    • 21 Progress
    • API Chaya
    • API Heritage Month Celebration
    • Arts Corps
    • Chief Seattle Club
    • Duwamish River Festival
    • Duwamish Tribe
    • Families of Color Seattle
    • International Community Health Services
    • ​International Examiner​
    • ​Jubilation Foundation​
    • Live Aloha Festival
    • Northwest Folklife
    • Rainier Beach BAAMFest
    • Seattle Asian American Film Festival
    • Seattle Children's Festival
    • Seattle Poi Company 
    • Sharon H. Chang
    • ​The Meridian School
    • UTOPIA
    • ​Wing Luke Museum
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • About
    • Mission
    • Gallery
  • Programs
    • Dance Classes
    • Performance
    • Fresh Flower Lei-Making
    • Workshop Series
    • Annual Fa'a'ori
  • Current Events
  • Contact