It's our anniversary performance event! This time last year, Huraiti Mana pulled together our first performance since opening public dance classes. Now, we are excited to return to Seattle Center again as a part of the API Heritage Festival of Seattle. Mahalo nui loa to the dedicated team of volunteers who make this community event possible. And mahalo nui for inviting Huraiti Mana to be able to share in this meaningful celebration of dance, culture, language, and arts of some of the many people comprised in the Asian Pacific Islander communities. Huraiti Mana will represent Hawai'i and Tahiti in our Polynesian dance troupe performance of hula and ori Tahiti or Tahitian dance.
1:15PM Dance performance at the Seattle Center Armory Room 2:00PM Lei Lā'ī - Lei-Making station United Territory Of Pacific Islanders' Alliance or UTOPIA has graciously invited Huraiti Mana to take part in their annual lū'au fundraiser, which celebrates our cultures of the Pacific while raising funds that support educational programming for our Pacific Islander LGBTQI communities. UTOPIA is a transgender and fa'afafine-led, member-based organization that creates a safe, vibrant, and supportive space for members of the LGBTQI communities. Huraiti Mana stands together in solidarity and in unity with the values of UTOPIA and hope to build more connections with this great organization. UTOPIA offers beautiful programs that advocate for social justice through meaningful conversation. Events such as their upcoming Talanoa invites everyton to witness "a cultural and theological dialogue between our Pacific Religious Leaders and our Queer & Trans* Pacific Islander (QTPI) communities. The dialogue will explore the role of QTPIs within the Polynesian community and Church, insider/outsider politics and ongoing reconciliation. The talanoa will seek fa’aaloalo (mutual respect), malamalama (illumination), and tofa sa’ili (transformed minds)." Find out more about UTOPIA, their mission, and their programs! Imua e UTOPIA - go forth!
Northwest Folklife has partnered with Seattle Center for a three-year venture called Our Big Neighborhood! Our Big Neighborhood will provide year-long opportunities for youth and families to participate in folk, ethnic, and traditional arts with multi-cultural, multi-disciplinary, and intergenerational programming. Huraiti Mana has loved joining Northwest Folklife and Seattle Children's Festival for their past programs, and we are so very excited to be a part of their first-ever Our Big Neighborhood events! Huraiti Mana will be hosting a hula dance workshop at the Seattle Center as a part of their Movin' Around the World celebration. Please enjoy this half-hour hula dance class where you'll see what a class with Huraiti Mana is like: filled with laughter, stories, and passionate work.
Now thru November 2018, visit the Wing Luke Museum and be transported from traditional museum galleries into a space that is very personal. Very vulnerable. Very warm and comforting. Step into this living room-style exhibit space featuring art installations of four different Pacific Islander artists. Perhaps the living room transports you to another world. Perhaps it reminds you of home, the way you remember it, as it was. This is Visions of Pasifika: Light from Another World.
I am so honored to have had the opportunity to participate in creating this exhibit and weaving together lei to be shared with all who walk into the space. I feel what's most rewarding, is when I am able to give lei. To give lei to someone to celebrate them, to thank them, to love them. And the lei lives its purpose. To carry the aloha spirit, happiness, and mana from myself to someone else. I ask myself, how can I continue my indigeneity outside of the land to which I'm indigenous. Of my lei, though the pua and lau, the flowers and leaves, are of plants not native to Hawai'i, they still represent a Hawaiian tradition. And they speak of the land where I live, now. The Pacific Northwest. It is a sign of traditions adapting. It is a sign that the aloha spirit can live in many forms. It is indigenous to Hawai'i and transcends across all lands and people. And it continues to connect us all. My visions for Pasifika? That all our huraiti, dancers, teachers, and artists, will in our own way perpetuate traditions and create new ones as we are each stakeholders in our communities. Like the keiki I teach and learn from. All mixed. All different faces and eyes and complexions, but all right, all true, all pono. The faces of our future express the growing, shifting, expanding expressions of our selves. Our people. And I’m not afraid anymore. I’m not afraid that my traditions will look slightly different than that of my ancestors. Because I am slightly different. Pasifika will always be changing. But the people of Pasifika will be stakeholders in commanding, nurturing, growing and weaving a positive change. It will no longer be that others alone will change us. We have the righteous belonging to our culture, our people, our language, and our ways of life. Join in this conversation and ask yourself, what do you envision for the future of our Pacific Island communities? Join us for lei-making fun at one of Seattle's largest celebration of young ones.
"E na makemake 'oe e hana i ke kahi lei hana me ke aloha. If you're going to make a lei, make sure to make it, with love." - Kuana Torres Kahele, master lei maker and Native Hawaiian cultural ambassador Join us at the Duwamish River Festival, Saturday, August 26, 2017!
We'll be performing hula and ori Tahiti (Tahitian) style dancing as a part of the community-wide celebration! Share with us in honoring the communities that have long lived along the Duwamish River and all of our indigenous communities. We're so honored to take part in such a festive event connecting people to each other and to the land from which we come and of which we need to take care. Hope to see you there for food, games, prizes, activities, performances, and more! Date: Saturday, July 29, 2017
Time: 8:00PM Place: Hing Hay Park 423 Maynard Ave S. Seattle, WA 98104 What: Huraiti Mana hula & Tahitian performance with a fresh flower lei-making station! Seattle Asian American Film Festival (SAAFF) begins it's 2017 Summer Series on July 22 with films featuring Asian-American and Pacific-Islanders! Join SAAFF every Saturday from July 22 - August 26 for free films, popcorn, and fun performances. Performances begin at dusk, and films begin at sundown. A great event for the entire 'ohana! Huraiti Mana will be performing hula and Tahitian on Saturday, July 29 at the Seattle Chinatown-International District Hing Hay Park before the screening of the Tokelauan and Polynesian-inspired film Moana. Join us for a good time celebrating our songs and dance! Families of Color Seattle (FOCS) is hosting FOCS Arts Fest 2017 on Sunday, June 4th from 205PM at Washington Hall, and they've invited Huraiti Mana to be a part of the festivities!
FOCS is a great non-profit organization that promotes meaningful connections and communities by providing a safe space and opportunities to connect with diverse families and discuss social topics directly affecting our children. FOCS continues to make a strong foundation for our children's futures through various arts programs including Art & Poetry is Power, West African Drum and Dance, Hula and Tahitian Dance led by Huraiti Mana's Kalei'okalani - and so much more. The FOCS mission: that "children are born into a loving community that is racially and economically just." FOCS Arts Fest is an all-access community art and artists. Tickets are admission by donation of $20 per family, $10 per family, or free for your entire family. No one is turned away for lack of funds. The day is lined up with great performances, food, and activities. Let's celebrate our community, art, and our children. We hope to see you, there! Please join Huraiti Mana for a fun cultural hula workshop at the Northwest Folklife Festival on Sunday, May 28 in the Seattle Armory Room from 1:00-1:45PM. Kalei'okalani will be hosting a 45-minute workshop focusing on hula basics and form as well as sharing about Hawaiian history.
Following the workshop, we'll also be hosting a lei-making station from 4:00-6:00PM in the Discovery Zone. We welcome all ages. Participants will learn about the significance of lei-making and how this Polynesian tradition is integral in the perpetuation of heritage and culture, with a focus on styles native to Hawaii. E lei no au I ko aloha. “I will cherish your love as a beautiful adornment.” Lei-making is a gift of love. Lei are not only 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. 1:00PM-1:45PM Hula Cultural Workshop | Armory Room 4:00PM-6:00PM Lei-Making Activity | Discovery Zone A hui hou! Check out our first public showcase for the API Heritage Month Celebration at the Seattle Center on Sunday, May 7, 2017! We perform at 1:15PM and have a lei-making station following our performance from 1:45-4:45PM. There's activities, booths, and performances from 11:45AM-5:00PM in the Seattle Armory Room. Bring the whole family for a fun day celebrating our cultures and heritage for the Asian Pacific Islander communities!
Sunday, May 7, 2017 Seattle Center Armory Room 1:15PM Huraiti Mana showcase |
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