Families of Color Seattle put on a great, amazing program and fun-filled day Sunday, June 4, 2017 as a part of their FOCS Art Fest 2017! Educational booths lined the perimeter of the historic Washington Hall space, and the entire center of the room was filled with so many families, friends, and young children dancing non-stop as each performer took the stage. It was such an inspiring experience, seeing all of these community members come together to celebrate arts, performers of color, cultural diversity, and each other.
Huraiti Mana proudly performed with such internationally acclaimed and well renowned talent - mahalo nui loa for having us! Guayaba | Au Collective | FICA Seattle Studio Capoeira Angola | DoNormaal | Daniel Pak | Northwest Tap Connection | Kouyate Arts | Massive Monkees And mauruuru roa to FOCS for all the work you do to inspire and foster a more just future for our children. API Heritage month continued with the VA Puget Sound HealthCare System's own Asian American Pacific Island Heritage Month Workforce Succession & Cultural Celebration which took place on Thursday, May 26, 2017 in their facilities. Huraiti Mana was kindly invited to perform hula at the Seattle facility along with various community groups. We love to participate in celebrations featuring others who are just as passionate about their culture, heritage, and traditional disciplines. We met so many kind-hearted and open people during the performance. Mahalo nui loa to all the staff who invited us to partake in delicious food and greeted us with warmth, it was so much fun!
Rainier Yacht Club is a small boating community right off of the marina in the Rainier Valley area. It was the first club in the northwest to change its by-laws and rightfully recognize women as full participating members of the club with the power to vote in 1975. Now there are hundreds of women in yacht clubs around the northwest, and every other year they join together in celebration over food and drinks. This year, Rainier Yacht Club hosted the event and invited Huraiti Mana. 90 women gathered together with Hawaiian food, music, and dance. One guest was celebrating her 95th birthday. It was a fun event, and we hope to see these women boating about in the sound, soon!
We had so much fun at the API Heritage Month Celebration at the Seattle Center on Sunday, May 7, 2017! Festivities began at 11:45AM with non-stop performances representing cultures and traditions of Asians and Pacific Islanders. There was a great turnout of guests, and we're so happy that Huraiti Mana was able to share both Hula of the Hawaiian islands and Ori Tahiti of the islands of Tahiti in the South Pacific. Many thanks to the entire team including Huraiti Mamas, sound team, and of course all our huraiti! As a Native-Hawaiian, Japanese, Black, and Chinese huraiti, I am proud of my heritage and love to celebrate - not only through dance, food, and music, but also talking-story, meeting others, and making connections. May we continue to share in the ongoing celebration of who we are as a people and the many cultures we represent.
We also had a super-busy lei-making station for keiki (children) and adults! Great job to those who took on the task of wili lei-making. Mauruuru roa to the many event planners and volunteers at this event; it was such a welcoming and fun event. A hui hou, see you next year! Huraiti Mana was invited to celebrate with 21 Progress at their 2nd annual Imagine Us awards ceremony and dinner on Thursday, April 13, 2017. It was a sold out event with 250 guests across our communities who gathered to support young, emerging leaders. Congrats to 21 Progress as together, they raised double their funds from their 2016 event for a total $60,000!
21 Progress is a non-profit program that seeks to enhance leadership development through education, civic engagement, and arts and culture. They provide programs, internships, and networking opportunities to engage youth and advance their powerful ideas. They believe in collective power, community building, personal liberation, and equity for all. Congrats, again, to 21 Progress and their awarded leaders. Thank you to everyone for inviting Huraiti Mana to join such a powerful and meaningful event. We are truly honored to be a part of this community. The International Examiner (IE) held its 24th Annual Community Voice Awards & 42nd Annual Benefit Dinner on September 22, 2016 at the Joyale Seafood Restaurant in Seattle's Chinatown-International District. Community leaders and members gathered together to celebrate the achievements of local Asian Pacific Americans including awardees:
Huraiti Mana performed hula at the outdoor film screening of Lilo & Stitch produced by the Seattle Asian American Film Festival (SAAFF) in partnership with Inter*Im CDA, and Seattle Chinatown-International District's Parks & Recreations. SAAFF is the only film festival in Seattle dedicated to featuring works created for and by Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, providing independent filmmakers a platform to contribute their voices, histories, and perspectives among the film industry. Feature-length and short format films curated in their annual festival (this year February 19-21, 2016), highlight the richness and diversity of these Asian and Pacific Islander communities. Huraiti Mana thanks SAAFF for their gracious support of our group and allowing us to dance hula in their show line-up before Lilo & Stitch! Also in the line-up was the amazingly talented 'ukulele musician Arden Fujiwara and Seattle 'Ukulele Players Association or SUPA, a Seattle nonprofit that promotes fellowship, entertainment, and performance education for 'ukulele enthusiasts of all backgrounds and experiences. Both Arden and SUPA have shows throughout Seattle; check their sites to follow their next performances! Huraiti Mana also had the pleasure to perform "Wahine 'Ilikea" during SUPA's set and are thankful to have been able to share the stage with this fun group.
Join SAAFF for the next FREE film screening of Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon on Saturday, August 27, 2016. Huraiti Mana had the amazing opportunity to perform hula and Tahitian at the International Community Health Services (ICHS) annual gala on May 21, 2016 in Downtown Seattle's westin Hotel. ICHS is a nonprofit community health center that provides much-needed care for Asian, Pacific Islander, and Native Hawaiian communities, and broader communities; it is the largest facility of its kind in Washington State. With all of their amazing work and dedicated supporters, ICHS raised over $187,000 for uncompensated care at the ICHS medical and dental clinics. Congratulations, ICHS! We at Huraiti Mana continue to celebrate and support the amazing work you do for our communities.
Mahalo and mauruuruu for having Kalei and Ku'ulei perform hula in the heart of Seattle's Chinatown-International District as a part of the opening ceremonies. We enjoyed sharing our culture alongside the Federal Way High School Pacific Islander Student Group and spoken word poet Kiana Fuega for an evening of Pacific Islander heritage.
The Wing Luke Musuem is a non-profit historical museum dedicated to connecting everyone to the rich history and cultures of Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders. Below, an excerpt from Tatau/Tattoo: Embodying Resistance their newest exhibit, highlighting South Pacific and Filipino voices in the traditional art and historical and cultural significance of tattooing. “Our words for blood are toto, eleele, and palapala. Eleele and palapala are also our terms for earth, soil, mud. We are therefore made of earth. Our blood, which keeps us alive, is earth. So when you are tatauing the blood, the self, you are reconnecting it to the earth, reaffirming that you are earth. The tatau and malu are not just beautiful decoration, they are scripts-texts-testimonies to do with relationships, order, form, and so on. Tatau became defiant texts or scripts of nationalism and identity. Much of the indigenous was never colonized, tamed, or erased.” - Samoan poet and writer Albert Wendt This exhibit was developed by a variety of community members whose voices, photographs and artifacts share the stories of the significance of tattooing, as ways to "water our cultural roots" and as resistance to colonialism and the erasure of history. Exhibit runtime: November 5, 2015 - October 9, 2016 |
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