Posts from the “Events” Category

Myths with a Modern Twist at MIA 1/21

Posted on January 20, 2013

Spend your MLK evening at Honolulu’s Fresh Cafe hearing what happens when contemporary Hawaii authors take a Hawaiian myth and rewrite it for a modern audience. In this free M.I.A. Art & Literary Series event, Timothy Dyke will read from his story “No Look Back,” inspired by the legend of Maui pulling up the Islands; J. Freen will read from his humorous modernization of “Oahu Nui the Cannibal King”; and I will read from my re-imagining of the legend of Halemano called “Places of Entry.”

You can check out some excerpts of these contributions online here.

Books will be on sale for a special price, and writers will be on hand to talk story about myth and writing. Of course, if you can’t make it, check out the book online here.

Categories: Book Signings, Don't Look Back, Events, My Events, Stories

Books Make Great Gifts

Posted on December 3, 2012

It’s not surprising that I think books make great gifts, though I am an impossible person to buy books for. That makes the upcoming Downtown Holiday Book Fair on December 12 from 11-2 a must-attend.

A slew of local publishers will be in front of 24-Hour Fitness and Territorial Savings at the corner of King and Bishop Streets in Downtown Honolulu so that you can shop direct from their latest and greatest titles.

Look for Watermark Publishing (publisher of Don’t Look Back), Bamboo Ridge Press, University of Hawai‘i Press, Bess Press, Kamehameha Publishing, Island Paradise Publishing, Slate Ridge Press, and Belknap Publishing.

Publishers’ most popular titles, special gift items and great deals will be on offer. Come on down!

I love these quotes about why books make great gifts, so you don’t have to take my word for it:

“Books make great gifts because they have whole worlds inside them, and it’s much cheaper to buy somebody a book than it is to buy them the whole world.” –Neil Gaiman

“Books make great gifts because… [they don’t] come in any particular size, so you don’t have to be embarrassed if you bought somebody the wrong size.” –Valerie Bertinelli

“Books make great gifts because they’re something you love that you can share.” –John Lithgow

“[Books are] the most fun you can have for under $25. You and your significant other can’t go to a movie and buy popcorn and have that much fun!” –Al Roker

“Books make great gifts because you don’t have to plug them in.” –Alec Baldwin

(Source: http://www.booksaregreatgifts.com/)

Categories: Events, Publishing

Coffee Talk

Posted on November 7, 2012

I just returned from a spur of the moment trip to the Big Island and was lucky to attend a few events at this year’s Kona Coffee Cultural Festival. It reminded me of when I wrote about its 40th anniversary in 2010. It’s only getting better as it ages and it’s on until November 12, if you’re so inclined. Here’s a peek of my feature on the anniversary.

Savor the flavor at Kona’s festival devoted to the aromatic bean

In her 1875 travelogue Six Months in the Sandwich Islands, Isabella Bird characterizes Hawai‘i Island’s Kona district as “famous for oranges, coffee, pineapples, and silence.”

Nearly one-and-a-half centuries later, coffee has reached a pinnacle on par with neighboring Mauna Kea. Kona is now all but synonymous with coffee, and for 40 years residents have celebrated these handpicked gourmet beans at the Kona Coffee Cultural Festival.

“When you speak of Kona, you speak of coffee, and when you think of coffee, you think of Kona,” says Norman Sakata, a third-generation coffee farmer who has helped run the festival for more than 35 years and has served as its president and chairman for the past 18. “It’s part of our identity.”

Mirroring Hawai‘i’s multicultural society, Japanese, Native Hawaiians, Europeans, Chinese, Portuguese, Filipinos, and others have played important roles in fostering Kona’s coffee culture and lifestyle since 1828. And today, most farms remain traditionally small and family-owned and operated—such as Sakata’s farm, planted by his grandfather 120 years ago.

This year’s 40th Annual Kona Coffee Cultural Festival, set for November 5–14, will again commemorate the traditional harvest, coffee pioneers, and today’s coffee industry. It’s a milestone for Hawai‘i’s oldest food festival, and, until the Ka‘ū Coffee Festival launched last year, the state’s only coffee celebration. Farmers, residents, and visitors mingle at nearly 50 volunteer-run events spanning 10 days, including coffee cherry picking and art competitions, farm tours, and, a farmer favorite, the Hōlualoa Coffee & Art Stroll featuring estate coffee tastings.

Coffee Is King

“To the Kona district, coffee is huge,” says Trent Bateman, owner of Mountain Thunder Coffee Plantation and an official festival event director who began farming just 12 years ago. “I don’t know that there’s a family in Kona untouched by someone doing something with coffee.”

The coffee and art stroll in Holualoa

The festival’s international sponsorship and media spotlight also provide unmatched promotional opportunities for Kona’s approximately 600 coffee farmers. Ueshima Coffee of Japan sponsors the picking contest and the Miss Kona Coffee pageant, which awarded Miss America 1992 Carolyn Sapp her first crown. Sweden’s Gevalia, a 15-year sponsor, puts on the highlight event, the Gevalia Kona Cupping Competition, for which Bateman is a roaster. Growers submit at least 50 pounds of parchment (dried coffee beans) from the year’s best crop to enter the Classic Cupping Competition. The Crown Cupping Competition requires 4,000 pounds of parchment and is also open to millers and processors. After blind judging by a global cupping panel, winners of both competitions earn bragging rights, but Gevalia also promises to buy 3,000 pounds—worth around $36,000—of coffee from the Crown winner for its customers.

“It’s really a prestigious thing for your farm to be identified as having the best coffee,” says Sakata. The Kona Coffee and Tea Company gained confidence when the 13-year-old estate edged out 160-year-old Greenwell Farms to win the 2009 Crown Cupping Competition. “The recognition has been great,” said Malia Bolton, head of operations at Kona Coffee and Tea, and, at 28, the festival’s youngest board member. “It helps us better distinguish our coffee among the hundreds of farms out there.”

A Look Back

When the festival began in 1970, America’s café culture was on the rise, and Kona coffee had begun cementing its gourmet reputation. Kona launched the festival—at first an informal weekend of events—to promote its superior product and generate tourism. In 1977, Sakata changed the festival’s focus to honor the pioneers who started farming coffee in the 1800s. “There’s no industry without the pioneers, and there’s no festival without the industry,” says Sakata. “It goes back to them—their years of toiling, the hardship they went through, the lean years when they kept it going.”

Resting on that foundation, the festival has steadily expanded into an influential cultural and community fixture. Whether farming for generations or just starting out, coffee growers in this fertile district—likened to Napa’s wine region with subtle, detectable differences in terroir from farm to farm—know that the festival helps everyone and feel privileged to be part of it each November.

“In any society, the farmers are always on the bottom of the totem pole. But when it comes to the festival, they’re on top, and we build the program for them,” says Sakata.

“I know how hard my grandparents worked, and this recognizes them—it’s for them.”

By Christine Thomas, for AAA Hawai‘i Magazine

Categories: Big Island, Events, food, Travel

Book Event – Saving "KP2" the Hawaiian Monk Seal

Posted on October 15, 2012

If I wasn’t already set this week to view rehearsals of Kumu Kahua Theatre’s upcoming comic play, “Fishing for Wives” for a feature story, I’d definitely be heading to the Waikiki Aquarium on Thursday for the talk and book signing by Dr. Terrie Williams, director of the Marine Mammal Physiology Program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She helped care for the abandoned, blind Hawaiian monk seal pup KP2 at California’s marine mammal lab, who now frolics energetically at the Aquarium.

Williams will read excerpts from her new book, and account of her experiences, The Odyssey of KP2: An Orphan Seal, a Marine Biologist, and the Fight to Save a Species, and sign copies.

After the presentation, the Aquarium monk seal team will demonstrate training techniques with the resident seals, Hō‘ailona (KP2, pictured below right) and Makaonaona. Hō‘ailona, or KP2, came to Waikiki Aquarium at age 3

WHEN:
Thursday, October 18, 2012
6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

WHERE:
Waikiki Aquarium
2777 Kalakaua Avenue, Honolulu

FEE:
Free to the public but donations are appreciated.

HOW:
Call(808) 440-9011 or email reservations@waquarium.org to make reservations.

Categories: Book Signings, Environment, Events, Science

The Power of Reading

Posted on May 14, 2012

It was a great day at the Hawai‘i Book & Music Festival last weekend. I had so much fun talking myth and writing with Don’t Look Back contributors Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl, Marion Lyman-Mersereau and Robert Barclay. I also finally got to meet contributor Maxine Hong Kingston in person, as well as meet with fellow book people in one sunny, airy place, and experience the treat of hearing stories read aloud–what a treat.

There were a lot of children at the festival, enjoying games but also animated story times, which got me thinking about telling you about this great literacy campaign by Denver, Co-based non-profit ” href=”http://burningthroughpages.org/”>Burning Through Pages, which I learned about on Mediabistro’s GalleyCat.

Focused on advocacy for youth reading and writing, Burning Through Pages has set out one momentous and worthy goal: “To inspire a love of reading in today’s youth by recommending, donating and discussing books.”

Their new and infectious campaign of black and white posters is aimed at parents to inspire them to read to their kids, and designed by Mike Anderick. It has also gone viral, making BTP suddenly popular on the web and facebook.

What’s your favorite time machine? LL

Categories: Amusements, Children's Books, Events, HBMF, Reading

First the Festival, and then the Gala

Posted on May 7, 2012

2012 Ka Palapala Po‘okela Book Awards

excellent or exemplary manuscripts

Friday May 11, 5:30-9pm at Bishop Museum

Now that you’ve amped up excitement about local books at the Hawaii Book and Music Festival, you’ve got another fun chance to support local book publishers, authors and Bishop Museum by attending the 2012 Book Awards. The awards ceremony begins Friday May 11 at 6pm in the Bishop Museum Atherton Halau, followed by a reception in the Hawaiian Hall Atrium and Courtyard.

The awards are given by the Hawai‘i Book Publishers Association and recognize the finest books published in the state during the previous year (in this case, in 2011), and honor authors, designers, photographers, illustrators and publishers who create them.

A $25 tickets means you can enjoy heavy pupu, cocktails and gourmet chocolate truffles while you browse nominated books and get them signed by attending authors. Proceeds benefit Bishop Museum. (Available at the door or in advance at Native Books in Ward Warehouse.)

I will be there to see what books are honored and if, perchance, Don’t Look Back: Hawaiian Myths Made New, is one of them. Hopefully, I’ll see you there.

Categories: Book Awards, Events, Hawaii Authors, HBMF, Publishing

Don’t Look Back, but it’s time for the Hawai‘i Book & Music Festival

Posted on April 21, 2012

I’ve just put together a panel for short readings and discussion of the enduring power and importance of myth, for this year’s Hawai‘i Book and Music Festival.

Come down Sunday May 6 at 1pm to listen to me and Don’t Look Back contributors Robert Barclay (Melal), Ku‘ualoha Ho‘omanawanui (‘Ōiwi), Marion Lyman-Mersereau (Eddie Wen Go), and Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl (Murder Leaves Its Mark), read from our retellings of Hawaiian myths and discuss the project and myth in modern times.

See below from Watermark Publishing for a discount on book purchases at their booth during the festival, where copies of Don’t Look Back will be available.

————
Join us at the 7th Annual Hawaii Book & Music Festival

Frances Kakugawa (Kapoho, Wordsworth the Poet) and Christine Thomas (Don’t Look Back: Hawaiian Myths Made New) will be among the panelists featured at the 7th Annual Hawaii Book & Music Festival.

Frances joins authors Janny Scott, Julia Flynn Siler and Sydney Iaukea in the Authors Pavilion at 4PM on Saturday, May 5, to discuss “Agendas in Biography & Memoir.”

Christine will be joined by fellow contributors to Don’t Look Back, Robert Barclay, Marion Lyman-Mersereau, Ku‘ualoha Ho‘omanawanaui and Victoria Kneubuhl, in the OHA Alana Pavilion at 1PM on Sunday, May 6, to read selected myths from the collection and talk about the enduring power and importance of myth.

Visit us at our booth to the right of the Main Stage for great deals on new books and deep discount bargains on gently used bookstore returns. All books are priced 20-80% off!
See below for a coupon good for $10 off your $25 purchase.
For more information and a full event schedule, visit the Hawaii Book & Music Festival website.

Categories: Don't Look Back, Events, HBMF, My Events

Fashion Needs an Incubator

Posted on March 5, 2012

Hawai‘i has a new fashion hub–a 1500 square-foot local design boutique and collaborative workspace called the Hifi Coop, launched by Hifi–The Hawaii Fashion Incubator.

Perched on the Ward Warehouse second floor (above T&C), the part local design boutique, photo studio, lounge and work/sew space for Hifi members will showcase and support local designers while offering events, workshops and classes for local fashion professionals and fashion lovers.

The space opened to the public March 3 (with an appearance by Governor Abercrombie), with events through the weekend and Hifi designers onhand. Highlights included a Cosmic Bobbins trunk show of upcycled handbags, and local designers including Salty Girl Jewelry, Organik, Maui Thing, and Katrina Langford. Keiki and adults can work with dye with artist Maya Portner, or transform a basic tee into art.

What a treat to see this all-local effort made possible with local support and donations. How could you use an incubator? What projects are just waiting for a home to help them come to life?

Ask the Coop soon about party packages, too.

Categories: Events, fashion

Book Review: Diary of a Radical Cancer Warrior

Posted on January 24, 2012

Diary of a Radical Cancer Warrior: Fighting Cancer and Capitalism at the Cellular Level. 263 pages. $24.95

The title alone made me want to read this book by Chinese-American activist and baritone sax player Fred Ho, known for his prowess (he can play up to six-octaves) and Afro-Asian jazz inspired compositions.

In this raw yet approachable diary, Ho candidly unearths his brutal war against colorectal cancer, coupled with his struggle to continue playing and composing as the “New Fred Ho.” I was especially intrigued by his ambitious positioning of the body as the ultimate site for resisting the world’s commoditization, and fusing fighting disease, which he has been doing since 2006, with battling toxic capitalism.

Ho may just convince you, too, to never think about cancer in the same way again—or at least to attend his Honolulu book launch this March with University of Hawai‘i writers and choreographers with whom he has collaborated.

–Christine Thomas for the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, On My Shelf

Categories: Events, Music, Politics

Aloha O’Keeffe

Posted on December 15, 2011

You’ll find out more of my thoughts on GEORGIA O’KEEFFE’S HAWAI‘I in my next Star-Advertiser column, but I wanted to call out the book’s event this Sunday at Native Books where the author, who was 12 at the time she acted as O’Keeffe’s island tour guide, will be on O‘ahu to discuss her experience and new book. Mark your calendar!

Categories: Art and Architecture, Events, Hawaii Authors, Nonfiction

Literary Lotus

I travel. I read. I write.

Posts from the “Events” Category

Myths with a Modern Twist at MIA 1/21

Posted on January 20, 2013

Books Make Great Gifts

Posted on December 3, 2012

Coffee Talk

Posted on November 7, 2012

Savor the flavor at Kona’s festival devoted to the aromatic bean

Coffee Is King

A Look Back

Book Event – Saving "KP2" the Hawaiian Monk Seal

Posted on October 15, 2012

The Power of Reading

Posted on May 14, 2012

First the Festival, and then the Gala

Posted on May 7, 2012

Don’t Look Back, but it’s time for the Hawai‘i Book & Music Festival

Posted on April 21, 2012

Fashion Needs an Incubator

Posted on March 5, 2012

Book Review: Diary of a Radical Cancer Warrior

Posted on January 24, 2012

Aloha O’Keeffe

Posted on December 15, 2011

Posts from the “Events” Category

Posted on January 20, 2013

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Savor the flavor at Kona’s festival devoted to the aromatic bean

Coffee Is King

A Look Back

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