The Spiral’s Path
By Julia Arnade-Colwill on September 24, 2020The men at Hālawa Correctional Facility taught me about hope. Last summer, I found myself back home in Hawaiʻi for a brief period before I was to return to college on the East Coast. Over the past few years, I have become deeply involved in prison advocacy, particularly prison-based education, and sought something similar here. …
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An “Elsewhere” We Call Home
By Tatiana Kalaniopua Young, PhD on July 31, 2020Kamaʻāina: Child of the Land (2020), a short film by Kimi Howl Lee, centers on the story of a gender-queer teenage character named Mahina played by Malia Kamalani Soon. Mahina lives on the streets of Waiʻanae, a rural, mostly Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) and Pacific Islander community on the island of Oʻahu. Throughout this document, …
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Love Letters to Community: Necessary Gestures
By Joy Enomoto on May 16, 2020This is a letter of aloha and kanikau for my kupuna kualua, Keohokalole and my kupuna kuakahi, Annie Keoho and all of my kūpuna whose lives were forever changed by the maʻi ho‘oka‘awale ‘ohana. Sometime before 1879, Keohokalole contracted Hansen’s disease and was sent to live in Kalaupapa with her kōkua, David Poʻai. I do …
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Love Letters to Community: New Worlds into Being
By Lyz Soto on April 10, 2020Dear Lovely You, This is a letter in speculation in a speculative time. This is to all of you struggling through this moment of distance, uncertainty, danger, and fear. I am with you. In this space, I usually write to you in third person as the Communications Officer representing a collective of voices from Hawaiʻi …
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A Letter to You in COVID-19
By Lyz Soto on April 3, 2020Aloha mai kākou, Never has that greeting resonated so resoundingly. We give you salutations in love and community. We greet you as part of our beautiful net of compassion, gratitude, and grace. We extend our thanks to all those who are placing themselves at risk to help others in this time of crisis. We send …
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