[All of these gorgeous illustrations are by the author, and reproduced with permission and gratitude.] It seems uncanny that the latest graphic memoir by legendary cartoonist Adrian Tomine, The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist, hit shelves five months into a global pandemic, a time where many of us know a thing or two about …
Read MoreIn July and August of 2020, we partnered with the Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival for a series of events that centered Kimi Howl Lee’s short film Kamaʻāina: Child of the Land. The events and resulting discussions were thoughtful and thought provoking, matching the tenor of the film and the intention of its director. It’s always …
Read MoreThe 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. …
Read MoreKamaʻāina: 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, …
Read MoreThis 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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