Words and Writing
Poetry
I have SO much poetry. I have not felt drawn to publishing the poetry onlne, but I created this space, as a way of saying yes to my ancestors, I understand, this gift is one of the many gifts passed through this magical lineage. and... gosh, maybe 1% of the writing, Iʻve posted. It seems to be mostly a personal process.
ʻŌlelo Hawaii
I am beginning to write in Hawaiian, oli, poetry, and short stories. Something inside prompted that words are powerful, and dive deeper in, to things, to make sure the energy released is alright. Below, I share one oli, written for the nene of Hawaii, with nene, I learned, also being a great metaphor for the Hawaiian people themselves. It is a prayer for healing for the Hawaiian people, from the impact of the Hawaiian genocide. It is a song praising beauty of the islands and the people. I also share my first childrenʻs book! I currently have around four papers in relation to ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi, and I set the intending to turn these into books. Currently they are housed on two different private websites.
He Mau Nīnau Kaʻu
Learning and writing in Hawaiian is a part of repairing the harm done to my Hawaiian ancestors, with the Hawaiian Kingdom illegally overthrown, and the language and culture suppressed. I am writing as I learn, and the intention is for this to be for both adults and children. Available on Blurb HERE
Oli no nā nēnē
If you are a Hawaiian language expert, and would like to help me refine this, I would welcome that, and of course, would be willing to pay you for your time.
Ombudsmanship
One of my bread and butter gigs, post MFA, was that of the field of ombudsmanship. I adored this as much as dancing, and might have never grown the dance company if I had stayed in this field. I became a published author and began to help organize ombudsman conferences. I learned a sh-tload about dispute resolution and became a certified mediator. Alas, once I was trained, the boys werenʻt around the office much and I was not able to cope with managing the office and the caseload alone. It is complicated, and I choose to focus on the positive. It was as if life spit me out, and said, I want you in the arts, this choice, in that, as an ombuds, I had little energy left for the arts. I learned to simplify, and chose a simple job, or rather, a simple job chose me, so that I could have energy to realize my dream of growing a boutique dance company to an international status, which I did.
Memoir
I have written two memoirs of sorts, one that was about the recovery process from complex-PTSD, a friend who read, said, this should be more widely available, it is amazing. I have chosen to quitely unpublish it, as a way of letting go of the past, but toy with the idea of uploading it to the internet archive. I donʻt want to be in a box of someone who went through all kinds of terrible crap, unbelievable crap, and survived to tell about it, how they did it, how they completely recovered. I donʻt want that identity, because I wasnʻt born to be a victim. It is just a small part of my story.
The second memoir, well, I am comfortable keeping alive.
It tracked how I did it, realized my dream of building a boutique dance company to an interntioinal status, created a new paradigm for sharing and presenting dance (in collabortion with others), and reflected on the journey. This also provided a window of opportunity to also share the visual art. A mentor once said, one can not truly understand your dances unless you see your visual art.
I Graduated with a Dance Degree, Now What?
It took ten years of training to enter into the flow of growing the dream of establishing a boutique contemporary dance company, and following through after finishing my MFA at Cal Arts.
Around 20 years into the process, I thought, I donʻt want anyone to have to go through what I went through to realize this dream, and thought to pull together some thoughts about how I managed to manifest this dream. I invited a few other artists to contribute essays.
My process was similar as with my first book project, I THRIVE. I chunked the book out in a series of blog posts.
The intention was to create a companion production manual, the how tos, until I realized, you know what? There are as many ways to make dances as their are choreographers, and people seem to find their own way, just move on, the knowledge and know how exits, youʻll find your way.
Many blessings!
NOTE: if you happen upon this, as a dance maker, and your resources are limited, reach out, and Iʻll send you a pdf. of the bok.
Political Art
It is true, over the years, I make work that is political in nature. A big frustration or aggravation has been with the way the human species organizes society in terms of the political dynamic. It is clearly not working. It seems so simple to me, how we might organize, but simple things, can be the most difficult to achieve. When an oranged headed creature took office the President before last, my reaction was to lean into kindness, and I crafted something that was an expression of a possible path forward. Donklephant Dreams. I sent it to many different politicians, without a single response to it. They arenʻt interested in change. Change has to come from us, outside of the system, and that is what I am focusing on, and not giving political theater any more energy than necessary.