The Lili‘u Project, which presents the music of Queen Lili‘uokalani in expanded forms to emphasize her artistic accomplishments, brings its latest production to Leeward Community College on Sept. 24 and 25.
Spearheaded by singer Starr Kalahiki, the college’s music teacher John Signor and filmmaker Joel Moffett, the Lili‘u Project blends music, theater, dance, visual art and academic research in presenting the music of Lili‘uokalani and illustrating its significance.
“It’s a theatrical staging and exploration of Lili‘uokalani, not as a monarch necessarily but as an artist,” Signor said. “Long before she ever thought she would be queen, she was … probably one of the most important and prolific composers to come out of Hawaii.”
The production is titled “Makalapua — The Opening Flower,” and features actress Ehulani Kane and Kalahiki performing with an ensemble playing instruments that would now be considered atypical for Hawaiian music, such as violin, cello and harp. The production was designed to reflect Lili‘uokalani’s progressive approach to music, Signor said.
“If she were alive today, she might be a DJ. She might be having an electric guitar with lots of pedal effects, so my ensemble really brings to the table this sense of exploration,” Signor said, adding that attitude was also reflected in Lili‘uokalani’s poetry.
The shows are at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 24 and 3 p.m. Sept. 25 at the Leeward Theatre. Tickets are $5 to $30. For information, visit www.leeward.hawaii.edu/theatre-events, call 808-455-0380 or email Ltheatre@hawaii.edu. For more about the Lili‘u Project, visit theliliuproject.com.
Iniki memoir back on sale, also available for Kindle
“Hurricane Iniki and I,” a memoir by Bob Ward about his struggle to survive after his commercial fishing boat capsized in the massive storm, has been released in digital form, with a limited number of original hard copies also for sale.
On Sept. 11, 1992, Ward and two friends were caught off the south shore of Kauai as Hurricane Iniki bore down on the island. With a wind speed of 225 miles per hour, Iniki is the strongest storm ever recorded on the islands.
Ward’s shipmates, Nobuo Saito and Masa Hatanaka, were lost at sea; Ward survived by clinging to a 6-foot brine tank as the eye of the storm passed over him. He was rescued the next day. Ward later wrote about the experience in a 116-page memoir. Upon his death in 2020, his daughter Tiffany Ward discovered 1,500 copies of the book in storage.
Now some of those copies, along with a digital version available for Kindle, are for sale. “I want his story observed and retold,” Tiffany Ward said in a press release. “His story is one involving the strength of the body, mind and of the human spirit. I believe it has the power to make us ponder the true meaning of life and who we really want to become as a person.”
The book is available on Amazon.com for $9.99; hard copies have a shipping cost. Some of the proceeds from the book sales are earmarked for the Red Cross for future disaster victims.
For more information, go to hurricaneinikiandi.com.
