Celebrating story and song
By Maureen O’Connell
Revel in your love of books and music at the fifth annual Hawaii Book & Music Festival: A Celebration of Story and Song.
The Bank of Hawaii's free event, featuring the state's largest book and music sale, performances and presentations by local and national authors, will be held 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. today and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. tomorrow on the grounds of Honolulu Hale.
Today's festivities will be topped off with a 6 p.m. sunset concert by Maunalua.
Tomorrow, a taping of the "Aloha Shorts" radio show begins at 11 a.m. in Mission Memorial Auditorium on the grounds; no reservations needed. This broadcast, "In their Own Words: Voices of Hawai'i's Past," will include readings from Bamboo Ridge Press and from the University of Hawai'i Center for Oral History collection "Talking Hawai'i's Story: Oral Histories of an Island People."
Other highlights, at nine pavilions and stages:
• Writer presentations. Authors range from Duane "Dog" Chapman ("Where Mercy is Shown, Mercy is Given") to Kaui Hart Hemmings, whose best-selling novel "The Descendants" has been adapted for a film shot in Hawai'i, starring George Clooney. Hemmings will appear with film producer Jim Burke at 11 a.m. today. Chapman appears at 1 p.m. today.
• World dance concerts. Nine international dance groups based in Hawai'i share their widely different traditions of narrative dance, 2 to 4 p.m. both days.
• Sustainability panel. Kanu Hawai'i moderates a discussion on "Hawai'i-specific carbon offsets," featuring Hagadone Printing Co. — the nation's first company to be "carbon-neutral certified" — and Blue Planet Foundation; noon today.
• Daylong attractions: panels and presentations focused on Hawaiian culture, from the Akaka bill to contemporary chant, mele and hula; Uses Of Memory, panels examining issues from media memory and memory as fiction and poetry, to new visions for museums; Café Talk Story, storytelling and music in an open-air food court; and a "used keiki book sale."
The nonprofit festival's beneficiaries are Hawaii Literacy and Read To Me International. On the Web: www.hawaiibookandmusicfestival.org.