Out Loud in the Library! at Windward Community College presents a reading of poetry and prose by authors of the recently published Bamboo Ridge Press issue #119 titled Kīpuka: Finding Refuge in Times of Change. Featured writers and artists are Sue Patricia Haglund, Lanning C. Lee, Vanessa Lee-Miller, Wing Tek Lum and Travis Kaululāʻau Thompson.
Kipuka: Finding Refuge in Times of Change is a collection of poetry, prose and art examining what it means to be living and growing up in contemporary Hawaiʻi, especially during these unprecedented times.
The free event will be held on Thursday, December 2, at 11 a.m.–noon online via Zoom. Register online
Out Loud in the Library! is a literary and music event celebrating the rich intersection of words and music by local artists meant to inspire and encourage students to find their own creative voice through writing, reading, poetry, music, spoken word and the visual arts.
For more information, contact Susan St. John, assistant professor of English and Out Loud in the Library! coordinator at (808) 236-9226 or susan.stjohn@hawaii.edu.
Contributing writers
Sue Patricia Haglund
A Dule poet and scholar native of Panama, Haglund currently lives in ʻEwa Beach. She earned her doctorate in political science from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She has published in Intensions Journal, the first anthology of Dule poetry, Antologia de Poetas Kunas (Panama, 2015), Latinos Studies and North Dakota Quarterly.
Lanning C. Lee
Born in Honolulu, Lee earned his MA at the University of Wisconsin and his PhD in English in 1987 from UH Mānoa, where he authored the first dissertation of creative writing. He published two books of poetry, his memoir From Point A to C to Y to B, a Sentimental Journey through Hawaiʻi and Wisconsin, and a collection of Hawaiʻi sonnets and stories. His first in a series of nine Honolulu crime adventures is due to be published shortly.
Vanessa Lee-Miller
A poet, playwright and freelance journalist, Lee-Miller was born and raised in Hilo. She often travels to perform Hawaiian in verse and drama at literary events across the country and to venues from working-class pubs to the British Library and Pembroke College, Oxford. Often described as a Hawaiian language activist, she describes her decades-long struggle to keep ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi alive as essential to preserving Hawaiian culture.
Wing Tek Lum
Lum is a Honolulu businessman and poet. Bamboo Ridge Press published his two collections of poetry, Expounding the Doubtful Points (1987) and The Nanjing Massacre: Poems (2012).
Travis Kaululāʻau Thompson (aka TravisT)
An award-winning Kanaka Korean spoken word poet and touring teaching artist from Kalihi, and only child of activist educators, Thompson began performing his poetry at protest rallies and political demonstrations in 2000. He was a co-founder of the re:VERSES Poetry Collective and has been an active member of the Honolulu spoken word poetry community since 2003, as well as director for Youth Speaks Hawaiʻi, Pacific Tongues. He is currently a founding member of the Chinatown spoken arts collective known as the HI Poets Society.
