Music
Singing with the Choir
Workmen were pulling up the tattered carpets of our college chapel at Oxford, which meant that our choir was temporarily homeless for our weekly rehearsal. After casting around for alternative spaces, our music director came up with a solution: we crossed Holywell Street and entered the grounds of nearby New College, making our way to…
Read MoreWalking the Bells
My first Saturday in Oxford, I walk down the Banbury Road towards St. Giles Church. My small roller bag click clacks over the broken sidewalk. Bells peal in a melodic succession:123456…654321. At first, the ringing seems to be coming from a dated glass and concrete building – a structure, I learned, that some locals consider…
Read MoreHonoring Hawaii’s Queen
At a time when statues are toppling across the nation, one work of public art stands tall. It is the eight-foot-tall bronze of Hawaii’s Queen Lili’uokalani, who faces the state Capitol in Honolulu. This beautifully rendered artwork, by the American realist sculptor Marianna Pineda, is even more powerful today than it was when it was…
Read MoreFinding Your Literary Community
At this year’s annual gathering of the Community of Writers, I was honored to give the opening talk. Here are my remarks. *** I’m so happy to be here… to help celebrate the rollicking and generous spirit that has infused our Community all these years. How many first-timers are here today? Raise your hands… …
Read MoreHow Novelist Kaui Hart Hemmings landed a role opposite George Clooney in “The Descendants”
The statistics are daunting: less than two percent of all the books optioned for the screen ever enter production. Far fewer make it into theaters. My first book, The House of Mondavi was optioned twice, but never came close to becoming a movie. That’s why it’s been a vicarious thrill to watch Kaui Hart Hemmings’…
Read MoreSinging with the choir
So it was with delight and some trepidation that I accepted an invitation to sing along with the choir at a Sunday service, directed by “Auntie Nola.” I joined the soprano choristers, who wore formal mu’mu’u dresses in a pattern of green, black and white brightened with sprays of delicate orchid blossoms. It was an opportunity to sing the last queen of Hawai’i’s songs in her own church with people who’d grown up with her music. And the experience profoundly moving — joining together with these beautiful voices to perform the queen’s own songs. It touched me in a way that no amount of reading or writing ever could.
Read MoreMy Dinner with Amy
I knew I’d found a soul sister who also loved research when I clicked onto Amy Stillman’s blog and found her posting, “Adventures in Archives.” For the past three years, I’ve been making trips to the treasure trove of Hawaiian historical archives located in Honolulu. Amy Ku‘uleialoha Stillman, a Harvard-educated associate professor of music and…
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