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SATURDAY
‘Experiential’ daytime art event debuts
First Fridays in the Chinatown Arts District have shown the ability of the arts to draw people downtown in the evenings, even as the Friday events have evolved over the years to focus on the district’s restaurants, clubs and pubs.
To bring more attention to galleries and boutiques, a new event launches Saturday: Discover Art, a daytime, “experiential” art event on each second Saturday, reaching from the Hawai‘i State Art Museum, 250 S. Hotel St., to Nextdoor, 23 N. Hotel St., and along stretches of Nuuanu Avenue and Bethel and Pauahi streets.
Also new: Discover Art is literally taking it to the streets, with live music and live artists in “parklets” transformed from parking spaces, and stock from local shops spilling out into sidewalk sales.
Outdoor activities include a Bethel Street Craft Fair, arts demonstrations and music near The ARTS at Marks Garage, 1159 Nuuanu Ave.
“It’s pop-up art experiences in places you don’t expect. You expect art in an art gallery, but you don’t expect to learn to play hanafuda cards in an art gallery,” said organizer Sandy Pohl of Louis Pohl Gallery, where expert Helen Nakano will teach the Japanese game. “Nextdoor is a bar, but this time they’re going to have a craft fair in there. We’re trying to encourage our merchants to do different things in their space.”
Participation is encouraged, with interactive demonstrations of arts including pottery, photography, watercolor painting and crochet, and improv classes in acting and music.
Outside The ARTS at Marks Garage, musical entertainment will be provided by Brian Chang, Terry Oyama and the Chinatown Museum Keiki band.
The event is a more family-oriented event than First Friday, Pohl said. “We’ve always known, even when we started First Friday, that we needed a daytime event. We needed something family-friendly that brings all ages down here.”
When: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday
Where: Hawai‘i State Art Museum, The ARTS at Marks Garage, Art Treasures Gallery, Barrio Vintage, Ginger 13, House of Aria, In4mation, Louis Pohl Gallery, Madre Chocolate, Nextdoor and the Pegge Hopper Gallery, in the Chinatown Arts District.
Cost: Free
Info: on.fb.me/1nUaZuM or 521-1812
SUNDAY
Ukulele picnic raises money for museum
A dream will come one step closer to reality Sunday with Japanese musician/promoter Kazuyuki Sekiguchi’s Eighth Annual Ukulele Picnic at Kakaako Makai Gateway Park. Sekiguchi, an ukulele enthusiast who’s also bassist for best-selling Japanese pop-rock group Southern All Stars, created the the Ukulele Picnic to raise funds to build an ukulele museum in Hawaii.
“The ukulele is a symbol of peace, friendship, ohana and love,” Sekiguchi said through a publicist, announcing the picnic and the events that will precede it this weekend.
When Sekiguchi builds that museum, it will certainly contain an exhibit on Kamaka Ukulele, which celebrates its centennial this year. Sam Kamaka Sr. began building instruments in his Kaimuki basement workshop in 1916. His grandson Chris Kamaka will appear at the picnic Sunday, playing acoustic stand-up bass alongside guitarist William “Baba” Alimoot and special guest Jan Luna on ukulele.
Kamaka and Alimoot perform twice a week at the Aulani in Ko Olina as Hema Pa‘a. “(Baba) and I are both left-handed, and we both play the instruments strung right-handed, but we play ’em from the opposite side, so Kaipo Hale gave us the name ‘hema pa‘a’ — ‘strong left,’” Kamaka said.
Three days of ukulele-related events begin at 6:30 today with the Fourth Annual Ukulele Museum Benefit Concert at the Hawaii Prince Hotel’s Mauna Kea Ballroom, featuring performances by Teresa Bright and ukulele virtuosos Benny Chong and Byron Yasui. Tickets, $48-$55, help fund construction of Sekiguchi’s ukulele museum, which will hold displays documenting the history of the ukulele and its contribution to Hawaiian music.
On Saturday, amateur ukulele players of all ages will compete in the Fifth Annual International Ukulele Contest at the Royal Grove Stage in the Royal Hawaiian Center. The competition begins at 10 a.m. and is expected to continue until 1:20 p.m.
Hema Pa‘a is among more than a dozen acts that will play Sunday, appearing about 2 p.m. Hawaii will be represented by Herb “Ohta-san” Ohta, Herb Ohta Jr., Kalei Gamiao, Raiatea Helm, Jody Kamisato, Kris Fuchigami and Taimane Gardner. Performers from Japan include Seiji Katz, the Sweet Hollywaiians, Kimiko Wakiyama, Ayano Tsuji and, of course, Sekiguchi. The Macarons are Thailand’s contribution to the lineup.
Where: Kakaako Makai Gateway Park
When: 9 a.m. until sunset Sunday
Cost: Free
Info: ukulelepicnicinhawaii.org
MONDAY
Hong Kong’s Cantopop hits return to isles
Before there was K-pop in Korea, even before there was J-pop in Japan, the Chinese created Cantopop. Also known as HK-pop because its epicenter was Hong Kong, Cantopop was a mash-up of Western musical genres (rock, soul, disco and pop), Cantonese singers and orchestral arrangements inspired by previous eras of Chinese pop music. Cantopop jelled in Hong Kong in the 1960s and early 1970s when the city was still an English colony and free of Red Guard censorship. It won fans outside of China in areas where Cantonese and its related dialects were spoken.
Barinna Poon and the Hong Kong Business Association of Hawaii gave Honolulu a taste of Cantopop artists with a pair of “Hong Kong Night” concerts at the Hawaii Theatre in 2012 and 2013. They’re celebrating the organization’s 20th anniversary with a third Hong Kong Night concert Monday.
Expect a night of Cantopop classics from “the Golden ’60s” on up to at least the 1990s, performed by four veteran entertainers.
>> Johnny Ip, pictured, was the lead singer and guitarist of the New Topnotes in the 1970s and went on to wider acclaim singing the theme songs of television shows in the 1980s.
>> Li Hung Kay, also known as “the Lounge Prince,” expanded his repertoire to include English hits after he signed with EMI Records.
>> Black Girl, formerly known as Li Lai Ha, was a popular Hong Kong lounge singer and recording artist in the 1980s.
>> Jenny Keung is known for her original music and also for singing “Falling in Love With You,” the theme song of a popular television series.
Li and Black Girl were part of the first Hong Kong Night in 2012. Keung made her Hawaii debut in the second Hong Kong Night concert in 2013.
Where: Hawaii Theatre
When: 6:45 p.m. Monday
Cost: $25-$65; $125 VIP ticket includes ticket, post-show reception
Info: hawaiitheatre.com and 528-0506
THURSDAY
Martha Redbone performs original blend of blues, tribal tunes
Zoe Martin-Doike with her Aizuri Quartet, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Orvis Auditorium, University of Hawaii at Manoa; $20-$45, honoluluchambermusicseries.org or 956-8246.
Singer-songwriter Martha Redbone is one of the more intriguing artists in the Americana music scene. She’s of Cherokee, Choctaw, Shawnee and African-American descent, and that’s reflected in her blend of folk, roots, blues, tribal and soul sounds.
Redbone received a 2002 Native American Music Award for best debut artist. Her rich voice shines in her early work, a style that might be called alternative soul.
She gained national attention with her 2012 release, “The Garden of Love,” a collection of poems by 18th-century English poet William Blake set to the music of her native Appalachia. The album garnered attention for her as “a true original; the kind of artist who sets trends, as opposed to following them,” according to Billboard Magazine.
Redbone will perform at the Doris Duke Theatre on Thursday with songwriting partner Aaron Whitby. They’ll present songs from “Bone Hill,” a musical theater piece she is developing about her post-slavery family history in the coal mines of Appalachia “amid the laws of Jim Crow” and in today’s changing world.
The concert is part of the Honolulu Museum of Art’s African American Film Festival and culminates a residency at Honolulu’s PA‘I Foundation with “Bone Hill” director Roberta Uno.
Where: Honolulu Museum of Art
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday
Cost: $10-$15
Info: honolulumuseum.org or 532-6097
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