Next Steps Plenary: 1:00pm - 1:30pm
Break Out Sessions: 1:30pm - 3:00pm
Mainstage: Act Now for Palestine!, facilitated by Māhealani Ahia and Kim Compoc
LAB Theater: How can local artists stay or return to HI, facilitated by Kiki Rivera
Room 101: Manifesto Drafting– to better collaborate with NH & PI artists, facilitated by Noa Gardner
Studio: Open Space
Men’s Dressing Room: Open Space
Upper Lanai: Open Space
Lobby: Open Space
Māhealani Ahia is a Kanaka ‘Ōiwi artist, scholar, activist, songcatcher and storykeeper with lineal ties to Lāhaina, Maui. As a PhD candidate in English with a graduate certificate in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, her dissertation entitled: "Shapeshifting Biography: The Life and Afterlives of Kihawahine” connects ancestral Hawaiian narratives with current issues of mana wahine, settler-colonialism, diaspora, repatriation, and non-human relations. With a BA in Theatre Arts from U.C. Berkeley, and a certificate in screenwriting from U.C. Irvine, Māhea has performed in over 25 productions and written for stage and screen. Her most recent project “Seeking Asylum: A Mad Decolonial Detour” curates a series of historical fiction monologues surrounding Hawaiʻi State Mental Hospital, now the campus of Windward Community College. Māhea is excited to be working with her sister Noe again, and is grateful for her memories touring with Leilani Chan and TeAda. She dedicates this production to her daughter Hinaaiinameleonalani, her ancestors Kihawahine and Emma Ahuena Taylor (ʻŌiwi political theatre maker), and the Lāhaina community. Māhea calls on each one of us to help in the restoration of wai, ʻāina, ola, ea, and lāhui.
Kim Compoc teaches courses on Filipinx American history and U.S. Empire at the University of Hawai'i - West O‘ahu. She is the faculty advisor on an emerging student group, Ka Mana O Nā Pueo, formed to express solidarity with Palestine and all peoples under occupation. She is affiliated with several demilitarization organizations including the International Women's Network Against Militarism and Women's Voices, Women Speak (@genuine_security). She is also the co-founder of the Maui-based theater company Talking Stories, and the Cancel RIMPAC Theater Troupe.
Kiki Rivera (he/they) is an internationally produced, theatre artist, educator, and arts activist. They hold a BA in Theatre and MFA in Playwriting from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (UHM). Original plays include Faʻalavelave: The Interruption. Published plays include “Puzzy” (featuring New Zealand Playwright Victor Rodger) in the anthology Samoan Queer Lives, To “Our Black and Brown Babies of Ocean and Islands” in the anthology We’re Not Neutral, and “Kumu Kukui” in Lighting the Way: An Anthology of Short Plays About The Climate Crises. Kiki’s work focuses on the intersections of cultural, sexual, and gender identity within the context of post-colonial society and is one of many Pacific Islander voices in the diaspora who believes in the value of self-reflective storytelling from a contemporary indigenous perspective.
Noa Gardner (he/him) is a Native Hawaiian playwright born and raised in Kaimuki on the island of O’ahu and a graduate of the MFA Dramatic Writing program at the University of Southern California. Noa is interested in presenting a body of work through his plays that speak to different facets of Hawaiian culture, presenting to an audience (sometimes for the very first time) a glimpse into the deep interior lives of Hawaiian people. Currently, Noa lives on O’ahu and is a student at the University of Hawai’i Mānoa seeking a second undergraduate degree in both Hawaiian Language and Hawaiian Studies. His day jobs include transcribing Hawaiian language tapes/interviews as well as working as an educational assistant at a Hawaiian language immersion school. He was a National Finalist for the Gary Garrison Ten Minute play award (2016), recipient of South Coast Repertory’s Elizabeth George commission (2021), a semi-finalist of the Eugene O’Neil (2021), and has had his one act and full-length plays read in collaboration with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, the Son of Semele Ensemble, the Los Angeles Theatre Company, Artists at Play, and the Pasadena Playhouse.