This September, the Pōpolo Project had the opportunity to travel with members of our Black community in Hawaiʻi to the Legacy Museum and the Memorial for Peace and Justice, two projects run by the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama. While connections between this work in Montgomery and our lives in Hawaiʻi may not seem obvious at first glance, as we travel to Alabama and connect with community members and elders of the Civil Rights Movement, we are learning lessons and building relationships we will bring home with us. All part of a long practice of solidarity travel. Solidarity ..read more

Iyalorisha Olushunde offers a benediction for the gathering in the Yoruba tradition. On June 19th we continued our community tradition of creating altar space to honor our ancestors, including those who endured enslavement in the Americas. Mahalo nui to everyone who joined us at Kapiʻolani Park on Monday to make art, build community, and honor our ancestors and the ancestors of this ʻāina as part of our annual Juneteenth observance. Beautiful community members of many generations shared their voices in song and ʻoli, reflections, and hopes as we marked the day and its significance first for e ..read more

We started our annual observance of Black History / Black Futures Month on January 28 with our partners at Kōkua Learning Farm, a project of Kōkua Hawaiʻi Foundation. Our vision of an abundant and just future brings us to connect our community with the land through lending our time and energy to ʻāina projects and learning about and supporting efforts to increase food security in Hawaiʻi, restore loʻi and fresh water sources, and return land to kānaka Hawaiʻi. Our keiki and ʻohana helped care for food plants and harvested cassava, an starchy plant important for cooks across our diaspora. Comm ..read more

Part of our annual observance of Black August in Honolulu brings us to connect our community with the land through lending our time and energy to ʻāina projects and learning about and supporting efforts to increase food security in Hawaiʻi and return land to kānaka Hawaiʻi. This August, we were hosted at Kōkua Learning Farm, a project of Kōkua Hawaiʻi Foundation. Our keiki and ʻohana learned about loʻi and restoration work undertaken at the farm, helped to weed and plant, and shared some of our community knowledge about medicinal and food plants of the African diaspora that grow in Hawaiʻi and ..read more

We loved seeing so much of the community, from keiki to elders, gathered in joy and jubilation out at @kahumanaorganicfarm on Juneteenth! Mahalo to our friends at @blackbazaarhnl who collaborated with us on the event as well as all the vendors and volunteers who helped make the day a beautiful reflection of our community. ?✊?? ?: @michaelmadeyoulook ..read more

Amid a global pandemic and uprisings in defense of the lives of Black people across the US and around the world, we held our fourth annual Black August observance in Hawaiʻi, holding space for our community to learn and grow together, to make commitments to this place and to each other, and to strategize, all while situating ourselves in a long, worldwide genealogy of resistance to White supremacy and colonialism. While we were not able to meet in person, we hosted 24 virtual events over the course of the 31 days of August. We held virtual learning events, community gatherings, tal ..read more

Coverage in Hawaiʻi News Now: Candlelight vigil among ways Hawaii shows support for Black Lives Matter Dozens showed up at Magic Island for a candlelight vigil to honor the victims of racial injustice, particularly George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, a woman who was killed in her home by Kentucky police in March Coverage in Honolulu Magazine: Watch as Thousands Protest in Downtown Honolulu in Support of Black Lives Matter A week of demonstrations against police brutality, systemic racism and a call for justice for George Floyd resulted in a reported 10,000 people protesting at the ..read more

The anguish and the hope of the past weeks have been weighing on us. COVID-19 has taken so many in our communities, made the vulnerable more so as the global economy has faltered. Across the US and around the world calls for the end of extrajudicial killings of Black people by the police and vigilantes ring out. For some, this moment has been a wake up call. For others, it is the continuation of a nightmare world of anti-Blackness. For some, calls for abolition are new, but for others of us it is what we have been demanding all along. June 19, 1865 marks the day that enslaved people in Texas ..read more

“East African retro-pop” group Alsarah and the Nubatones visited Hawai‘i in December 2018 for concerts, workshops, and cultural exchange in an artist residency that explored themes of migration, home, and belonging ..read more

The iconic Ishmael Butler (of Digable Planets, Shabazz Palaces, Knife Knights) talked story with us about his connections to Hawai‘i, his practice as an artist, and how he encounters the occupation here ..read more