Posted on: Friday, April 16, 2004
THE LEFT LANE
Multicultural mall
Advertiser Staff and News Services
Fort Street Mall will be bustling with even more muliticulturalism today than usual. It's Hawai'i Pacific University's 20th Annual Intercultural Day. From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., HPU's downtown campus will be the stage for cultural exhibits, a parade, dance and musical performances. If you're downtown for lunch, you'll probably catch the parade of costumes, beginning at 11:15 a.m.
Time to cut the line
For members of halau (hula schools) entering the Merrie Monarch Festival hula competition, today's the day: Kahiko (old-style) group competition begins tonight. This is preceded by a shadowy process not much talked about even inside the hula world: "cutting the line." Kumu hula (teachers) must decide who is skilled enough to compete and who will — despite months of practice and fund-raising and other preparations — sit on the concrete bleachers to cheer their hula brothers and sisters along.
Read more about the Merrie Monarch festival in the Web diary of reporter Wanda Adams at www.honoluluadvertiser.com. And watch the competition tonight from 6 on KITV-Channel 4.
Love fuels triathlon
Love will be in the air Sunday at the 24 Hour Fitness/Honolulu Triathlon's "Race to Athens" elite competition.
Two of the top elite athletes, American Laura Reback and Australian Greg Bennett, are to be married in November. Reback is ranked No. 2 in the United States and the world. Bennett is ranked No. 1 in the world.
In Honolulu, Reback will be vying for a spot on the USA Triathlon Olympic Team, while Bennett will be earning International Triathlon Union points and cheering Reback on.
