"Pele — Japanese Interpretation," by Sakitsu Hayataro, gets a two-page spread in "Bumbye Hawai'i."
WHERE CAN YOU GET IT?
"Bumbye Hawai'i" is available free in kiosks on the Kapi'olani Community College campus.
Also: At the book launch, 6-8 p.m. Saturday at Native Books/Na Mea, Ward Warehouse.
Or if you really, really want it, e-mail Tonouchi at hybolics@lava.net, and he'll tell you how to order one by mail.
"Bumbye Hawai'i" contributors are split between optimism and concern. Left, front to back: Lisa Mizuire, Noweo Kai, Matt Akiyama, Nick Bright, Zhi Situ, Alex Domingo. Right, back to front: Lee Tonouchi, Celeste Cebuma, Derek Okabayashi, Rez Nakamura.
DEBORAH BOOKER | The Honolulu Advertiser
As a veteran writer and a college instructor, Lee Tonouchi cruises with two groups not noted for having much in common: Baby boomer friends and Gen-Y students. But he noticed that they shared one thing: concern about Hawai'i's future.
The result of this random observation is "Bumbye Hawai'i," a tour of the future led by young writers and artists, satirically designed to resemble the ubiquitous "This Week" tourist guides. It's the latest in a series of collaborative literary projects funded by Kapi'olani Community College, where Tonouchi teaches.
Tonouchi started with the title, which in pidgin means "Future Hawai'i" but also implies causality, as in, "if we no take care, bumbye dis or dat goin' happen." He began asking students to write on that theme, and also sweet-talked and badgered students and friends into contributing.
The Advertiser in turn sweet-talked Tonouchi into gathering as many of the players as possible for a rambling stand-up interview last week in the foyer of KCC's Lama library.
A telling and somewhat surprising statistic, given the book's general darkness: When we asked Tonouchi and the 10 students to place themselves on an optimism-pessimism scale (10 being "Everything is Beauuuuutiful" and 1 being "We're going down the lua"), the collective answers averaged 5.8 — ("It could be better, but we're still in Hawai'i, brah!")
Some highlights from our conversation with the contributors:
Lisa Miziure, 23, graphic designer: Miziure worked with co-editor Matthew Akiyama and artist Zhi Situ to give the book a distinctive look. Her future focus is on preserving local and ethnic culture. "Your parents, your grandparents, their experiences, their traditions — they are Hawai'i, too."
Zhi Situ, 21, student, artist: In class, students were asked to draw what they thought the main character of a story looked like, and Situ's were the quickest and most skilled drawings. He soon found himself trying to deliver a cartoon a week to Tonouchi. "That was the hardest part, but it was also an opportunity," Situ said.
Noweo Kai, 25, student, writer: Kai's major concern is the Islands' fragile environment. Her poem, "What It Comes Down To" is a clever play on the words "native species." She thinks we need to look within. "I don't like it that we call (the contiguous 48 states) the Mainland. This is my Mainland."
Nick Bright, 22, student, artist: Bright's stoneware sculpture, "Urn for Sea and Trees," drew a welling-up of sadness from Tonouchi and co-editor Akiyama when they were scouting art — the thought of the sea and trees being dead, contained in a crude funerary urn. Yet: "I'm optimistic because I think people are more aware of (the problems in Hawai'i), more willing to deal with them," Bright said.
Celeste Cebuma, 29, nursing student, writer, photographer: Her poem, "New Sin City," was produced as a class assignment; she considered the prospect that Islanders finally get tired of traveling to Vegas, and bring the bright lights here. "I wondered what would happen," Cebuma said, and she imagined that the only hula girls were showgirls.
Derek Okabayashi, 21, computing student, writer: His poem, "Where's the Aloha," posits that Bu La'ia Jr., son of the once-popular pidgin comedian, is running for president to spread Hawaiian culture and values. Ranking his optimism as 4 out of 10, he said, "People see Hawai'i as a beautiful place because they come here to visit and then go home. ... They're not seeing the problems that we see. They say lucky we live Hawai'i, but not really."
Rez Nakamura, 19, student, artist: Nakamura's edgy computer artwork, produced with the aid of Illustrator and Photoshop programs, is called "Sole Searching" — it shows a background of cherry blossoms and peaked roofs, hinting at his Japanese ethnicity, with a T-shirted figure in front with a shoe on his head. The T-shirt says, "Can't Stop the Crooks." Wearing day-glo orange runners, Nakamura lets his art speak for itself, saying only, "I like shoes."
Alex Domingo, 35, student, writer, auditor: In Domingo's "The New Luna," Hawai'i has returned to its plantation past, growing sugarcane for bio-fuel but also reviving ills of the colonial period, including social stratification and abuse of workers. Despite the grimness of his story, Domingo is a rampant optimist, ranking himself an 8 out of 10. "We're lucky to be born and raised here. I wouldn't give it up for anything," he said. "The future depends on us."
