Kaumakaiwa Kanaka'ole: The Voice Of Hawaii's New Generation Comes to Harris Center

"Kaumakaiwa Kanaka'ole... vaulted through various registers and timbres, from bass to witchy contralto rasp to sweet soprano ("skinny girl" voice, as she described it)...in a traditionalist tour de force" (New York Times).

A remarkable and riveting performer, Kaumakaiwa Kanaka'ole has been on the stage since she could walk. She now has five N? H?k? Hanohano (Hawaiian Grammy) awards to her name, creating songs whose aesthetic inspiration derives from Hawaiian chant traditions.

A modern transgender Hawaiian (mahu wahine), she is a vibrant keeper of culture - an authentic innovator who engages indigenous thought to address today's issues through music, chant, and plenty of humor: she provides wry commentary and stories to give context to her songs. Her family roots are in the hula of the esteemed Kanaka'ole family whose practices have been passed down through eight matrilineal generations. Here, for their first performance in Folsom, she performs with guitarist Shawn Pimental, who has three award-winning CDs.

Kaumakaiwa Kanaka'ole with Shawn Pimental - Voice Of Hawaii's New Generation performs on Wednesday, September 26, 2018, at 7:30. Tickets are $18-$42; Premium $48. Students with ID $12.Tickets are available online at www.harriscenter.net or from the Harris Center Ticket Office at 916-608-6888 from 12 noon to 6 pm, Monday through Saturday, and two hours before show time. Parking is included in the price of the ticket. The Harris Center is located on the west side of Folsom Lake College campus in Folsom, CA, facing East Bidwell Street.

"My work draws directly from ancestral memory and hula practice, with roots in chant that transforms to melody. It is not simply Western song with Hawaiian lyrics" (Kaumakaiwa Kanaka'ole).

Her roots are in the hula of the esteemed Kanaka'ole Family of Hawai'i Island, whose Hawaiian cultural practices have been passed down through eight matrilineal generations. Kaumakaiwa is great-grandchild of Edith Kanaka'ole, one of the leaders of the Hawaiian "renaissance" of the 60s and 70s that brought hula and Hawaiian art, culture, and language back into the active life of the islands. The past seven generations and beyond have been maintained within a traditional family lifestyle dedicated to hula and the Hawaiian culture.

"Kaumakaiwa Kanaka`ole carries the banner of family matriarch Edith Kanaka`ole with pride and dignity. Clearly, "Welo" will be a beacon for others to admire, adopt and follow...[Hers] is an inspired primer on preserving and perpetuating things and themes Hawaiian, with surprises and treats galore." (Honolulu Advertiser).

Fluent in Hawaiian as well as English, surrounded by Hawaiian music and all types of Western music from classical to indie, educated in Hawaiian tradition and earning advanced degrees in Western universities, she defines what it means to be an indigenous intellectual in a contemporary world. Her vision is to engage indigenous thought and body of knowledge to address today's issues and challenges through music, chant, and sharing of the spirit. In 2013, Kaumakaiwa began to identify female with the support of her family and Hawaiian cultural tradition (m?h? wahine). In 2014, she toured with mother Kekuhi, the first mother-transgender daughter performance duo in Hawaiian music, and perhaps anywhere.

She was the first Hawaiian performer to appear both at New York's globalFEST, in 2011, garnering a rave review in The New York Times, and at the prestigious indigenous cultures festival The Dreaming in Australia later that year. In November 2013, she and her mother Kekuhi were each awarded the Martin Luther King Jr-Cesar Chavez-Rosa Parks Visiting Professorship of the University of Michigan. She was also awarded a Native Arts & Cultures Foundation Fellowship.

But it is the music, and her incredible voice, that will make her concert unforgettable. Come for an evening "loaded with exquisite chants, mele, and stories, all told in the native Hawaiian tongue, but eloquent and inventive in execution" (Honolulu Advertiser).

Great Shows. Up Close. In Folsom!

The Harris Center for the Arts at Folsom Lake College brings the community together to share in cultural experiences featuring the work of artists from throughout the region and around the world. Built and operated by the Los Rios Community College District, the $50 million, state-of-the-art regional performing arts center boasts three intimate venues with outstanding acoustics, an art gallery, a recording studio, elegant teaching spaces, plenty of safe parking and all the other amenities of a world-class performing arts venue. Each year the Center hosts over 400 events attracting more than 150,000 annually.

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