HANAMAULU — Celebrate Hawaii with music, language, history and the arts at Kauai Beach Resort on tonight at the 11th annual Na Lei Hiwahiwa, “A Hawaiian Music Celebration of Spring.”
Featuring contemporary Hawaiian music and weaving stories centered around this year’s theme of “Na Mea Kanu Hawaii,” or “Plants of Hawaii,” the event will feature the Kauai High School May Day Court.
The master of ceremonies is kumu hula Troy Hinano Lazaro.
“It is a fundraiser to help with our 35th annual Kauai Mokihana Festival and the Malie Scholarship, which is used to help individuals and groups on Kauai for educational purposes with the focus on Hawaiian language, music and culture,” said organizer Maka Herrod.
Music this year will be provided by Ahumanu, a group of musicians — Kekai Robinson, Marja Lehua Apisaloma and Liz Morales — that Herrod met while judging hula in Japan at Ku Mai Ka Hula and Jula O Na Keiki.
“They were musicians for a halau hula whose sensei (teacher) is a haumana (student) of kumu hula Hokulani Holt on Maui,” Herrod said. “We are featuring them because of who they are, where they stand as women of Hawaii and the passion (they have) to fulfill the same mission as Malie Foundation.”
Ahumanu released their latest album, “In This Place of Love,” on April 20. It will be their first time performing on Kauai.
“Ahumanu are talented musicians, composers, and have been raised with Hawaiian music all their lives,” Herrod said. “(They) are very excited to share their love for music and Hawaii.”
Dr. Holt, in an excerpt from “Kahi Aloha, In This Place of Love,” writes: “Ahumanu is a complex composite of three lives. A collection of shared experiences, an assemblage of remarkable talent, and a gathering together of musical passion.
“They are multifaceted yet combine into a sound that is only Ahumanu. Each facet brings together their love for a variety of music genre — R&B, rock ‘n’ roll, and a little bit of country,” she said.
“This offers a bold statement of who they are and what they love to do. And, like finely polished gold, their beautiful Hawaiian mele gleam with a brillance that declares their love for our ‘olelo makuahine and its intracacies and nuances, which can only be expressed fully in the language of our homeland, the sands of our birth.”
The concert begins at 6 p.m. Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the door. Get them at Vicky’s Fabrics, Scotty’s Music and Kauai Music and Sound, or at mailefoundation.org.
