Mele `Aimoku, In Praise of a King


`Iolani Palace Front Steps
7:00 pm, Sunday, Nov. 16, 2003
Puakea Nogelmeier, narrator

Friends of `Iolani Palace and UH Committee for the Preservation and Study of Hawaiian Language, Art and Culture is co-sponsoring this special event as part of a birthday commemoration for King Kalakaua. the Palace will be decorated with white, red and blue bunting, as well as Hawaiian flags, as it was during the Jubilee for the King in 1886.

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The evening program will celebrate chants in the book, Na Mele Aimoku, Na Mele Kupuna, a me Na Mele Ponoi o Ka Moi Kalakaua I [Dynastic Chants, Ancestral Chants and Personal Chants of King Kalakaua I], which was published by the Hawaiian Historial Society in 2001.

Featured presenters are Edith McKinzie, Anthony Lenchanko, Kihei de Silva, Keola Cabacungan, and Keali`i Reichel. These writers, scholars, and performers will share their original research and new works they have created based on the material in the book.

Created as a gift to honor King Kalakaua, Na Mele Aimoku, is the only book of Hawaiian poetic compositions published during the Hawaiian Monarchy period.

This privately published collection of 48 chants was a commemorative gift to the King at the elaborate two-week celebration held to mark his fiftieth birthday in 1886. Only seven copies of the original are known to exist today, including one copy at the Hawaiian Historical Society Library.

This facsimile reprint is the first in the Society's Hawaiian Language Reprint Series, Ke Kupu Hou. The second in the Series, Buke Mele Lahui, is a reprint of an 1895 Honolulu publication of over 100 Hawaiian political and patriotic songs. Copies may be ordered by calling (808) 537-6271.

Posted: Thu - November 6, 2003 at 08:46 AM      

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