Hawaii’s Back Yard Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi

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Festival attracts renowned authors, musicians

On the first day of the inaugural Hawaii Book & Music Festival in 2006, kumu hula John Lake stood by the Hawaiian Culture Pavilion's stage and began chanting.

When he finished his resounding oli, he sat before the crowd and said, "I'm supposed to do a presentation, but I'm not sure what I'm supposed to say. Why don't I start by talking about my experiences and what's going on with the Hawaiian language?"

A scintillating exchange between speaker and audience ensued.

"It was fantastic!" recalled Blair Collis, HBMF's chairman of the board and vice president and chief operating officer for Bishop Museum. "It wound up being a metaphor for the entire two-day event.

"Afterward, many attendees said the best thing about the festival was the programming. They appreciated the opportunity they had to converse one on one with writers and musicians they admired in a relaxed, informal setting."

Set for Saturday and next Sunday, the third annual HBMF will again spotlight an internationally acclaimed slate of authors, poets, playwrights, storytellers, musicians, songwriters and artisans, including Michael Ondaatje, who penned "The English Patient" (the film based on that best-seller won nine Academy Awards in 1996, including Best Picture).

Title sponsor Bank of Hawaii, Target, Outrigger Enterprises Group, the Hawaii Tourism Authority, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, and City and County of Honolulu are leading the charge to kokua HBMF's beneficiaries, Hawaii Literacy (www.hawaiiliteracy.org) and Read to Me International (www.readtomeintl.org).

According to Hawaii Literacy, one in five adults in Hawaii is functionally illiterate, meaning they're reading at or below the fifth-grade level. Forty-two percent of Hawaii residents age 65 and older are in this category.

"When I became president of the Hawaii Book Publishers Association in 2001, I looked at the state's illiteracy statistics and felt a book festival could do a lot to help change them," Collis said.

At the time, he was Mutual Publishing's director of sales and marketing. He left that position to head Bishop Museum Press in 2003, which was when the idea for a book festival really started to gel.

Collis consulted with Buddy Bess, publisher of Bess Press and fellow HBPA member, who agreed the time was right to launch such an event. The economy was on an upswing, and the book publishing industry was enjoying tremendous growth nationwide.

Rather than a sales-oriented trade show, Collis envisioned a nonprofit community-based model. By September 2004 he had mustered enough support from the local publishing industry to incorporate the Hawaii Book & Music Festival as a 501(c)(3) organization and to establish a 10-member board of directors.

Over the next 18 months, the board met at least once a month to hash over ideas. Held in April 2006, the first HBMF attracted 10,000 book and music aficionados.

"Last year that number nearly doubled," Collis said. "This year we hope 30,000 people will come."

Roger Jellinek is the festival's executive director. He brings impressive credentials to the post, having spent four decades in publishing in New York, including a six-year stint as editor in chief of the New York Times Book Review. With his actor-director wife, Eden-Lee Murray, he now runs Jellinek & Murray Literary Agency, the only service of its kind in Hawaii.

Jellinek has organized 175 events featuring 450 presenters. Programs will run simultaneously at 12 venues, including a Hawaiian Culture Pavilion, where speakers will discuss topics such as what/who is Hawaiian, women in Hawaiian fiction and Polynesian navigation.

The hawaii council for the Humanities Pavilion will honor Bamboo Ridge, the Oahu-based literary journal that's celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Panels involving 40 contributors will explore themes that have engrossed the 850-plus writers whose work has appeared in the journal since its inception: diversity, local culture, language and performance.

Sure to delight kids, the Keiki Festival will offer an Activities Pavilion (including book-bag painting and readings by authors and celebrities) and a Keiki Stage featuring the La Pietra Chorus, Honolulu Theatre for Youth and other great entertainment.

Also of note are cooking demonstrations, storytelling, poetry slams, nonstop music and booths selling an array of food, art, crafts and, of course, books and music.

"University of Hawaii football, healthy local food, legends, lomilomi massage, ukulele, slack-key guitar -- the festival will bring together experts on a wide range of subjects and musical genres," Collis said. "What makes Hawaii unique is our history and culture, and there's no better way to gain insight into that than through our books and our music."

Hawaii Book and Music festival » Place: Frank F. Fasi Civic Grounds of Honolulu Hale, downtown Honolulu » When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and next Sunday » Admission: Free » Parking: Free meter parking both days at the Civic Center. Street parking also is free on Sunday. » Call: 234-0404 » E-mail: specialeventshawaii@juno.com » Web site: www.hawaiibookandmusicfestival.org Event highlights Presenters: » Michael Ondaatje, author of "The English Patient" » Richard Chamberlain, star of stage, screen and television, and author of the memoir "Shattered Love" » Lama Surya Das, author of "Awakening the Buddha Within" and "Words of Wisdom" » Julia Whitty, who will receive the 2008 Kiriyama Prize for nonfiction for "The Fragile Edge: Diving & Other Adventures in the South Pacific" at the festival. The Kiriyama Prize is given to the best works of fiction and nonfiction from Pacific Rim countries. » Patricia Wood, author of "Lottery," which is on the short-list for the 2008 Orange Broadband Prize for fiction » Jane Porter, author of "Flirting with Forty," being filmed on Oahu as a Lifetime Channel movie, starring Heather Locklear » Linda Sue Park, Newbery award winner for her 2001 book, "A Single Shard" » Gavan Daws, author of "Shoal of Time" and co-editor of "Honolulu Stories: Two Centuries of Writing" » Lois-Ann Yamanaka, poet, author and recipient of two Pushcart prizes for poetry Entertainers: » Maunalua » Manoa DNA » Jimmy Borges » Shari Lynn » Matt Catingub » Roy Sakuma