March 8, 2025 / 2:00 -4:00pm

DA SHOP, HONOLULU, HI

What does it mean to commit your body to poetry beyond the page? What changes when you’re able to look your reader in the eye as you recite a poem? We the Gathered Heat is an anthology of Indigenous Pasifika and Asian American poets, specifically poets whose work prioritizes performance and spoken word. It was a packed intergenerational house at da Shop in Kaimukī as seven powerful poets from this anthology shared story about mother tongues, family, demilitarization, hope, and decolonial love. It was also the first time all four of us co-editors (Terisa Siagatonu, Franny Choi, Bao Phi, and myself) were in the same room to celebrate! Shout out to the poets Travis T, Kalilinoe Detwiler, Teatuahere Teiti-Gierlach, D. Kealiʻi MacKenzie, Rajiv Mohabir, Ryan Saifoloi, and Lyz Soto. You all are breathmaking.

January 17, 2025 / 4:00 - 6:00pm

NATIVE BOOKS, HONOLULU, HI

January 17, 2025 marks 132 years since the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Yet Hawaiians have made it clear every day since that we stand strong in the struggle to deoccupy and decolonize Hawaiʻi. Last night, our gathering was intergenerational affirmation that poetry will always feed that struggle. It was standing-room only at Native Books as Brandy Nālani McDougall, kuʻualoha hoʻomanawanui, Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio, and I shared poems and conversation about the liberatory possibilities of poetry in 2025. Mahalo to everyone who shared their evening with us! E ʻonipaʻa kākou nō hoʻi.

July 9, 2024 / 6:30-8:30pm

KA WAIWAI COLLECTIVE, HONOLULU, HI

I am honored to talk story with Prentis Hemphill for the Honolulu event of their WHAT IT TAKES TO HEAL book tour. As a queer ʻŌiwi poet, educator, and aloha ʻāina, I am grateful for what Prentis has and continues to make possible. Mahalo nui loa, Prentis, for this generous and deep-reaching book!

ONGOING January 13, 2024 - June 1, 2024

SHANGRI LA MUSEUM OF ISLAMIC ART, CULTURE & DESIGN, HONOLULU

It feels expansive to be part of this year’s 8x8 cohort of visual and performing artists at @hi_shangrila. Mahalo to the Shangri La team, especially Navid Najafi, for supporting my desire to take poetry back to the ocean of Kūpikipikiʻō.

April 16, 2024

VIRTUAL - AUSTIN COMMUNITY COLLEGE

We made of this gathering a tenderness. I am thankful for Mecca Jamilah Sullivan and the exquisite, unplanned connections across our work: we both emphasized the role of desire in our practice, we both love and continue to learn from Audre Lorde, and we both commit to, in Mecca’s words, the “writer math” that Toni Morrison talked about – if there is a book we need, we need to write that book. Praise to conversations that river with gratitude, honesty, and joy. Mahalo to Prudence Arceneaux and A.R. Rogers for asking beautiful questions. Mahalo to Austin Community College and Sequoia Maner for selecting ASK THE BRINDLED for the 2023 Balcones Prize for Poetry.

March 15, 2024

KENNEDY THEATER, HONOLULU

Congratulations to ʻAhahui Noiʻi Noʻeau ʻŌiwi (ANNO): Research Institute of Indigenous Performance on this inaugural conference! It is a special nourishment to talk story with Indigenous wahine about the ways we hoʻoulu lāhui as writers and educators. Mahalo to Kristiana Kahakauwila, Hiʻilani Okimura, and kuʻualoha hoʻomanawanui for a rooted and reaching conversation. Mahalo to Tammy Hailiʻōpua Baker and the ANNO hui for making this conference come to life.

February 16, 2024

CRANE FORUM, BERKELEY ART MUSEUM & PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVE

Mahalo nui loa to the wild generosity and even wilder talent of my Poetry & the Senses cohort at the Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley. I wrote my ass off and got to adore you all in person! Aloha to Tanya Lukin Linklater, as well, for a revelatory workshop that illuminated pilina between fragments I’d been carrying for months. To watch me read “The nearest body of water is my grandmother,” which I describe as a villanelle that leaks, go to 43:02 in the video.

THUR April 20, 2023 at 4:30 p.m. (Hawai’i)

UH MAUI COLLEGE LIBRARY

E Maui ē, mahalo. Piha kuʻu naʻau me ka haʻahaʻa. What a deep pleasure to go back home and perform these moʻo poems at UH Maui College. I am utterly humbled to have shared story with ʻIolani Brosio and Māhealani Perez Wendt, who lead with aloha ʻāina, honesty, and care.

WED March 23rd, 2023 at 5:00 p.m. (PST)

VIRTUAL - UC BERKELEY

Finally got to play choose-your-own-holoholo with Kealiʻi MacKenzie and D. Kūhiō Colleps! There are so many ways to share our work with each other, and I appreciate Keali’i and D. for trusting this huakaʻi approach. Here’s to friendship, collaboration, and play! Shout out to Jocelyn Ng as well as Richard and Kai Hamasaki of Wansalawata Productions for collaborating on the amplified poem shared here - “Iwi hilo means thigh bone means core of oneʻs being.”

THUR September 1, 2022 5:30-7:00pm (Hawaiʻi)

KA WAIWAI MA MŌʻILIʻILI

Mahalo to everyone who made this gathering a nourishing and honest space where we could uplift moʻo, wahine, and intergenerational stories of desire and healing. E mālama ʻono.