Hui Mo‘olelo: ​Lei Pua ʻAla

Maui Public Art Corps is thrilled to introduce the Hui Mo‘olelo: Lei Pua ʻAla cohort and story partners — an inspiring group of storytellers whose voices bring to life the rich, interwoven narratives of Hawai‘i’s queer history and culture. This initiative, in partnership with the County of Maui, Hale Hōʻikeʻike at the Bailey House/Maui Historical Society, and the Lei Pua ʻAla Queer Histories of Hawaiʻi project, is dedicated to preserving and amplifying local stories that celebrate identity, connection, and belonging.

This year’s Lei Pua ʻAla cohort—our fifth annual Hui Mo‘olelo program—features storytellers from both O‘ahu and Maui, each of whom has completed immersive, intergenerational storytelling training under the guidance of Sissy Lake-Farm, Executive Director of Hale Hōʻikeʻike and Kumu Hula of Hālau Makana Aloha O Ka Laua‘e. Their work has resulted in 11 powerful audio recordings, now accessible to the public through mauipublicart.org, the Maui Historical Society archives, and the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.

These deeply personal and historically significant stories now serve as the foundation for Maui Public Art Corps’ latest call for artist proposals. Artists from all disciplines—visual, performance, and experiential—are invited to choose a story and transform it into a public art piece in collaboration with the community. The deadline to apply is March 31, 2025.

Below, meet the Hui Mo‘olelo: Lei Pua ʻAla cohort members and their story recording partners. Click on each link to listen to their stories and explore the lived experiences that continue to shape and inspire Hawaiʻi’s cultural landscape:

Meet the Storytellers

Hōkū Pavao & Francis Taua
• Full Recording HERE
• Excerpt HERE

Hōkū Pavao, Maui Arts Administrator, Artist &  Co-Founder of Archive for Health Arts and Spirit, is a Kanaka Maoli Maui-born and raised performing artist and arts administrator dedicated to using theatre as a powerful tool for community storytelling and social change. Her current work focuses on crafting narratives that celebrate Maui’s rich and diverse cultural heritage and amplify underrepresented voices, ensuring the arts remain accessible and reflective of her community.

Maui Performing Artist & Teaching Artist Francis Tauʻa was raised on Maui and has been part of the local theatre Ohana for over 40 years. He has been a teacher and director of primarily children’s theatre arts and has worked with ages from 4-17 as well as directing Adult productions for various theatre organizations on the island. He is the nephew of Kumu Keli’i Tau’a and is currently working on a degree in Hawaiian Studies through the University of Hawai’i Maui Campus.

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Cynthia Cary & Lee Stein
• Full Recording HERE
• Excerpt HERE

Cynthia Cary, LCSW, recently retired from private practice, and is a former instructor at UH Maui College teaching sociology, counseling and social work courses. Lee Stein, MSW and CSAC, retired from UH Maui College in 2018, where she served as Human Services Program Coordinator and a professor in human services and social work classes. Cynthia and Lee have been together for 30 years and married for 15 years.

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Val Tavai & Lani Teves
• Full Recording HERE

Val Tavai, Senior Community Services Manager at Honolulu Community Action Program, grew up in Makakilo in a Samoan-Filipino family, with ties to Maui and Lanaʻi. While attending college on the continent, they became involved in LGBTQ activism.  When they returned home, they were active in the early organizing for same-sex marriage in Hawaiʻi. They are the current senior community services manager at the Honolulu Community Action Program in Waiʻanae.

ʻO Stephanie Nohelani Teves, I am a Kanaka Maoli feminist from Puʻuloa, Oʻahu where I live with my ʻohana. I trace my genealogies to the Makakoa line of Lahaina, Maui and the Akawa line of Pukoʻo, Molokaʻi. I am an associate professor and chair of the department of women, gender, and sexuality studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. I am the author of Defiant Indigeneity: The Politics of Hawaiian Performance (2018) and co-editor of Native Studies Keywords (2015). I have co-edited special issues of American Quarterly (2024) and Amerasia Journal (2023), as well as published articles on Hawaiian hip-hop, film, and sexuality in the Pacific. My research specializes in theorizing and analyzing the range of Kānaka Maoli life and expression. My most recent publication The Mahele of Our Bodies: Nā Moʻolelo Māhū/LGBTQ (2025) is an edited collection of oral histories with ten Hawaiian elders. One of few studies of Native/Indigenous queer oral histories, it provides an exploration of community and nation building, culture and tradition, and how all are navigated in the struggle for Indigenous self-determination and rights.

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Nicolita Garces & Ashley Ancheta Galacgac
• Full Recording HERE
• Excerpt HERE

Nicolita "Nicki" Garces is a queer Filipinx from Kalihi whose parents hail from the Ilocos region of the Philippines. Her mother, a hotel housekeeper and Local 5 union member, influenced her to be involved in social justice. Her close group of friends - her chosen family, many of which are activists and organizers - helped Nicki bloom into and live her authentic self. Nicki is an information management professional for a philanthropic foundation and runs her side business, Nanang Michaela Wisdom Blends, where she sells Filipinx plant medicine products and teaches workshops in the community. She is also a Reiki master, Hilot (traditional Filipinx healing) practitioner and caregiver to her mother. 

Ashley Ancheta Galacgac is a queer transnational feminist inspired by Ilokanx women who raised her and places of Hawai‘i where she grew up. In her work at HANO, she supports community-based organizations & nonprofits to improve the quality of life here in Hawai‘i. Ashley’s Ethnic Studies background ignites her passion to uplift movement histories rooted in love and resistance, particularly amplifying voices of women and gender expansive relatives. Her political home is AF3IRM, a women of color-led anti-imperialist organization calling for Indigenous and body sovereignty across Hawai‘i, Philippines, Palestine, and beyond. Ashley believes the restoration of relationships to land, our own bodies, and one another is possible through intergenerational knowledge and collective care, making way for justice, healing, and liberation.

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Dolly M.I. Tatofi & Camille Rockett
• Full Recording HERE
• Excerpt HERE

Dolly M.I. Tatofi, MSW, LCSW, is divinely guided by essence and the unseen in each moment and is driven by kuleana. Born and raised on the island of Oʻahu, she has come to know what pilina is and has been blessed to work with keiki to kūpuna in various capacities throughout her life as a Social Worker. Her acquired ʻike consists of a B.A. in Ethnic Studies and a Master’s in Social Work from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, and she continues her learning at Chaminade University. Dolly is a founding member and the Interim Executive Director of Pouhana O Nā Wāhine. She serves as the IVAT Sub-Committee Cultural Chair, enjoys sharing her love of oli with others, and creates space for people to remember the sacred beings that they are. Through her years of experience, she has found the importance of Aloha as the underlying factor in her hana. Although understanding who you are is a life journey, she knows that her kuleana is to connect and support people with creating, building, and restoring pilina through Aloha. She believes that through purposeful and intentional daily living grounded in Aloha this will create, maintain, and enhance the relationships we have in any space and at any time not only with others but also with self; if we know who we are deep inside, then we will see this reflected outside of us and come to know what lōkahi truly means and feels like in completeness. Be, Do, and Know Aloha.

Camille Rockett is the child of Pearl and Louis Rockett and was born and raised in Waiehu,Maui. A proud graduate of Baldwin High School, Camille received their BA in urban studies from Stanford University in 2006 and their master's in social work from UH Manoa in 2010. They currently serve as the Director of Community Health and Equity at HMSA where they develop infrastructure to support health justice. Camille will be graduating from the Mitchell Hamline School of Law in June 2025 with a strengthened kuleana for pursuing social justice with ALOHA. Camille resides in Kapolei with their spouse, two keiki, two cats, and foster dog.

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Daniel Southmayd & Nilo Nono
• Full Recording HERE
• Excerpt HERE

Daniel Southmayd is a medical case manager working with Maui AIDS Foundation.  He is currently Secretary for the Board of Directors at ProArts on Maui and, with his partner of 35 years, is a fierce advocate for the LGBT+ and local community.

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Kenji Cataldo & Frank Lee
• Full Recording HERE
• Excerpt HERE

Kenji Cataldo, Co-Host & Producer of Hawai’i Rising, a podcast produced by Hawai’i People’s Fund & Frank Lee

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Lyz Soto & Allen Kam
• Full Recording HERE
• Excerpt HERE

Born and raised in Hawaiʻi, Lyz Soto is a performance poet of Visayan, Ilocano, Hakka, German, English, and French descent. She lives in Koʻolaupoko on the island of Oʻahu. She’s taught spoken word across the Pacific. She’s the co-editor of the speculative anthology, Snaring New Suns, Bamboo Ridge Press (2022) Her latest work appears in An Ocean of Wonder: The Fantastic in the Pacific, University of Hawaiʻi Press (2024). Through her art, she tries to explore the ways art can remake our perspectives and imaginations. She is the director of conversation and literary programs with the Hawaiʻi Council for the Humanities.

Allen Kam hails from Waiʻalae. He is the Kumu Hula of Ka Pa Hula o Kaʻohukuileahua. He lives in the ahupuaʻa of Maunalua with his partner, son, and dog overlord.

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Pualani Enos & Troy Siruno
• Full Recording HERE
• Excerpt HERE

Pualani Enos, UH Mānoa Matsunaga Institute for Peace & Troy Siruno, Hawaii Leadership Forum

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Sean-Joseph Takeo Kahāokalani Choo & William Haʻo
• Full Recording HERE
• Excerpt HERE

Sean-Joseph Takeo Kahāokalani Choo is a queer, multi-ethnic, multi-hyphenate artist: actor, composer, playwright, and new work developer.  He’s the Lead Steward + Head Jester + Primary Arts Advocate of Kamamo House, a Honolulu-based queer theatre, and new work & artist cultivation/advocacy organization and podcast named after Sean’s fierce, hapa grandmother, Eloise Tsuru Kamamo Matsuno Choo. Sean’s work has been recognized on a local and regional level, by the Bay Area Playwrights Festival Finalist, the Pork Filled Productions 2025 Unleashed Festival, the Neukom Institute Literary Arts Awards, and the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center.  Sean’s play the isle is full of noises was developed in The Playwrights Realm’s inaugural Native American Artist Lab, where he was mentored by the amazing Rhiana Yazzie and Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl.

William Haʻo is a theater veteran for over 40 years. His professional theater journey began in New York City. He has performed in almost every state in the Union, Canada and Greece. Since returning to Hawaii he has participated in various theatrical endeavors receiving 9 Pookela Awards for Directing and Performance.

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 Angelica Daoang & Lance Collins
• Full Recording HERE
• Excerpt HERE

Angelica Daoang grew up in Central Maui and graduated as a valedictorian from Maui High School. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science and has a background in environmental advocacy and research. She has contributed to sustainability and climate policy through her work with organizations such as Maui Tomorrow Foundation and the Thurston Climate Action Team. Angelica currently works at Mālama Law Group, where she supports Lahaina fire survivors. Her ultimate goal is to combine her experience in environmental science with law and policy to drive meaningful lasting change in society.

Lance D. Collins is a Maui-based transdisciplinary scholar, multimedia creative, and attorney. He edits the long-running West Maui book series and has contributed to several volumes, including Tourism Impacts West Maui (2016), Social Change in West Maui (2019) and Historical Investigations in West Maui (2024). His published research explores the comparative legal histories of Hawai‘i and the Philippines during their American colonial periods.  A Nā Hōkū Hanohano Award-winning music producer, Lance has also produced award-winning films, including My Partner, Hawai‘i’s first Boys’ Love genre film (also credited as writer), and the short film My Parents (also credited as co-director). He recently produced Noa Helela’s Aloha Kaua at Palikū Theatre and ʻĪao Theater, a story of Kauikeaouli in the time of Kaomi. His latest project is producing a Ilokano language BL webseries with a Hawai‘i sakada subplot. He is proudly the recipient of the Onipa'a Lifetime Achievement award from the Sierra Club of Hawai‘i, the Maui Filipino Chamber of Commerce's Gintong Pamana Award and Hawai‘i Thousand Friends' Unsung Hero Award.

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