Hui Mo‘olelo | Lāhainā Think Space @ NYU
A collaboration between Maui Public Art Corps, the County of Maui, the Hawaiʻi Club at NYU, the Asian/Pacific/American Institute, and Center CIRCL exploring how story, dialogue, and public art can inform the evolving Lāhainā Memorial Project.
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On September 18, 2026, Maui Public Art Corps and the County of Maui will bring its Lāhainā Think Space pilot project to New York University. Part of the ongoing community engagement process for the future Lāhainā Memorial honoring the 100+ lives lost in the August 8, 2023 wildfires, this gathering seeks to share Maui stories while also listening deeply to Hawaiʻi students and diaspora communities whose perspectives are essential to remembrance, recovery, and rebuilding.
Timed to coincide with the start of NYU's academic year and the university's Oceans semester theme, this activation extends the Lāhainā Memorial Think Space beyond Hawaiʻi to engage students and diaspora communities living far from home. Through a Hui Moʻolelo cohort, public dialogue, and the Hui Moʻolelo: Lāhainā Film Fest, participants explore how memory, culture, and community voice can help shape memorials grounded in lived experience while strengthening connections across generations and oceans. |
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Why New York?
This collaboration began with an invitation from the Hawaiʻi Club at New York University, whose student leadership sought to engage Hawaiʻi students and the broader diaspora in dialogue about Lāhainā, home, and remembrance. Timed to coincide with the 25th anniversary of September 11 and NYU's Oceans semester theme, the activation also builds upon Maui Public Art Corps' ongoing conversations with memorial practitioners, including the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. By listening to students living far from home and learning how a new generation of New Yorkers relates to the legacy of 9/11, we hope to better understand how memorials can remain meaningful across time, distance, and generations as we continue developing the Lāhainā Memorial Project.
The Think Space
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The Lāhainā Think Space is a traveling public engagement model that invites communities to reflect on remembrance before memorial designs are proposed. Through storytelling, interactive installations, facilitated dialogue, and creative participation, the Think Space creates opportunities to listen deeply to those whose perspectives should help shape the future of the memorial. The NYU activation represents the next evolution of this ongoing process, extending the conversation beyond Maui while remaining grounded in the voices of those connected to Lāhainā.
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Hui Moʻolelo Cohort
Rather than bringing a completed program to campus, NYU students and members of the Hawaiʻi diaspora chose to participate in Hui Moʻōlelo themselves. Over several weeks, cohort members met to learn the Hui Moʻolelo methodology before recording intergenerational talk-story conversations inspired by themes of home, identity, disaster recovery, memorialization, and living far from one's roots. Their reflections expand the growing body of community knowledge informing both future public artworks and the evolving Lāhainā Memorial Project.
Listening Across Oceans: Story, Memory, and the Making of Memorials
The September 18, 2026 public programs begin with an interdisciplinary panel exploring how storytelling, public art, and community dialogue help societies grieve and remember after collective loss. Artists, cultural practitioners, students, government leaders, and museum professionals will consider how memory travels across generations and oceans, offering perspectives that inform the creation of memorials rooted in community voice, cultural stewardship, and long-term resilience.
Hui Mo'olelo: Lahaina Film Festival
The evening concludes with the Hui Moʻolelo: Lāhainā Film Festival, featuring animated short films inspired by intergenerational talk-story recordings with Lāhainā residents and their loved ones. Created by artists from Hawaiʻi and NYC, the films demonstrate how careful listening can become meaningful public art, transforming personal stories into shared experiences that preserve cultural memory and inspire conversations about the future of remembrance. This free, two-hour campus gathering features:
- Screening of animated short films and brief documentaries
- Cultural facilitation and storytelling by Hui Mo‘olelo leaders
- Community dialogue and audience Q&A
- Opportunities for Hawai‘i students to share reflections and lived experience
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This event will be emceed by Naomi “Sissy” Kahakuhaupiokamakani Lake-Farm, a respected Hawaiian cultural practitioner, educator, and community leader. She is the daughter of the late John Keola Lake, a renowned Hawaiian historian, kumu hula, and champion of Hawaiian language revitalization, and she carries forward his legacy of cultural stewardship with deep humility and aloha. Sissy is Kumu Hula and founder of Hālau Makana Aloha O Ka Lauaʻe, dedicated to perpetuating traditional chant, dance, and storytelling as vibrant expressions of Hawaiian identity. She previously served for more than a decade as Executive Director of Maui Historical Society at Hale Hōʻikeʻike at the Bailey House, where she expanded the museum’s role as a dynamic center for community engagement and cultural education. She also serves as a Hawaiian culture and language teacher at St. Anthony School, nurturing the next generation through ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi and hula, and currently acts as Cultural Consultant for Maui Public Art Corps, guiding community-centered storytelling and public art initiatives across Maui County.
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Time |
Action |
Note |
5:00 pm |
Arrival (Cantor Film Center or NYU’s 20 Cooper Square building) |
Programs, lei, MPAC literature (will need tables, chairs, microphone, screen, projector, film technician and ushers) |
5:45 pm |
Doors open |
May start earlier, if hosts would like to offer light refreshments or a pre-event meet & greet. Tech to display "Welcome" image on the screen. |
6:00 pm EVENT START TIME |
Host welcome (Hawai‘i Club + NYU Asian/Pacific/American Institute) followed by Sissy opening remarks |
Save County of Maui remarks for the end |
6:15 pm |
"Name" film (3.5 min) + Sissy remarks |
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6:22 pm |
"About Hui Mo'olelo Lahaina" film (7 min), followed by Sissy remarks |
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6:34 pm |
"Bench" film (3 min) + Sissy remarks |
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6:40 pm |
"Nanifay animation" (3 min) immediately followed by "Nanifay mural" (5.5 min) + Sissy remarks |
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6:55 pm |
Pop-up performance (20 mins max) + remarks |
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7:20 pm |
"Hikari no Michi" (3m50s) + Sissy remarks |
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7:26 pm |
"Ola Na Iwi" (14 min) |
Opportunity for Richard O'Connor to introduce this film (3 min) |
7:40 pm |
Audience feedback |
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8:00 pm EVENT PAU |
County to share, followed by any special invitees, then general audience |
We may need flexibility on end time |
NOTE: Events beyond 2 hours generally require an intermission, which we like to avoid in order to retain audience members and temper any disruptions.
DEVELOPING PANEL DETAILS:
At 11 am, Listening Across Oceans: Story, Memory, and the Making of Memorials is an interdisciplinary panel exploring how storytelling, oral history, public art, and community dialogue shape the ways societies grieve, remember, and rebuild after collective loss. Moderated by Kelly White, founder of Maui Public Art Corps and manager of the County of Maui Public Art Program, the conversation brings together artists, cultural practitioners, government leaders, students, and museum professionals whose work intersects with the evolving Lāhainā Memorial Project honoring the 100+ lives lost in the August 8, 2023 Maui wildfires.
Panelists include County of Maui Deputy Managing Director Erin Wade, who played a central leadership role in the Maui wildfire response and is a founding partner of the county’s public art program; Sissy Lake-Farm, a cultural advisor whose work centers Hawaiian knowledge systems and community storytelling; Pua Farm, who has organized this campus gathering to connect Hawai‘i students with stories from home; Amy Weinstein, Vice President for Oral History and Museum Collections at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum; Richard O'Connor, whose animated films have transformed Hui Mo‘olelo recordings into moving visual narratives; and Amita Manghnani of the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU.
Together, the panel will explore how memory travels across oceans through voice recordings, artwork, student communities, and public dialogue, and how listening to many perspectives can guide the thoughtful creation of memorials that honor loss while sustaining culture, connection, and hope.
Project Timeline
- 2/10/26: MPAC's Kelly White meets with Matty Motylenski, Program Administrator for Center CIRCL/ NYU Center for Indigenous Studies + Pua Farm, who Chairs NYU’s Hawai‘i Club to determine partnership goals & roles
- 2/28/26: MPAC, NYU and cultural consultant Sissy Lake-Farm come together to envision a Hui Mo'olelo/ Think Space program, to be facilitated by Pua Farm
- 3/29/26: Kelly, Sissy and Pua meet to discuss space needs + other logistics
- 3/31/26: The team meets with Amita Manghnani, Associate Director of the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at New York University (A/P/A Institute at NYU), identifying potential sites for a panel and film fest
- 4/26/26: Kelly, Sissy and Pua welcome performance artist Leilani Patao, who agrees to interpret a Hui Mo'olelo recording as a 15-minute musical set during the film fest. The team agrees to develop and lead a new Hui Mo'olelo cohort to support this effort.
- 6/05/26: What We're Building Together: June Updates from Maui Public Art Corps (eNewsletter)
- 6/17/26: Hui Mo'olelo: Think Space NYU session #1
- 6/18/26: Kelly meets with the 9/11 Memorial & Museum’s Senior Curator of Oral History & Vice President of Collections, Amy Weinstein, who leads the oral history team and oversees the museum’s long‑term oral history narrative work + Jan Ramirez, the founding Chief Curator and Executive Vice President of Collections
- 6/24/26: Hui Mo'olelo: Think Space NYU session #2
- 7/1/26: Hui Mo'olelo: Think Space NYU session #3
- 9/18/26: 11 am Think Space panel; 6 pm Hui Mo'olelo: Lahaina Film Fest at 20 Cooper