Intergenerational community stories shape new pop-up performance in Wailuku

Maui Public Art Corps is developing a new pop-up performance rooted in intergenerational community storytelling through Hui Mo‘olelo, its signature public art and storytelling program created in partnership with the County of Maui and Cultural Consultant Sissy Lake-Farm. The project draws from recent Hui Mo‘olelo recordings featuring Uncle Eugene Kaho‘ohanohano and Aunty Marjorie Kahalaomapuana, recorded in dialogue with teaching artist (and son) Francis Tauʻa.

“Public art, as defined by Maui Public Art Corps, is not about decoration. It is a living conversation that reshapes how communities see themselves and one another, and how shared identity and sense of place are grounded in the public realm,” organizers said. “At its best, public art emerges from community voice rather than individual authorship, prioritizing protocol before product, place before performance, and connection before concept.”

The forthcoming performance is inspired by two Hui Mo‘olelo talk-story recordings that reflect on “small kid time” memories in Happy Valley and Waihe‘e. In these conversations, Eugene and Marjorie share reflections on childhood, family, work, respect, and the ways Maui has changed over time. The performance is envisioned not as a finished statement, but as a gathering space where people come together to listen, reflect, and consider what it means to belong to place.

Hui Mo‘olelo, meaning “a gathering of stories,” began as a community-rooted effort to record lived experiences across Maui County. Participants engage in workshops and sit with kūpuna, families, and neighbors to record narratives that anchor identity to specific places. These recordings are not archival endpoints; they serve as living source material for public art projects that foreground voice, memory, culture and aloha.

Over the past several years, Hui Mo‘olelo has grown into a dynamic public art reservoir, informing murals, exhibitions, animated films, utility box art, mele, and performance. The current Hui Mo‘olelo: Kahului exhibit at Queen Kaʻahumanu Center expands public access to these stories through portraits and QR-linked audio recordings, inviting visitors to listen before they interpret.

Selected by a community panel, playwright Lee Cataluna has developed an initial working draft of a script titled Tasty Crust, drawing on the rhythm and intimacy of everyday breakfast conversations between Eugene and Marjorie. Within this project, the artist’s role is understood as a vessel; holding space for stories already shared and allowing community insight, feedback, and lived experience to shape the work as it evolves. The voices of Francis, Eugene and Marjorie are not abstract inspiration; they are the living foundation from which the performance continues to grow.

As the project moves forward, Maui Public Art Corps and the County of Maui public art program invite the community to participate in shaping the performance in two key ways:

• Host a Workshop: Community organizations, schools, cultural groups, and gathering spaces are invited to host read-throughs, feedback sessions, or hands-on arts activities between now and Feb. 10 that reflect what participants hear and feel in the Hui Mo‘olelo recordings. These sessions support dialogue between storytellers, place-keepers, and the performance team. Contact kelly (at) mauipublicart.org to co-create this workshop today. Funds are available for space, facilitators and supplies. 
• Take the Survey: Community members can share reflections and help guide how the performance is structured and presented by completing a brief survey available online.

This developing performance reflects Maui Public Art Corps’ and the County of Maui public art program’s community-driven approach to public art: work that is rooted in place, dialogic by design, and transformative in its ability to connect history, present experience, and shared hopes for the future.

For Wailuku, this project offers an invitation: to remember together, to listen deeply, and to let community stories guide what appears and endures in public space.

The pop-up performance is projected to be unveiled by the end of February 2026. 

For more information, to host a workshop, or to participate in the survey, visit: mauipublicart.org/pilina.