Click here for a preview of what to expect at the festival!

Bank of Hawaii Presents

The 7th Annual
Hawai‘i Book & Music Festival

A Celebration of Story and Song

May 5-6, 2012
10 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Civic Grounds at Honolulu Hale,
in Historic Downtown Honolulu

FREE Admission! and FREE Parking

Over 500 Presenters
and 150 events

National and local best-selling
Authors

Great music and halau


PBS KIDS
National Host, Mr. Steve
PBS KIDS
and other Characters  
Click here to listen to a song Mr. Steve wrote about the festival!

A New Songwriter Showcase Celebrates Honolulu

At the 7th Annual Hawai‘i Book & Music Festival

From ancient chant and hula to the latest hit song, the spirit of Hawai‘i has traditionally been expressed through songwriting and musical performance.  Hawaiian music’s global appeal draws people to Hawai‘i as a destination and music is elemental to the experience of Hawai‘i.

The  7th Annual Hawai‘i Book & Music Festival, in  partnership with the Kaua‘i Music Festival, is presenting the first of a new Songwriter Showcase series with five outstanding Hawaiian singer/songwriters, including John Cruz, Kenneth Makuakane, Roland Cazimero, Stephen Inglis, Walter Keale, and Jeff Rasmussen.  Jerry Brocklehurst, Director of the Kaua‘i Music festival, will be the Emcee.

The Songwriter Showcase performers have been asked to write original, new music and perform it live for the HBMF attendees. The songs will focus on the inspirational destination of Honolulu – a city that calls to have more music written to share its magic!  

The month of May is “Mele Mei” (Music May) and is celebrated throughout the month with Mele Mei events of Hawaiian music, hula, and other musical activities. The 7th Annual HBMF helps to kick off this month of music with its Songwriters Showcase.  Join us Sunday, May 6 at Noon at the Main Stage at the Civic Grounds at Honolulu Hale in Historic Downtown Honolulu to hear these accomplished and sought-after singer/songwriters as they debut their original new music for Honolulu!
 

2012 Featured

AUTHORS & ARTISTS

Maxine Hong Kingston – I Love a Broad Margin to My Life  

Maxine Hong Kingston is revered for the candor of her groundbreaking creative nonfiction and her playful and profound fiction. She is the winner of a National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, a National Book Award, a National Humanities Medal, A National Book Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, and a recipient of the

"Living Treasure of Hawaii" award.  Maxine Hong Kingston reflects on aging as she turns 65 in her book of poetry, I Love a Broad Margin to My Life.

-- "Such is the spirit of this wonderful book—a sense of doors opening wide onto an American life of great purpose and joy, and the tonic wisdom of a writer we have come to cherish."

Julia Flynn Siler – Lost Kingdom: Hawaii’s Last Queen, the Sugar Kings and America’s First Imperial Adventure  

Julia Flynn Siler, award-winning Wall Street Journal writer and New York Times best-selling author of this first major biography of Queen Lili‘uokalani, explores the complex characters in the story of the Overthrow in Lost Kingdom: Hawaii's Last Queen, the Sugar Kings, and America's First Imperial Adventure.

-- Lost Kingdom is a riveting, fleshed out account that delivers the story with respect in an "engaging and trustworthy voice." 

Janny Scott – A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mother  

Janny Scott was a reporter for The New York Times when she went on leave to write A Singular Woman: the Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother. Scott interviewed nearly two hundred of Ann Dunham’s friends, colleagues, and relatives to uncover the life of the woman Obama credits for "what is best" in him.

-- "To describe Dunham as a white woman from Kansas is about as illuminating as describing her son as a politician who likes golf.”

 

Pualani Kanaka‘ole Kanahele, Kekuhi Kanahele, & Kaumaka‘iwa Kanaka ‘ole
Kaui Hart Hemmings & Jeff Peterson 
–The Story and the Music of The Descendants 
•  Kumu Hula Michael Pili Pang & Hālau Hula Ka Na‘eau 
Folks You Meet with LeeThe Fiction, Plays and Thoughts of Lee Cataluna 
Singer-Songwriter Showcase5 New Songs for Honolulu 
Lee Tonouchi Significant Moments in da Life of Oriental Faddah and Son 
Shari LynnBest of Broadway 
Rebecca Cantrell A Game of Lies   
Nola Nahulu & Hawaii Youth Opera ChorusThe Queen’s Songbook 

2012
Presenting Sponsor
Major Sponsors




Contributing
Sponsors




Beneficiaries

BECOME A MEMBER of our ‘OHANA!

Join BAMO

The annual Hawai‘i Book and Music Festival (HBMF) showcases the heart and soul of Hawai‘i, and over the past 7 years has grown to become a premier event on the Hawai‘i cultural and literary calendar. This unique Festival draws over 35,000 attendees, providing the opportunity for all to enjoy over 500 authors, performers, hula halau, speaker panels, and enriching keiki activities, along with dozens of vendors and booksellers.

As a free-admission nonprofit festival, we rely on generous support from sponsors like Bank of Hawaii, but we need you to help this unique and FREE event continue to grow. BAMO- the Book and Music ‘Ohana- was formed in 2010 to bring together committed festival supporters to help make the festival a big success.  For just $20 a year, you can help the festival grow for years to come.

To celebrate our 7th year, we hope to grow our Book and Music ‘Ohana with 700 new BAMO members in 2012. Please join us today and help us reach this goal!

It’s easy! Click here on the Donate button, and pay securely via PayPal in any amount to help make the Festival bigger and better than ever! 

Note that a BAMO membership ($20) brings a benefit of an annual subscription to Honolulu Magazine, which costs HBMF $8, so HBMF nets $12.

We will get back to you with a receipt and a BAMO registration.

Mahalo nui for your support!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

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