Mele ‘Aimoku, In Praise of a King

A Program at ‘Iolani Palace
On the Front Steps

Sunday, November 16, 2003, at 7:00 P.M.
M. Puakea Nogelmeier, Narrator

The Hawaiian Historical Society is pleased to invite its members and friends to a special program at ‘Iolani Palace on Sunday, November 16, 2003, at 7:00 p.m. The program, Mele ‘Aimoku, In Praise of a King, will take place on the Palace steps. It is open to the public, and beach mats and sand chairs are welcome.

This evening program is part of a birthday commemoration for King Kalakaua, and the Palace will be decorated with red, white, and blue bunting as well as Hawaiian flags, as it was during the jubilee for the king in 1886.

The program will celebrate chants in the book, Na Mele Aimoku, No Mele Kupuna, a me Na Mele Ponoi o Ka Moi Kalakaua I [Dynastic Chants, Ancestral Chants and Personal Chants of King Kalakaua I], which was published by the Hawaiian Historical Society in 2001.

Featured presenters are Edith McKinzie, Anthony Lenchanko, Kihei de Silva, Keola Cabacungan, and Keali‘i Reichel. These writers, scholars, and performers will share their original research and new works they have created based on the material in the book.

Created as a gift to honor King Kalakaua, Na Mele Aimoku is the only book of Hawaiian poetic compositions published during the Hawaiian monarchy period. This privately published collection of forty-eight chants was a commemorative gift to the king at the elaborate two-week celebration held to mark his fiftieth birthday in 1886. Only seven copies of the original are known to exist today, including one copy at the Hawaiian Historical Society Library.

This facsimile reprint was the first in the Society's Hawaiian Language Reprint Series, Ke Kupu Hou. Copies of the softcover edition are still available at the members' special price of $24.00 (retail $30.00). Call (808) 537-6271 to order a copy. Priority mail postage, Hawai‘i and Mainland, is $6.00.

The second reprint in the series is also available now. Buke Mele Lahui is a facsimile reprint of an 1895 Honolulu publication of more than one hundred Hawaiian political and patriotic songs. The cloth edition is $60.00/$30.00 for members. The softcover edition is $48.00/$24.00 for members.

This program is co-sponsored by the Friends of ‘Iolani Palce and the University of Hawai‘i Committee for the Preservation and Study of Hawaiian Language, Art and Culture, School of Hawaiian, Asian and Pacific Studies.

For further information about the program, contact Karen L. Sinn (hhskaren@lava.net) at the Hawaiian Historical Society, 560 Kawaiahao Street Honolulu, HI 96813. Phone and fax: (808) 537-6271.

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