Storytelling for learning goes back thousands of generations. In our earliest days, cavemen drew stories to help teach new generations how to hunt and gather. When a community sought an answer to a major problem, a storyteller would narrate stories suggesting solutions so that members of the community could derive their own answers. Native American and indigenous cultures that did not have a written language used storytelling to pass down history, customs, rituals, and legends. Such traditions exist all over the world and suggest one thing: stories are essential to learning and development. This session explores traditions and various forms of storytelling and the powerful ways they connect us to our past and our community.

Goals and Objectives:

• Engage in the tradition of storytelling through different source of media: books, plays, and newspaper
• Explore storytelling as means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation or instilling moral values
• Apply the knowledge we can gain from stories to share and pass down our own stories

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​Presenter: Lee Cataluna
Lee Cataluna’s most recent work is “Home of the Brave” commissioned by La Jolla Playhouse and Honolulu Theatre for Youth. Her work was featured in Native Voices at the Autry’s 2019 festival of indigenous playwrights. She is a metro columnist and her book “Folks You Meet in Longs” was named by Honolulu Magazine as one of the 50 most essential books about Hawaii. Born and raised in Hawaii and of Native Hawaiian descent, Cataluna has an MFA in Creative Writing from UC Riverside.

Performer 1: Noa Helelā - Poet
Noa Helelā is a hapa writer of Hawaiian, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese and various White descent.  She has and continues to produce art of various media including spoken word poetry, playwriting, screenwriting, and music.  Themes of her largely Hawaii-centered work often focus on feminism, decolonization, mental health, institutionalized racism, socio-economics, trans experiences, queer relationships, genocide, indigenous struggles, etc.

Performer 2: David Keali‘i MacKenzie
David Keali‘i MacKenzie is the author of the chapbook From Hunger to Prayer (Silver Needle Press, 2018). A queer poet of Kanaka Maoli, European, and Chinese descent. A past member of the Worcester Poetry Slam team, he has performed his poetry in such places as West Palm Beach, Florida; Decatur, Georgia; Madison, Wisconsin; and Madang, Papua New Guinea. A Poet-Facilitator with the Honolulu based non-profit Pacific Tongues, he received an MA in Pacific Islands Studies, and an MLISc from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.

Storytelling for learning goes back thousands of generations. In our earliest days, cavemen drew stories to help teach new generations how to hunt and gather. When a community sought an answer to a major problem, a storyteller would narrate stories suggesting solutions so that members of the community could derive their own answers. Native American and indigenous cultures that did not have a written language used storytelling to pass down history, customs, rituals, and legends. Such traditions exist all over the world and suggest one thing: stories are essential to learning and development. This session explores traditions and various forms of storytelling and the powerful ways they connect us to our past and our community.

Goals and Objectives:

• Engage in the tradition of storytelling through different source of media: books, plays, and newspaper
• Explore storytelling as means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation or instilling moral values
• Apply the knowledge we can gain from stories to share and pass down our own stories

​
​Presenter: Lee Cataluna
Lee Cataluna’s most recent work is “Home of the Brave” commissioned by La Jolla Playhouse and Honolulu Theatre for Youth. Her work was featured in Native Voices at the Autry’s 2019 festival of indigenous playwrights. She is a metro columnist and her book “Folks You Meet in Longs” was named by Honolulu Magazine as one of the 50 most essential books about Hawaii. Born and raised in Hawaii and of Native Hawaiian descent, Cataluna has an MFA in Creative Writing from UC Riverside.

Performer 1: Noa Helelā - Poet
Noa Helelā is a hapa writer of Hawaiian, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese and various White descent.  She has and continues to produce art of various media including spoken word poetry, playwriting, screenwriting, and music.  Themes of her largely Hawaii-centered work often focus on feminism, decolonization, mental health, institutionalized racism, socio-economics, trans experiences, queer relationships, genocide, indigenous struggles, etc.

Performer 2: David Keali‘i MacKenzie
David Keali‘i MacKenzie is the author of the chapbook From Hunger to Prayer (Silver Needle Press, 2018). A queer poet of Kanaka Maoli, European, and Chinese descent. A past member of the Worcester Poetry Slam team, he has performed his poetry in such places as West Palm Beach, Florida; Decatur, Georgia; Madison, Wisconsin; and Madang, Papua New Guinea. A Poet-Facilitator with the Honolulu based non-profit Pacific Tongues, he received an MA in Pacific Islands Studies, and an MLISc from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.