Aloha,

There is no doubt, 2020 was a pressurized year for our community and for the Pōpolo Project. We began in 2017 and, with plans to quietly build infrastructure and increase our impact in 2020, we found our start-up organization called to very different, unprecedented roles as COVID-19 and the movement for Black lives washed over the shores of Hawaiʻi.

Our mission to redefine what it means to be Black in Hawaiʻi and the world took on a new urgency as our community fought for their health and livelihoods, encountered hidden anti-Blackness made overt, took to the streets, grieved and dreamed in public and private, and took the time of the long-lasting lock-down to learn and strategize together, to share our experiences, and to push Hawaiʻi and the world toward a reckoning on our shared history.

As a young organization, we were in a unique position to pivot to be responsive to our community in an extraordinary time. We were able to achieve our organizational goals, building a stable base, and influence how Hawaiʻi understands and sees our Black community as African and Pacific diasporas converge here in our island home.

As we reflect on 2020 and plot our next year, we invite you to click through the following pages to be inspired, just as the board and staff of the Pōpolo Project are, by the courage of our youth, the wisdom of our elders, the creativity of our artists, the genius of our thinkers, our visionaries, our entrepreneurs, the compassion of our community, and the vivid complex diversity of Blackness in the Pacific.

We go forward into the next year invigorated to place Hawaiʻi on the map as a community committed to justice for all people and a dynamic home of Black culture, connecting to global conversations on Blackness from a Local perspective.

Mahalo for growing with us into 2021 and beyond!

Ke aloha nō,

Naʻu,

Akiemi Glenn, PhD

Executive Director