“I’ve been to Hawai‘i many times. My initial impression was that I understood what people meant when they said something was paradise. Time moved differently here. It wasn’t something that shot through space like an arrow in one direction. It was amorphous. I always like coming here, but always the impression left on me is how violent and savage the occupation is, the ripping up of green life, the foliage. It’s pretty shocking.”
Read More“Hawai‘i became my home because I met a magnificent woman who had grown up here. One of the things that was immediately apparent to me when I came here was that I was in this place where there was this mythology about ‘we don’t have race out here.’ “
Read More"I think especially being mixed there’s not a place, or a thing, or a culture because you are blends of everything. For a long time I had a hard time with that and really it was reading Obama’s book and seeing him crush it and you’re like “Eh, it’s okay.” Even if we’re not “really” Black, it’s fine. I think his election made it—at least for myself—okay. You know, here’s another guy who grew up in Makiki, just like me, who’s half-half, just like me. You read his book and he went through a lot of the same “Oh, who am I? What’s going on?” Just like me. But then in the end it’s okay."
Read More"I actually learned most of my Dominican history in Hawai‘i, which is interesting. And, I came into contact with my first Dominican person beside my family here in Hawai‘i, which was even more interesting because we weren’t even on the mainland and I am on the opposite side of the world from where Dominicans usually are. The sugarcane was one of the symbols of the histories of the Caribbean and the Pacific. That was a big connection, sugar cane, what that means and what that symbolizes for a lot of people, especially Haitian workers. For my mom, who is Filipino—we do— we have ancestors who worked in the cane fields, but her memories are “I used to eat the cane and suck on the syrup.” It’s such a fantasy and sweet, but when I think of sugarcane I don’t think of that, based on my history. Sugarcane is definitely something that I connect to here in Hawai‘i, in terms of past-present."
Read More"As I prepare to leave and see what is happening, I’m really excited for the Black community in Hawai‘i because it makes me feel like I’m visible, like I’m seen here and that we can create spaces where we can see each other and also recognize the land that we’re on and also recognize where we come from and recognize all of the lineages that have brought us here together in this specific place, in this specific time. Growing up, I didn’t understand that being Black in Hawai‘i was a thing. I didn’t understand that it’s much more complicated than it seems and it’s much more different than what the media is telling us. I’m excited because we are creating space here so we can have these conversations for ourselves. Nobody else can have these conversations."
Read More"I do identify as Local because Hawai‘i really is where my formative years happened. It’s the place that shaped me so I do feel like I’m Local. There was actually an instance where I was out with my high school friends and someone was looking at me like “Oh, so where are you from?” because, of course, I’m the Black girl who’s here with all these Local girls. And my friend was like “She’s Local!” She was like, “I’m coming to your rescue because I don’t like this!” So yeah, I see myself as Local but I’m always going to be as Black as Black can be. I’m always going to be a Black girl."
Read More"Isn’t it ironic that Tamir Rice is a spitting image of Emmett Till? It’s haunting. That type of movement in the Universe, of the energy, to where you have two children brutally murdered by White people and there is no justice for either of them—that was one of the emerging forces that pulled me to Hawai‘i, that has me here now. I can’t live anywhere that that goes unpunished.
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