 Welcome, and thank you for tuning in to Sister Power. I'm Sharon Thomas Yarbrough. This afternoon, Sister Power will briefly discuss two current, exciting topics—R-E-S-P-E-C-T, Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, and more than words, the Honolulu African American Film Festival. And I, you know, ain't no way that I would not discuss anything about the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin. And we just wanted to take this moment to the first segment of Sister Power is dedicated to Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, because we have unique backgrounds. We're both Black women. Her father was a Baptist minister, and my father was a seven-day Adventist minister. Miss Franklin was raised in Detroit, and I was born in Toledo, Ohio, only an hour away. Our family spent many memorable times in Detroit, which is the cobalt hall we would go there, and I loved it there. And Sister Power's second topic, more than words, the Honolulu African American Film Festival. The Honolulu African Film Festival seeks to empower, enlighten, and entertain our community about the cultural richness of the Black experience. This afternoon, Sister Power VIP guest is Taylor Chang, director, Doors Duke Theater, Honolulu Museum of Art. Welcome to Sister Power, Taylor. Hi. Thank you for having me. We finally made it. We're here. We did. Good. Yeah. This is exciting. Tell us a bit about what you do at the Honolulu Museum of Art. What do you do? Directive Doors Duke. So tell us about that. Sure. So I oversee the Doors Duke theaters, which is the film, music, and lecture department of the Honolulu Museum of Art located in Honolulu, Hawaii. And the theater oversees over 12 film festivals a year. And we have a year-round film program and a year-round music program, as well as an education program. And one of our featured film festivals every February is the Honolulu African American Film Festival. And the theater and the museum prides ourselves in having over 150 community partners. And the African American Film Festival Committee and all the partners that come together to support the festival every February are among them. And we are so thrilled to be able to work with you as well as the rest of the committee to make that possible. And we have a clip that, a collage of all of our events that we've had over the years. And we're going into our eighth year. And I love this one with Spike Lee and Josephine Baker and Muhammad Ali. It covers, I guess, all seven years. It looks like it does. It's all seven years. Yeah. Oh, Maya Angelou and Anita Baker. This is so wonderful about the film festival. And very quickly, while we're talking about the film festival, I just wanted to give a little history about Hawaii. And the Hawaii population for 2018, based on the most recent estimates released by the U.S. Census, we estimate the 2018 population of Hawaii 1,431,603. That is the population. So Japanese is 20 percent, Filipinos is 12, Chinese is 11 percent. And the reason why we're so excited about the African American, Honolulu African American Film Festival, blacks or African Americans, we only make up 1.8 percent here in Honolulu. And what's so wonderful about this, and we want to thank the museum for seeing the vision, is that we're still here. We're going into our eighth year. And this is not easy when you're only dealing with 1.8 percent of the population. So we want to first thank the Honolulu Museum of Art. We want to start off with Stefan Joz, saw the vision and said, we're going to do it. Let's do it. Let's figure it out. Try it out. You know, Karuso, and then A.B. Abbey, Algar, and then you have stepped up to the plate and has taken us forward, and we want to thank you for that. Of course. It's been a really great journey, really, in evolution in the past six years that I've been in the museum. And you know what you were saying in terms of, you know, the percentages and, you know, when you look at the numbers and the makeup of the community, you know, it's one thing. But what's special about the festival is that the audience makeup, the people who come out to support the content that's included in the festival, really makes up a great spectrum of those numbers that you just listed. It's not just the local black community that's supporting this content. It's all different kinds of people in different sectors of the community that see its value and see how the festival is really a platform for civic discourse. And it serves as a bridge between conversations of race that's happening on the continental U.S. and we're able to kind of bridge the conversation in a local context in a way that's unique and boundary pushing and challenging. But it's good. We recognize the importance of that. And it's a lot of fun. And over the course of, we're going to try, eighth year, we've done over 70 films. And with shorts and we've had different various types of events to fill in. And first we started off with, well, we have it doing Black History Month. So that's in February. So we want people to have that listening ear for 2019, sometimes in February. We'll let you know. We'll just know and we'll get the word out. But I want people to know that the fun times that we have that when we sit down and go through the process, tell the people the process, how we choose the films and how we go about it. Yeah. So, you know, as a committee, you, as a collective, we screen films. And as a collective, we decide what films to include in the program. And during, you know, the viewing sessions of the films and in, you know, our conversation of the curation process, it's a lot of really interesting topics and questions crop up. And, you know, the challenge of selecting films that best represent Black aesthetics and Black perspectives of African Americans and of the African diaspora is a really challenging feat, which we manage to do every year as a collective. And it's a really beautiful partnership between, you know, the curatorial staff at the museum as well as with the community. And it's, for me, it's educational, but also, as you said, it's very enjoyable. And it can be enjoyable and challenging at the same time. Of course. Yeah. Anything that's successful, it just takes a lot of hard work. And what I love about our committee, and we do have a picture of our committee. I did want to talk about the festival is organized by a dynamic group of committee members who are dedicated to promoting a vibroculture arts scene in Hawaii. And of course, to the left, Wah, Sharon Yarbrough, president and founder of Sisters in Park Hawaii. And we have one of the founding members, international artist John Nichols. And we have the city editor of the star advertiser, and we have the civil rights attorney, Daphne Wilton, who's also an author. And we have Tadia Rice, and she is a performer and an author as well. And of course, Hawaii's first African American woman, Judge Sandra Sims. And this is the original Honolulu African American Film Festival committee. And we also have two new members. Which is exciting. And tell us about our two new members. Yeah. Kemi Glenn, who's the executive director of the Popolo Project. And Ethan Caldwell, a professor at the University of Hawaii in the Ethnic Studies Department. And so we're expanding the perspectives and the voices of the committee. And it's been exciting to see the growth over the past few years. Yeah. It is exciting. And I enjoy about working with this committee over the years. There's no hidden agenda. We have some dynamic, brilliant, sharp people that are on the committee. And we all come together and we just make it work. And the fun part, you know, people have been asking me about what's going to happen next year. Are we going to have another opening reception? Because we've had fabulous food that was served by various vendors. And of course, we have the drinks and the entertainment. Yeah. So, you know, you're talking about the opening night. Yeah, opening night. That festival has been known to have every February. So yes, we're looking to have one in next year. And you know, as the festival grows, there's, we can evolve it in the way that the collective, you know, as a community, we think the festival needs to evolve. And so that can include a reception. It might not include a reception. It could include guest speakers. It could include different types of films. It could include live music. And you know, over the years, we've experimented with all these different types of formats and mediums in which to elevate the discourse, in which to talk about Black perspectives and local perspectives and how to bridge conversations on a national level and on a local level, which is exciting. Yes, that is exciting. And I think we have a picture of one of our red carpets, one of the first ones. Well, that is the committee. There it is right there. That was one of our first red carpets. And this is how we roll. We say, come dressed for the part. This is exactly what we do. We have Tadia Rice, and of course myself in the middle, Daphne Barbie, and Marcia Giorna. That was so much fun to dress up. And I think that was during the time for Josephine Baker. That was the time that everyone would come in and wear your best for that night. And we just have so much fun. And another thing I would like to point out, that we're always sold out. That's right. And you know, as what we were saying earlier, in terms of the ways in which the community comes out to support the programs, and I think it's a testament to the way in which we've been able to make the program relevant. And you know, I think the fact that the program focuses on topics and themes that are provoking and challenging, it excites people. And I think people want to be engaged. People want to be part of that sort of community building, and that this like collective effort to address the most difficult topics that are facing us when we're talking about race, and when we're talking about politics, when we're talking about identity, and how that takes on unique forms in Hawaii. And we had just the other day, the great event with Tana Hase Coates and Conversation, when we were looking at, moderated by a chemie Glenn, and she was able to kind of guide this conversation in a way where we can look at the intersections between this idea of blackness in the continental U.S. and blackness in the Pacific. Things like that, where it allows us to open up new pathways for exploring our assumptions of identity for the black community as well as for the non-black community. And I think going back to sort of what you mentioned in terms of the fact that we're always sold out or whatnot, people are engaged in that, and they realize that this content is relevant to them, and that it's not everyone can find an intersection into the films and the type of art that this festival is supporting. And what I love about our festival is family-friendly. We even showed being Elmo. Yeah, that's right. It's one of our films. So we have something for everyone, and that's what's fun about it. That you can come out, and we've had excellent sponsors. Guy Cole was one of the sponsors. We've had, named a couple of our sponsors that we've had throughout the years. The African American Lawyers Association. Most recently, the Popolo Project, as well as individual sponsors. We've had a lot of individual sponsors, and the museum really does put a lot of resources into this program, and we're really proud to be a part of it. Well, yeah, and not only resources, the committee, there is no value in our time. And this is what I love about it. Everyone comes to the table, put our ideas on the table, and for the past seven years, we have been there, and we continue to fundraise if we can. And when we come back, we're going to talk more about how the filmmakers and writers can contact the museum and show their artwork. Thank you. Aloha. I'm Marcia Joyner, inviting you to come visit with us on Cannabis Chronicles, a 10,000-year artist where we explore and examine the plant that the muse has given us, and stay with us as we explore all of the facets of this planet on Wednesdays at noon. Please join us. Aloha. I'm Jay Fidel, ThinkTech. ThinkTech loves energy. I'm the host of Mina, Marco and Me, which is Mina Morita, former chair of the PUC, former legislator, and Energy Dynamics, a consulting organization in energy. Marco Mangostorf is the CEO of ProVision Solar in Hilo. Every two weeks, we talk about energy, everything about energy. Come around and watch us. We're on at noon on Mondays every two weeks on ThinkTech. Aloha. Welcome back to Sister Power, and our talk for today is more than words, Honolulu African American Film Festival. And we're delighted to have Taylor Chang, the director of Doris Duke Theater here in the studio. And we're talking about going into the Honolulu African American Film Festival. We're talking about going into our eighth year. I would love for you to tell the people, to tell the film writers, to directors, the filmmakers, how can they, and how should they submit their information, and where should they submit it to? So the best way to do that, if you go to honolulumuseum.org, to our museum's website, and if you go to the Doris Duke Theater main page, there's, we list the specific email addresses that filmmakers can submit their work to. So all they would need to do is go to our website, check out the email information, direct contact to either me, my colleagues, and to just send us an email. We repeat that website again, just a little slower, so they can get back. So honolulumuseum, one word, dot org, so real simple. Real simple. Is there a time limit? I would, if we're talking specifically about the February program, we would probably, we're looking to receive submissions, I would say, anywhere between now and December, at the latest, preferably between now and maybe end of November. But you know, anyone can submit content throughout the year. Is there one specific person that they should send the information to? I would say, um, it would actually be me. Oh! So, I mean, you can email me. Taylor Chang, everyone, here you are. He's the one? My, my, my info is on the website, so. Okay, your info is on the website. It's probably easier to just direct them there than I can just have to. I think so. Taylor Chang, you're the one, the director, so I want, my friends have been calling me from Los Angeles. Sure, they can just. And you, send it to you. Yeah. And one, another thing I'm, I'm excited about. More people are talking about coming in February for their vacation, so they want, the earlier that they know, they've been hearing so much about it, especially when we had, um, Muhammad Ali and we had one of the gentlemen that worked with Muhammad Ali, and then, um, Nat King Cole, we talked about Nat King Cole, and James Baldwin. And what was so exciting is we had women writers and women filmmakers. We highlighted them. Yes. And Patrice Colliers and Elisa Garza, the co-founders and the founders of Black Lives Matters, that was a complete, you know, we were sold out. And when people heard about that, well, why didn't we know in advance, Sharon? Sure. I mean, I think it's a testament to how, um, how, uh, quickly, as we're saying, people like to get their tickets, and, you know, we typically release all that information in a few months in advance, because, you know, we, we do need to take the time to look at all the content and together as a committee and as a group, um, determine what the program will be like. So unfortunately, we're not there at that, at this specific moment, but we will get there in a few months. So I mean, everyone should know that, though, it is February 2019. Yeah. Yeah. And so we'll try to get the information out as soon as we can. And then we'll show the, uh, picture of our committee again. So when you see, air this show, reach out to the committee, well, this picture here is very special. This was our last event. And David Goldberg was one of the committee members and, oh, we, we miss you, David. And this was a red carpet event with Andre Leon Talley. Oh, that was that event? Yeah. That's it. That was our red carpet event. And the next one, we're going to show the film committee and Taylor, you're there to the left and there's Marcia McFadden and Sandra Sims and myself, Sharon, international artists John Nichols, Tadia Rice, and the civil rights attorney, Daphne Barbie-Wilton. Any one of the, uh, the members that can contact them as well to get additional information about what's going on for 2019. And I guess, um, the best way to contact the committee would be through the Facebook page, right? Let's talk about the Facebook page. Great. So, I mean, there's, if you go on Facebook and you just searched Honolulu African American Film Festival, you'll, you should be able to find it. And so I guess just send a direct message. Yeah. And the committee will, will receive it. Absolutely. That's a great idea. And, and please like, share, comment on the Honolulu African American Facebook page. We just have so much fun. I mean, the people are just, in the audience, they're, but I love also about the staff. I want to commend the staff at the museum. We show up with a smile and they reciprocate by welcoming us into the theater, showing us where everything is. And I love that about, we appreciate your staff, we appreciate, and once I start naming them, I, you know, I know there's Sara Thang and Manette. For Rare and we have a really, and, you know, we have a really, we have a team of gold at our theater and they go above and beyond. And we're always so proud to be part of all the programs that we facilitate in that space. So, you know, Sara and Manette, Alex Singer, Shane Miller, we have an amazing front of house staff and, you know, I think it's easy for us who work at the museum to see the value of those programs and we see the impact in real time when people, you know, physically come together as a community in the space and have these perspective-changing conversations and we see it happen every week. We saw it happen the other day with the Tonhasi Codes event. Yeah, you see the direct impact of the power of conversation and the power of community building and the value of independent spaces to, you know, in facilitating those experiences for people. I think we, you can't, you can't, you don't want to underestimate the power of these events, these experience, these experiences of bringing people together and enjoying art and using art as a platform for civic engagement. I can go on and on about this. Absolutely, and it's a beautiful place to come and bring your friends when your friends are coming here to visit. The Hanani Museum of Art should be a place that you should bring your friends for the tour. It's absolutely lovely. And thank you for mentioning that as well. Yeah, the museum is just, it's, it's, it's a gem in Hawaii and it has so much to offer from the art school to this gallery spaces, to this cafe, to its shop, to the theater. You know, we're talking a lot about the theater program right now. Yes. One dynamic program amidst, amidst a very, a wider spectrum of programs that the museum offers. So thank you for, for mentioning that. Absolutely, and we want people to become members. So tell us, tell the people who are not members. We definitely want to give that a plug. Yeah. We need more people to join up and be, and get their membership. Yeah, thank you for the, you know, if you become a museum member, you know, it's really the best way to be connected to everything that the museum has to offer. And, you know, you do receive discounts, you do receive, you know, certain special invitations for, for events. But the best way to become a member is, again, to go on to the website. So honoluluemuseum.org. And you just click membership webpage and you can sign up right online. Right online. Mm-hmm. And you do get discounts to all the theater programs, so. And we need discounts, you know. One of the best incentives. Exactly, we need that. And, you know, people ask me, it's a simple thing, about parking. Let's just give them a little quick info about parking. So, you know, aside from street parking, we do have a parking lot behind the art school on Baritania Street. And the theater also has a parking lot on Kinau Street, which is open to the public on the weekends and in the evenings. So there, there is parking available. You have, you know, you have a few options. Oh, good. And we, you and I could just go on and on and talk. I want to show the collage again of all of the events that the Honolulu African-American Film Festival has done throughout the year. Mm-hmm. And I, we really had a good time with Anita Baker's film and James Baldwin's film and Maya Angelou. And what I loved about the Maya Angelou on that night, we passed out various sayings from this poet that the attendees were able to walk away with. And I still have my, my friends said they still have theirs. So there's always something, there's always a takeaway when you attend our film festivals at the Honolulu African-American Film Festival, at the Honolulu Museum of Arts, Doors, Duke. And how long have you been working there now? Six years. I went by really fast. My goodness, you've been with us the whole time, really. It's been, I mean, it's been fun. It is so fun. I go by really quickly. Yeah. Well, before we leave again, let's tell our viewers, not only our viewers, we do have the Honolulu African-American Film Festival doing Black History Month. But again, let's let the filmmakers and directors know where to send the information to, to you, Taylor Chang. Yeah. So you can email me and all of my contact information is on the website. So if you go to honolulumuseum.org, it's all there. And just go to the Doris Duke Theater main page. Well, this has been so much fun. There's so much more we can chat about. And thank you for having me and for being able to spotlight the festival. And, and thank you for your work on the Film Festival Committee. And, and I can't thank the rest of the committee enough for the community and their partnership and the collaboration, because, you know, organizations can't do it alone, especially when you're talking about community building in real effective ways. You have to build partnerships. And so your partnership, the committee's partnership has been essential in the growth of this festival. And we can only look for more, look forward to more. It's going to get better. Yeah. So everyone, stay tuned. And Taylor, thank you so much. Thank you. I'm sharing Thomas Yarbrough, your host, the sister power and Aloha.