 me reading the Midnight Library by Matt Hague. Have you heard about it? It's making a lot of headway on the national frontier for books. It's about a story, it's about Nora, a young woman who in the afterlife gets to go back into her life by picking an alternate voice as to a decision she made earlier in life. Now for me this opened up a ton of possibilities. So I enjoyed the read. For instance, think about this. Let's say you're a dentist but you're always dreamt of being an engineer and you had that opportunity in your afterlife to go back and be that engineer. How would that feel, right? Or let's say you rescued Tippi the cat from the Humane Society but you really wanted to breed AKC registered dogs and make a lot of money. Well now you have that chance you can go do it and see how that works out for you. Here's a really good one. Let's say you marry the love of your life that got away. How would your marriage be? Would you be happier? Would you be happier having married that person? Possibilities are endless. My name is Elaine Gallant and I am the Think Tech Hawaii's host for Books, Books, Books where during this live streaming series we're going to talk about reading books, writing books and everything in between and beyond. Which brings me to our special guest tonight. He is the epitome of that statement as chair of the Hawaii Music and Book Festival. Let's welcome Doug Chen. Aloha Doug, how are you? Hey Elaine. Hi. Great to be on the show. Congratulations. Thank you. Well, you know the Hawaii Book and Music Festival has been going on for how many years now? Oh my gosh, it's been decades. You've already caught me in a question that I don't actually know. But I'll tell you this, it's been around for as long as I've lived in Honolulu and that's been like three decades actually. And so during this time I have so many memories, especially at the live festival when it was going on, of being able to go down to the festival to walk around the different tents and to see authors and people discussing very important subjects, either about the books that they wrote or about issues that really were important to the community. And then to be able to go grab a bite to eat at a food truck and then to be able to browse among the used books that were sent, remember books, hardcover books, there are all these bunch, there's all these used books that were just ready for anybody to be able to take for free or for ten cents or a quarter. And it was really a lovely time. I thought I read it was actually formed like in 2005 and the first festival was 2006, something like that. So it has been a long time and it's a two-day event, right? It's a Saturday and a Sunday. Yeah, that's right. And so under normal non-pandemic circumstances, and we're going to get to what this year was like, but under typical circumstances, it's a live event that takes place on public grounds for the long time. Since it first started, it was taking place at the Honolulu Halle Civic Center, which is in downtown Honolulu. And more recently, the board has made the decision to move it to the University of Hawaii, so we could be closer to students, the professors, and to better work out the partnership that we have with the University of Hawaii and their publishing house. Well, that's fantastic. Dude, let's talk about this year's event because, hey, it's going on right now, right now. Yes, I've exhausted. There have been so many amazing panelists and local authors, as well as national authors that because of the fact that we were doing it all on Zoom, we had the opportunity to be able to partner with other organizations, to be able to bring them in and let them be part of the Hawaii Book and Music Festival. I saw Bob Wood on there. Sorry. I saw Bob Wood on there. Woodward. Oh, yeah, yeah. So that's amazing. And so I think for the people who were able to take part of it, so long as you knew how to be able to link up and be able to register for the programs, there were some amazing, not just authors that were talking about their books, but some great musicians, concerts. There was a Makana concert that was done at Kauai Hau Church that happened at the very beginning of the month that actually, like they honestly brought me to tears. It was so beautiful and so just so delightful in the presentation that actually what's great for viewers to know is that there's going to be a repeat of the performance tomorrow. Let me tell you when it is 2 p.m. So yeah, so you can actually be able to log into the Hawaii Book and Music Festival and to be able to schedule yourself to be able to watch the repeat 2 o'clock tomorrow afternoon. And that's going to be one of the last presentations that the festival makes as we zoom to the state and to the entire world. That's fantastic. Now it does go on until, I thought I read it goes on to the fourth, so it goes on until the third. Sure, there's going to be, there's three more presentations that are tomorrow including Makana. Then there's going to be one more at 10 o'clock a.m. on the fourth. End out with Storyteller Joe Miller talking about Tales for a Planetary Autumn. So that's about as pretty yet going. Yeah, that's on Thursday. November 4th. So who are the three for tomorrow? Because if somebody has not participated because now those of us who live on the Outer Islands don't always get to go to this festival because it costs us a lot of money to go. But now that it's by the internet and by Zoom, who can we anticipate seeing tomorrow? And you know, here's the lineup for tomorrow. At 10 o'clock a.m. we have an Italian storyteller, Giovanna Conforto. And I can tell you, I'm definitely looking at my notes here, so that's what I'm looking down at. But I just want to make sure I get the author's name correct. And what is it about this person? So he's an Italian storyteller and he is going to basically, I think what's nice about our Storyteller series is these are people who are able to do actually something very similar to what you presented us with in your nice introduction. It's just kind of a great way to be able to sit down at your computer, take a deep breath, and to be able to listen to someone, tell a story, which is probably one of the, you know, one of the long traditions, not only in Hawaii, but all around the world in many cultures. And it's just a nice way to be able to relax during the morning and hear from Storyteller. And who else is tomorrow? We have two more, well, I can ask the third one. Right, McCona, McCona's at two o'clock. And then tomorrow evening, if you like to cook and you're into cookbooks and recipes, Chef Sheldon Simeon who has done his, who has written a book called Cook Real Hawaii, Real Hawaii. All right. He's like a hero here on Maui. He would just love him. Awesome. Yes. So, and you've already touched on something that I think was was kind of a nice side benefit of what happened due to the circumstances that we had where we put everything on Zoom. And as we had so much more participation from people on the neighborhoods who were able to watch, I got to tell you, I really missed the live festival that that's kind of like excited about joining the board. But I understand how difficult it is for people from the neighborhood to fly over to go to what will be UH next year and to set that all up. But one thing I remember actually about the cooking demonstrations is what they were live. They're so awesome because you have to go up and sample afterwards. It smells so good and I could be able to check it out. Well, tomorrow you won't be in person, but he will be demonstrating and you can you can watch it from the comfort of your own kitchen and perhaps learn. That's wonderful. So let's talk about some of the people. Because this is on books, books, books, and even though music is a fabulous creative outlet and also involves writing and words and symbolism and all of that, we're going to focus a little bit more on the books. Tell us what you tell us about some of the new authors that you presented. I recognize some names. I got really excited seeing Hawaii. What's his middle name? Now see now I'm drawing a blank. He wrote Sharks in the, oh God, it was a wonderful book. I read it. It's quite strong. Washburn, I think it is. Oh, okay. I don't have the name. Yeah, we had some great VIP authors and partly it was because of the fact that we were able to do this on Zoom. Not only did we have a huge amount of, there were a lot of local books that were published by local authors in the last year. Think of that. I mean, that's great. The books are making a comeback. But in addition to that, we had some VIP speakers. So that included Kate Raworth, Mazie Chornot, Senator Horono. Actually wrote a great book. Lisa C., as you already said, Bob Woodward and Costa, they were able to present their book. Michael E. Mann, that was a heavily attended panel. Almost 500 people watched it from all around the state and elsewhere. Charles Johnson and Joy Harjo were all involved in the festival talking about their books. What's the correct? She's a poet. Yes. Yes, that's correct. That's correct. And I think what was nice about not only this group of VIP authors, but like I said, there were a bunch of local authors who were also able to talk about their books. And I got to say, I mean, I think I lean more towards like law and politics, but let me just give you an example of one. So one was the person, the federal public defender who sort of broke open the case involving former Honolulu police chief, Louis K. Aloha, his wife, Catherine K. Aloha. He wrote a book called The Mailbox Conspiracy. And so his book came out in the fall and he was able to be interviewed and to have a panel discussion really about that book. I read it from cover to cover. I mean, I think it's going to be something that our local law school makes part of their curriculum for everybody who enters into the law school. It's just such a great description, not just like a, you know, your typical kind of, you know, very exciting kind of corruption case. That's just very disturbing because it happened right here. But then. So really, I mean, we all, I mean, this is, this is still fresh news to all of us, right? Right. Right. Processing it. Right. But Alexander Silver was living in first hand because he was representing the brother-in-law who was falsely accused of stealing a mailbox from, you know, from the grandmother that kind of started this whole ball rolling as more threads got pulled in terms of, hey, what's really going on here? And it eventually resulted in, you know, all right, that we're very serious. Say the title again. It's called The Mailbox because it's called The Mailbox. Dyspheresy. Dyspheresy. I went to a large book well. So that might be one of our picks. Oh, sure. Also a really good friend of mine, the attorney general who preceded me, his name is David Louie. He also wrote a book kind of talking about his time when he was the attorney general. And I think for all of us who are not authors, we really appreciate people who actually, you know, like it takes such discipline and courage, I think, you know, to just kind of put yourself out there and write something. And so my hat's off to David Louie for writing a book and being able to talk about it, you know, who his panelist interviewer was. He was former governor of Herkronby. So how cool was that? That is fabulous. That's wonderful. That is amazing. Oh, gosh, I got a couple of really good questions for you too. I don't know if we want to go ahead and talk about more about the location for next years or how you want to go into that now? Yeah, yeah. I'd like to talk about that because you want to go live next year. You want to take it back to a two day weekend event. So how's that going to shape up? So I think the typical festival has always been live. It's been on the weekend. I think something that'll be different is instead of it being at the Honolulu Hall of Civic Grounds downtown, it'll actually be at UH. And part of that came from a partnership that was developed between the festival and the university, which has a very robust authors program and publishing house. Yes. And just being able to get us closer in closer proximity to students who could then be part of the conversation, part of the discussions right there, right outside their dorms or right up where their classes are being held. So we're trying to do that. But I think what's also important for people to know, especially people watching this show who are probably seeing it on the internet, is that we're taking the lessons that we learned from last year and this year. And the intention is to try to do as many programs as possible as we can and have them also be streamed onto the internet so that people who can't travel or who live on neighbor islands or elsewhere have the opportunity to be able to participate. That's wonderful. Actually, doesn't it make you a little jealous? But don't you want to be a student again and walk outside the form and be a part of this festival? Oh yeah. It'll be amazing. Right. And I think all of us, again, those of us who are readers, I think what we always appreciate and perhaps don't get enough is that there's so many times when you enjoy a good book and you're like, oh, that was really amazing. And then I know how special it is, just from this last month, just to be able to hear from the person who wrote the book and to hear what their heart was behind it or what they were thinking about. It really just makes the book come alive. And so I think that's actually something that's really special about the festival is this opportunity to be able to connect the person who wrote the book with the people who are reading it and to ask questions and for them to get some explanations and things like that. I think it's really very special. Yeah, books really open up a lot of possibilities. It's amazing. But what about, you happen to mention the press, the publication house that's with the university. Talk a little bit about that. And also, have there been or is there now and will there be some Hawaiian printed type? I know they do the newspaper. Are there any books that are going to be promoted? Like the woman who did the dictionary on the 600 words or phrases that Hawaiian Jews for rain. Yeah. Oh my God. Yeah, that's fantastic. And so a question. I mean, I think because we're based here in Hawaii, we have a strong component, not only in our plans for next year, but already this year and last year. If you look through the scroll through the schedule for the 2021 Book and Music Festival, you can see just a lot of great presentations by local native Hawaiian indigenous authors talking about what they wrote, what they believe in, what's important to them, and just sharing their mana'u. And I think that's very, very special. I got to say that the partners and sponsors that we have in the festival are not just limited to UH Press and the University of Hawaii at Manoa. I also want to give a shout out. I should just take this opportunity now to like, not a super long list, but I want to make sure I talk about them also because we really super appreciate the support. I mean, it's hard to raise money during the pandemic when everybody's at home and these people stepped up and made the festival possible so that it could keep going. All the challenges that we have. So they are Kamehameha Publishing, Best Press, the Lilio Kalani Trust. We have some other great sponsors like Oceanit, Hawaii HEI, so the Electric Company, a Hawaiian Electric, Hawaii Public Radio, Civil Beat, I Heart Media, BDK, Hawaii Green Growth, and Holly Kalani. And I'm going to, at the risk of annoying all the other sponsors, I am going to give a special shout out to Civil Beat. They are an online, basically an online newspaper platform that, you know, all of us who are ever in government were really familiar with Civil Beat, but they have their own connection to and their own mission statement in terms of wanting to connect to the community and get a conversation happening with their readers about what's important to them. So by partnering with Civil Beat, especially during this time, we were able to really, like triple our audience over last year and really get a lot more involvement from people who were able to hear about these presentations and then participate in the different discussions. Right. Let me ask you this. The festival is only two more days in one session, but one day in one session. If we missed anything, how can we go back and view it? Yes. Okay. You can see it on our YouTube channel. So there's two ways, and I'm going to look down just to make sure that I get it correctly. So basically, it's streamed and it's archived on our HVMF, our Hawaii Book and Music Festival Facebook site. And then the other way that you can see it is UH Minoa has a Better Tomorrow Speaker Series YouTube channel. What a mouthful. And yet that's what they call it. It's called the UH Minoa. I actually think UH Minoa BTS speaker series. The UH Minoa Better Tomorrow Speaker Series. They have a YouTube channel video website. And from there, you're actually, if you go there and look up the Hawaii Book and Music Festival, you can actually watch all of the previous presentations. So if you missed one, then you're able to, if you missed any of the presentations that we talked about that are happening tomorrow, you can still go back to the UH Better Tomorrow Speaker Series YouTube channel and you can watch it there. What a privilege to be able to access this because where will we be without books? Where would we be without music in our lives, right? Now, you're an attorney. So tell me, how is it that you became the chair of this wonderful festival? And you've been at it a couple of years. Yeah. Yeah. So I think when the opportunity came up, I'll tell you what I always thought about was I remembered how special it was for my family, when my kids were growing up. Do you remember, okay, do you remember Barnes and Nobles and Borders when they were around? Yes. Like a typical, like it was almost like a traditional Sunday afternoon in our family is because it was hot and we didn't have air conditioning at our house. A typical Sunday afternoon was we would go to the borders, excuse me, the Barnes and Nobles, either at Kalamol or at Alamonamol, and we'd find a couch and we just camp there and we would read. So it was really fun. But that's kind of our time as a family. And then later on, what I loved about the Book of Music Festival was that it almost became like an intellectual fair. So in other words, the carnival is awesome. It's great to be able to go on rides. Those are always a pleasure. But being able to just, like I said, go to a place where you have this tent and somebody is talking about health and wellness. And then in other words, the next tent and somebody is talking about climate change and sustainability. And then the next tent, somebody is talking cooking and then there's a Kiki Hula performance happening down the ways. I love that. And so when the opportunity came to be part of the board and I was back out of the public sector and just back trying to think about ways to be able to give it to the community, this is like the first thing that came to my mind. And so it's been a real pleasure. I love the people that I get to serve with on the board. And I think we've got some exciting plans for what we're going to be doing on the board. Maybe are there authors on the board? Yes. So there's people who are who are part of the different publishing, local publishing houses, as well as some people who do write or do visual media or musicians. And I think all of them are able to contribute a lot. We even have the Hawaii State Librarian on the board. I think she's able to. Presentation, didn't they? Sorry. Yes, they did. Yeah. And that's really great. Yes. I mean, the state of libraries, we're only being at libraries in our lives. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know what? You know what? My mom was a librarian. So yeah. So that's another fun story is that when I was growing up, my mom would bring me to work with her. And that was my summer daycare, was that she would just in the library system. And I was just watching around. That's back in the day when, you know, things weren't so, people weren't so helicoptery hovering. The Midnight Library. It's not for my age group, but it's an interesting book. The librarian is her mentor in it. So I'll just give you that. Oh, cool. Cute. But anyway, the book fair, let's talk a little about the musicians now because they are equally important. And like I said, they are words, they're using words, they're singing, they're performing. Tell us about some of the entertainers. Yeah. Well, like I said, we already had, we had Makana put on a special presentation from Kauai Hawa Church. And that in many ways, that was, it was a venue that we wouldn't have had if we were going live. And I think it was, I think if you watch it tomorrow at two o'clock, you'll see exactly what I mean. It was, it was very powerful to have him be performing his songs in such a special place. It was just, it was very powerful. But I think what's also great is that, I mean, we've all been cooped up in our houses and it's so nice to be able to hear live music. I mean, that's just, I would say that's probably something that I think we've all ended up missing is just the ability to hear musicians just playing outside and to be able to appreciate that and to appreciate their art and just the special passion and heart that they bring to everything that they do. Yeah, that's fantastic. What else can I, is there anything you'd like to say? Do you have any closing statements? What would you like to say? Well, closing, I have many things I want to say. No. Yeah, you know, what I would say is this is that, you know, I think we're excited about what the next year is going to be like, you know, I think, I think especially coming out of the time that we've all been in, I think there's, if anything, there's, there's come a greater appreciation, at least on my part, of just, you know, needing, needing time to not just be stressing about the immediate things in front of me, but to really be able to appreciate the creativity and people who have a special voice and being able to learn from those voices. And so it's expressed through books or music. I think it's really a great way to be able to be part of the festival. So I just want to encourage people, if in case you missed it, to, you know, go on to our YouTube channel at the UH Minoa Better Tomorrow Speaker Series channel. And to be able to check out some of those things, just turn it on, have it in the background. That's what I often did. And it just, it gets you thinking. It gets you thinking, it gets you appreciating. And a lot of times being able to appreciate hearing the voices of people who just live down the street from you or live, you know, on the next island. And I think that's very special and wonderful. That is special and wonderful. And we forgot to pitch. How much does it cost to attend? Oh my gosh. So the most special and wonderful thing about all this is that it's been free. And we do rely upon fundraising and upon sponsors to be able to, you know, care about this festival to be able to put up money and even individual sponsors. So we really appreciate that. But I think that's probably been the greatest thing to set for as long as the festival has been around. The admission is free. And I think that's something worth noting. Thank you for reminding me to say that. Well, it's like free. Amazing. I would, you know, yeah, that's fantastic. The food's not free. The food's not free, but the food's really good. And you say there's rides too? There's, oh yeah, when I was talking about rides, I just meant the difference between the festival which is a little more books-oriented versus like a typical carnival, which has a lot of rides. But I think that like normally there are a few cakey rides for like very small children just to help the whole family get excited about it. Well, I do hope that we have let people know more about the Hawaii book and then music festival and your numbers are going to increase tomorrow. That would be great. Yes. And speaking of the fact that you rely on donations, think Tech Hawaii does too. So I really want to thank all the people who donate money to think Tech Hawaii to keep it going. I also want to thank Jay Fidel, the executive producer. Without him, I don't know what would happen. And the broadcast engineer and also the staff and all the technicians. And if I can put out a little shout out, I'm going to give one to Hayley and Eric. Thank you, Eric. He's behind the scenes. Folks behind the scenes. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Doug. It was a pleasure meeting you, talking with you, sharing this passion about with books. They show us the world and they take us out of our world and give us a chance to see and believe and partake as does music. So thank you very much, Doug. The pleasure was mine. I hope the pleasure was also our viewers. Thank you so much. It's really awesome.