३१ डिसेंबर, २०२३

"[T]he one class I hated was hula. It was mostly because the instructor was a flamboyant gay man and it scared me. That was my own internalized homophobia."

Said Patrick Makuakān, describing the "cultural exploration camp" he attended when he was 10.

Makuakāne’s hula mua (“hula that evolves”) has included performances such as Salva Mea, a collective dance set against progressive house music that depicts the devastation Christian missionaries caused in 19th-century Hawaii and long-form narrative pieces like Māhū, a collaboration with Hawaiian transgender guest artists that spotlights the respect given to third-gender people in ancient Hawaii society. He’s also created hula to Roberta Flack’s The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face and Tony Bennett’s I Left My Heart in San Francisco....

Makuakāne believes we need to reframe the conversation around tradition as being something immobile because “traditions morph and change depending on the environmental influence”. He sees himself as preserving the traditions of Hawaii’s culture as well as its innovations, something he believes is only possible in a place like San Francisco, which he calls “a good place to experiment.”

Here's the Wikipedia article "Māhū." Excerpt:

In 1891, when painter Paul Gauguin first came to Tahiti, he was thought to be a māhū by the indigenous people, due to his flamboyant manner of dress during that time. His 1893 painting Papa Moe (Mysterious Water) depicts a māhū drinking from a small waterfall.

४० टिप्पण्या:

rhhardin म्हणाले...

The chief Hawaiian tradition I'm aware of is black lava ashtrays.

Kate म्हणाले...

All I need to know is that he unironically used Flack's song.

Throw an apple at his head.

Temujin म्हणाले...

Good use of a MacArthur 'genius' grant. And clearly, given the state of San Francisco, this has to be a welcome fix for what ails the city. I mean...who couldn't use some Hula portraying the evil colonization of Hawaii when your city streets have more shit on them than flowers? Once he's done curing San Francisco, he should go over the bridge to Oakland. I'm sure it'll be welcomed there, though possibly in a different way.

Sorry for the rant, but this is some serious navel gazing while the city/area is crumbling.

rehajm म्हणाले...

Cultural exploration camp? If there’s a gay guy doing hula it was cultural appropriation camp…

rehajm म्हणाले...

…and save your corrections unless you can demonstrate he wasn’t just a Steve what found the outfits and attention to be fabu…

tim maguire म्हणाले...

Tradition that evolves—that’s a neat trick to have it both ways. Whitey couldn’t get away with that, though, so it’s no use to me.

Stick म्हणाले...

"cultural exploration camp"
*Eyeroll*
Grooming

Bob Boyd म्हणाले...

the respect given to third-gender people in ancient Hawaii society

How do they know this?
This story is an example of how our society respects "third-gender" people and we obviously do for the most part.

If the ancient Hawaiians had the ability to do surgery and put these people on hormones and drugs, would they have done so? Or would they have just let them be?

Whenever we're told how wonderful and gentle and noble an ancient people were, it's always one with no written history.

Anyway, read this:

https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/infanticide/

rehajm म्हणाले...

MacArthur ‘genius’ grant..where ‘genius’ means kook with an ultra liberal agenda…

retail lawyer म्हणाले...

Subverting stereotypes and fusing various styles. In San Francisco. Who would have thought of that? The man is a genius.

The Crack Emcee म्हणाले...

"[T]he one class I hated was hula. It was mostly because the instructor was a flamboyant gay man and it scared me."

Too much of modern life is dominated by fearful people. Scared they're gay, scared they're fat, scared of Hamas, scared of vaccines, scared Taylor Swift may not find a man, scared of Trump - them and their stupid fears are exhausting. Especially if that's not how you engage the world. Then their fears become a trap. If it's not enough I'm expected to listen to this bullshit constantly, then it's also expected I SHARE or SYMPATHIZE with it, when they drained my emotions about what scares them decades ago. I've lived with a gun to my head. What does this guy's fear of being homosexual - or homophobic - mean to me? I simply can't relate.

BTW - I've seen this guy in SF's Golden Gate Park before, above where the roller skaters and fan dancers do their thing. He's good.

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

Can you imagine the struggle, looking, year after year... for "geniuses."

This man is hulaing in San Francisco to "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" and expounding on why the preservation of Hawaiian tradition can only be done in San Francisco.

who-knew म्हणाले...

As soon as you see the words "Subverting stereotypes" run. It's not art, it's prettily disguised politics. I'm sure there is lots to learn about Hawaiian society before European contact but I'm pretty sure how they treated Nancy boys is the least of it.

who-knew म्हणाले...

And, I doubt that dancing in SF for a bunch of Haoles is doing anything to "reinvigorate" the native Hawaiian traditions. Do do that you'd have to have some influence on the native Hawaiians (most of whom live on the islands). Does the article even hint at this having any influence back?

Bob Boyd म्हणाले...

The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer I spent in a grass skirt.

Ice Nine म्हणाले...

He addresses homosexuality, transgenderism and climate change in his contrived hula pieces (eye roll). That will get you a MacArthur "genius" grant every time, won't it.

Wince म्हणाले...

[T]he one class I hated was hula. It was mostly because the instructor was a flamboyant gay man and it scared me. That was my own internalized homophobia.

"Aloha Bitches!"

"I'm doing the Lūʻau."

Narr म्हणाले...

Sounds like he was subjected to camp camp--a horrible fate for a ten year old boy, and some never recover.

stlcdr म्हणाले...

“…and it (sic) scared me…internalized homophobia”

For someone supposedly smart, they are pretty dumb. It wasn’t homophobia, it was exposure to something different - and gregarious (I would assume, based on the “flamboyant”) - as a ten year old.

Bob Boyd म्हणाले...

According to the internet, the Genius Grant is worth $800,000 over 5 years. That's a lotta grass skirts.
Wily Coyote was a grant winner once, if I'm not mistaken. Many years ago. He spent most of the money on portable holes and rocket-powered vehicles from Acme, things that are probably illegal in most states today because we've become a bunch of pussies now, afraid of falling off cliffs and getting blown up and violent collisions and stuff. Sad. Hula dancing, for all its charm, is a poor substitute for that kind of single-minded pursuit of stringy meat and high adventure.

n.n म्हणाले...

The transgender spectrum is trendy. Trans/homophobia is the psychiatric-induced hate or fear that divergence from gender (i.e. sex-correlated attributes): masculine and feminine, will never be a normal state of humanity. Grooming in schools, churches, boy scouts, etc. did not help their cause. Neither did the cover-up of the AIDS transgendermic and empathizers. Levine's dreams of Herr Mengele only exacerbates their progress. That said, civil unions for all consenting adults, not just the politically congruent.

Tina Trent म्हणाले...

The MacArthur Genius Grants are an excellent graph of the decline and fall of Western Civilization.

Quaestor म्हणाले...

Rousseau redux. The first time around it led to the Terror and ended with the return of the Bourbon monarchy. Big fucking whoop. All that futile destruction and death to trade one rolly-polly crowed head for another. So let's give Jolly Jacques another try, why don't we? This time with limp-wristed noble savagery as our paradigm. What the fuck could go wrong?

narciso म्हणाले...

Genius is overstated now.

JAORE म्हणाले...

I'm starting a square dance interpretation of Kabuki theater.

PM me for the address to mail the MacArthur (Wiley Coyote, SUPER) Genius award money.

Scott Patton म्हणाले...

Ann said... "Can you imagine the struggle, looking, year after year... for "geniuses.""
according to Wikipedia, usually between 20 and 30 of them!

"This man is hulaing in San Francisco to "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" and expounding on why the preservation of Hawaiian tradition can only be done in San Francisco."

And as a result, someone gave him 800k so he can keep up the good work. Yep, genius.

Winston म्हणाले...

Years ago in Honolulu we made the mistake of paying to see him and his halau perform. He dressed as a priest and simulated the near rape of a native girl during one of the numbers---made all of the aunties in the audience gasp. Jerk, motivated by gay/religious animus. Sadly he left out the scene where the missionaries brought education, western medicine, and the concept of pluralistic governance to a feudal society.

chuck म्हणाले...

The article reminded me that I needed to review Scipio's Spanish Campaign.

Joe Smith म्हणाले...

So he was homophobic and now he's gay.

rcocean म्हणाले...

Sorry to burst your anti-Christian bubble there wikiepedia, but the Missionaries did NOT devastate Hawaiian society. The Polynesian religion was a bad one, based on Taboos. Once the natives saw the foreigners weren't punished for breaking the taboos, they realized their Gods were fake and they destroyed their temples and statues. The Hawaiian Queen got rid of the old religion and taboo system.

Christian ministers were allowed into the Islands by the Hawaiian King and Queen to fill the vaccum. This was 30 years after the first regular contact with Foreign sailing ships that not only brought new technology, they brought uncurable VD. All that "Fun" sex with foreign sailors resulted in diseases that "devastated" the Hawiian birthrate. The Sailors also brought smallpox, whooping cough, etc. and since Hawaiian had never been exposed to them before, they were wiped out.

Enter the missionaires, who taught Christianity, chastity, developed a written language, and (then) modern medicine. The "athiests" had been allowed in Hawaii for 30 years from 1790-1820, and had given the Hawaiians nothing more than VD, Guns, and a love for money. The missionaires actually helped build a better society.

Ralph L म्हणाले...

I was expecting hoops.

Darkisland म्हणाले...

Am I the only one who has a problem with the word "hula"?

I keep thinking it is misspelled and should be "Hulu"

Yes I know hula is correct. Someone tell my eyes.

John Henry

Joe Smith म्हणाले...

Sadly he left out the scene where the missionaries brought education, western medicine, and the concept of pluralistic governance to a feudal society.

"What have the Romans ever done for us?"

Enter the missionaires...

'Enter' : )

I hear that being a missionary was a good position...

MikeD म्हणाले...

NYT has seemingly adopted a fetish of printing "stories" about mentally disturbed/socially inept attention seekers. Maybe there are more "Althouse's" out there relishing them than I'd believed possible?

hawkeyedjb म्हणाले...

"Subverting stereotypes of hula"

Well, you've certainly accomplished your life's work, haven't you?

Rocco म्हणाले...

From the article...
"...that depicts the devastation Christian missionaries caused in 19th-century Hawaii..."

Except the linked article doesn't support that statement. It blames the devastation on disease brought by whalers and traders.

mikee म्हणाले...

"That was my own internalized homophobia."

What a great example of acceptance of the required groupthink.

In my high school, our swim team was coached by a flamboyantly gay History teacher. I was a swim team member at my YMCA from age 6, and joined the HS team as well, which was all male. There were no girls on the team, the two years I swam with them, unlike my Y team. The gay coach liked to touch his swimmers, a lot. Nothing sexual in public - just draping an arm around a kid in a speedo, or rubbing bare shoulders with both hands every chance he got. Creepy as hell, from this 30+ year old man, and as a 16 year old my response was to back the hell up whenever he approached me. Looking back, if he wasn't grooming it was only because he didn't have to, as several teammates were gay. NTTAWWT. I wasn't having internalized homophobia, just instinctual self protection against a creepy guy.

Our school mascot was an Eagle. Our team was known as Chucky's Duckies. I'd guess half the school thought we were all gay. I did surprise some girls when I asked them on dates.

Iman म्हणाले...

Yeah? Well, hula hoop is MY church!

rcocean म्हणाले...

People keep trying to put the Hawaiian missionaries in the "Colonialist" Box. Out of ignorance.

The Hawaiian monarchy allowed the missionariries to come to Hawaii in 1821. Hawaii remained its own independent country into the late 19th century. The Monarchy voluntarily gave up its absolute power in the 1840s, and Hawaiians ruled into well into the 1880s.

Hawaiian independence was the result of several factors. First, Great power rivalary. The UK, USA, and France, didn't want the other 2 countries to own Hawaii, so it was left alone. Second, it was on the "Other side of the world" and until the invention of the long range ocean-going steamship, and the development of Austrailia and the USA west coast had nothing of value to the great powers.

effinayright म्हणाले...

Cue the orchestra......

"I left my STOOL in San Francisco...."