'Ai Kai

Ideas on Fire has partnered with the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center to produce the ‘Ai Kai podcast miniseries in conjunction with the ‘Ai Kai Culture Lab.

‘Ae Kai is organized by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center (APAC). Following 2016’s transformational Culture Labs—CrossLines in Washington DC and CTRL+ALT in New York City—‘Ae Kai will continue APAC’s practice of community building through curated art making. ‘Ae Kai is the biggest Culture Lab to date, and most of ‘Ae Kai’s participants are based in or rooted in Hawai‘i, with the majority of artists identifying as Pacific Islanders.

Across the three episodes of this Imagine Otherwise miniseries, Cathy talks with curators, artists, and scholars involved with ‘Ae Kai about the themes that this Culture Lab brings together, including climate change and environmental activism in Hawai‘i, solidarities and activism across the Pacific archipelago, queer and trans Indigenous art, radical curation, Hawaiian sovereignty and the ongoing fight against US colonialism in the region, and the way that the racial, gender, national, decolonial, and environmental convergences of Hawai‘i help us imagine and produce different worlds.

Kālewa Correa, Lawrence-Minh Bùi Davis, and Adriel Luis on Radical Curation

Imagine Otherwise episode 40

Host Cathy Hannabach interviews Kālewa Correa, Lawrence-Minh Bùi Davis, and Adriel Luis about curating the ‘Ae Kai Culture Lab.

Rosanna Raymond, Léuli Māzyār Lunaʻi Eshrāghi, and Ricky Tagaban on Indigenous Sovereignty Movements

Imagine Otherwise episode 41

Host Cathy Hannabach interviews Pacific artists Rosanna Raymond, Léuli Māzyār Lunaʻi Eshrāghi, and Ricky Tagaban about transnational Indigenous art and performance.

Solomon Enos, Abigail Romanchak, and John Hina (Prime) on Native Hawaiian Food Security

Imagine Otherwise episode 42

Host Cathy Hannabach interviews Native Hawaiian artists Solomon Enos, Abigail Romanchak, and John Hina about the politics of food security and environmental art.