Description of Organization
Mission - Ladyfest Hawai'i is an annual non-profit, do-it-yourself community-based arts organization that produces an annual festival. Our first festival is scheduled for March 4-6, 2005. Our mission is to provide a forum in which all members of the community can celebrate, showcase and encourage the artistic and organizational talents of women and girls. This participatory festival features performances by bands, musicians, visual artists, fashion designers, writers, performance artists, and filmmakers, as well as a youth program and a multitude of workshops. While the primary organizers of Ladyfest Hawai'i are women, everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend and volunteer at this community festival.
Background - Ladyfest Hawai’i is a local version of a global movement of artists, educators, and community organizers creating festivals of music, performance, visual art, and workshops. The original Ladyfest happened in August 2000 in Olympia, Washington. Since then Ladyfests have been organized in 41 cities around the world, such as Dublin, Ireland; Brooklyn, New York; and Jakarta, Indonesia. Ladyfests are not officially affiliated, but are similar in spirit and purpose. All Ladyfests are local-based, not-for-profit (but rich in many other ways), massive creative efforts orchestrated mainly by women for the entire community.
Ladyfest Hawai’i began organizing in March of 2004 and has been meeting weekly to organize the first annual event slated for March 2005. Since our inception, we’ve held a fundraiser at this year’s Pridefest where we did outreach; making the community aware of the festival, as well as acquiring significant connections with female musicians, performers, and artists. More recently, we held a fundraiser at Club Pauahi that showcased female-positive bands, artwork, and handmade fashions. The event was a tremendous success that brought together the energies of organizers, musicians, artists, and audiences of various backgrounds.
Our website, http://www.ladyfesthawaii.org/, has also served as a meeting ground for local musicians, artists, and performers (as well as those from abroad) to make connections and promote their events. We have also helped in promoting a voter registration drive, recently held at Club Pauahi, targeting often over-looked young voters. The event also featured live music, poetry, and a forum for activists.
Population To Be Served
Ladyfest Hawai’i is targeting the inherently diverse Honolulu community, alongside the rest of O’ahu and the neighbor islands. That being said, it’s imperative to note that Ladyfest is part of an international community of women across the globe that feel there is a need for arts in our communities and to create more opportunities in the creative professions for women and girls. Ladyfest Hawai’i's ties and outreach extend across the continental United States, Asia, Pacific, Canada, Europe, and Australia.
Within the Honolulu community, we will be striving to reach people from various racial, ethnic, cultural, sexual, religious, generational, and economic backgrounds. Often, the “arts” is imagined as a space reserved for those from affluent communities, but we feel that artistic expression is something that people from all walks of life can benefit from, whether in the form of appreciation or participation. Hence, we hope to attract a diverse group of women to showcase their talent as well as attend the festival. Additionally, the events being held will be affordable to insure that we reach all members of the community. The festival already involves 38 local artists and educators in its planning; festival itself is estimated to involve more than sixty local artists and workshop facilitators; total audience for 3 days of events is estimated to be at least 2,000.
Need Identified
Unfortunately, it is often difficult for female artists (of all kinds) to find venues for their expression. Thus, Ladyfest Hawai’i aims to provide a positive space for the plethora of creative endeavors the women of Hawai’i undertake. By creating more spaces for these activities, we hope to bring together artists who in turn, will have the opportunity to organize with one another and share their talents with the entire community.
Furthermore, by providing more space for artists, we hope to foster future artists—of all backgrounds—by showing them that there is a vibrant and thriving community in Hawai’i, which values artistic expression of all kinds.
With funding for the arts both in the community and in the classroom on a steep decline, our community is in danger of losing its cultural foundations of expression, creative thinking, freedom of thought, and much more. The bottom line is that Ladyfest Hawai’i will bring some of that space and energy back into our community.
Ladyfest—internationally—has proven to be successful through its grassroots organizing efforts, and its Do-It-Yourself philosophy. Ladyfest Hawai’i brings together artists, educators, and other professionals working together to create substantial and sustainable social change through the arts in our community.
Through involvement in the arts, people obtain new ways of looking at the world around them. The arts aid in the formation of opinions about politics, the building of social networks, and therapeutic expression. Artistic creation acknowledges the experience of each individual, which in this rapidly changing world is vital to general well being. Through art, identities are shaped, constructed, and enacted—in short, artistic expression articulates a sense of identity however dynamic, moving, and flexible it may be.
The festival affords many women training, mentorship, and guided opportunities to learn how to organize and work together towards a common goal. By creating a network of experienced and emerging artists, valuable skills and knowledge are being generously shared and carried forward, insuring future success.
Project Objectives
Ladyfest Hawai’i is scheduled to happen in March 2005, a 3-day festival of live music, art, and workshops. We aim to:
·Create venues for artistic expression and intercultural understanding for women.
·Offer educational workshops on sustainability and empowerment–women in business, issues pertaining to women’s health, environmental awareness (recycling, composting, bicycling), arts in education, and even plumbing!
·Showcase work by local female artists, live music by local and non-local acts, and various types of performance and visual art.
·Provide opportunities for members of various communities to learn and work together towards a common goal
·Afford many women and girls training, mentorship, and guided opportunities to learn how to organize and work together towards a common goal by creating a network of experienced and emerging artists generously sharing valuable skills and knowledge.
·Foster future artists of all backgrounds by showing them there is a vibrant and thriving community in Hawai'i that values artistic expression of all.
Essentially, we see Ladyfest Hawai’i as an opportunity to make more space for and support the overflowing amount of creative talent and energies that thrives in Hawai’i.
Many of Ladyfest Hawai’i’s volunteers bring a grassroots philosophy to the table, encouraging others to do it themselves rather than pay out money for someone else to do it. This resourcefulness, combined with the plethora of skills, knowledge, and enthusiasm we share, forces our budget down, while empowering each of us.
Ladyfest Hawaii is federally recognized as a 501 c 3 nonprofit organization. It is guided administratively by its seven member Board of Directors, but operates as a tight collective of artists, educators, activists, and entrepreneurs who work together through committees and program areas.
Currently, we are 38 strong, all volunteer, and growing.
Meet the awesome people who are volunteering their time, positive energy and talent to making this possible!
Ladyfest Hawaii 2005 is a culmination of the efforts of artists, educators, entrepeneurs, and community motivators:
2005 Festival Directors: Lisa Rosas and Lisa Asagi
Website Designers: Jesi Asagi and Rob Dunn of Mascot Theory
Festival Program Designer: Ara Laylo
Music Program Directors: Lisa Rosas, Ara Laylo, Lani Teves
Workshop Program Director: Tiare Schiller
Visual Arts Curators for The ARTS at Marks Show: Kyrsten Kidani, Lynn Mayekawa
Visual Arts Curators for StarPoint Cafe Show: Tia Castro, Alicia Ajolo
Fashion Program Director: Yamato Milner
Lit Program Directors: Noe Bunnell, Dawn Sueoka
T-Shirt Designers: Tiare Schiller, Ipo Bunnell
Special Events Coordinators: Anjanette Chang, Ann Legaspi
Annie Penguin
Bianca Isaki
Cindy Wong
Connie Flores
Danica and Toby
Dawne Tsuha
Debbie Chang
Doug Upp
Erika Johnson
Ernest Robello
Evie and Leah
Gaye Chan
Gwen Yoshioka
Janet Mock
Jaimie
Jill Guillermo-Togawa
Jo Decairis
Joanna Ly
Joel Shane
Jolin Hilton
Josh Hancock
Johanna Almiron
JulieAnn Minaai
Justina Cross
Kacey Robello
Mark Beatty
Maxie Asagi
Michele Maeda
Nellie Okuma
Nicole Guess
Pauline Guillermo-Togawa
Rice Chinen
Shareen Asagi
Tamara T
Ysenia Vasquez-Rosa