Recognized for their lineal connection to Kumu Hula in Hawai`i and Chicago's Legacy Hula. We seek to tell the story of how Hula has been upheld—preserved, perpetuated, and protected—in Chicago for generations. An attempt to document the arrival of Hula to Chicago highlight four Kumu Hula and Hula practitioners that lived here: Caroline Namahoe Ha`o, Bill “Ka`ulu” Charman, Pat Kanaha Yamanuha, and Edward Kalahiki. And this FaceBook Page has been created as a collective contribution dispensary of old photos, hula events, articles, hula images, and recital programs associated with any one of the four Kumu Hula that portrays your part of their stories. We would love to hear from you and read about your experiences. We celebrate their ability to recognize their respective kuleana, combine their areas of expertise, and share their mana`o among themselves where it concerns Hula. Though not a traditional training in Hula from childhood to adulthood as in Hawai`i, these Kumu Hula and Hula practitioners realized it would require the sum of each person to plot a new Hula path for their children born and raised in the Midwest. Their impact on our Hula community has been sustaining; their Hula is recognizable today through their surviving students. Today, Chicago’s Kānaka continues to perpetuate this unique Hula lineage while organizing and increasing the visibility of the Hula community.
