Brother Noland is a native Hawaiian musician with an international reputation as a musical artist. Acclaimed as a ki ho`alu guitarist, he is also a prolific recording artist and composes scores for film and television.

Brother Noland will present at E Kanikapila Kakou on Monday, January 30. Photo courtesy slackkey.com

His professional and community honors include multiple Na Hoku Hanohano and Billboard Music awards, the Hawai`i Music Awards 2002 Male Vocalist of the Year, Kalihi-Palama Community Council Outstanding Youth Role Model 2000, the State of Hawai`i proclamation of Brother Noland Day in September 1997, and inclusion in the Variety Club of Hawai`i’s Celebrity Circle at King’s Village in Waikiki.

Brother Noland uses Hawaiian concepts of wisdom as the foundation to share the spirit of aloha in his teaching. He teaches `ukulele and guitar, gives lectures on Lessons of Aloha, accompanies outbound nature journeys on the island of Moloka`i through the Hawaiian Inside Experience program and coordinates an annual Goodwill Basketball Tournament in the inner-city area of Kalihi-Palama.

Born and raised in one of the poorest neighborhoods on O`ahu, the Kahili-Palama Settlement, the multi-talented Brother Noland found his way out through his art and culture and now helps at risk youth define their choices and make a quality connection to the community. He founded the Kalihi-Palama Settlement Performing Arts Program in 1993. And he’s written an inspirational book, The Lessons of Aloha: A journey into the wit and wisdom of Hawai`i through the voices of Hawai`i.

Brother Noland at a March 2005 EKK presentation. He will present at E Kanikapila Kakou on Monday, January 30. Photo by Anne E. O’Malley

CDs he’s produced include a compilation CD titled New Faces, New Music featuring his music students, and Hawaiian Inside a re-discovery of the beautiful sound of ki ho`alu and Hawaiian melody.

Noland is an impact player in Hawai`i’s music scene, always out in front, changing and pushing the music to unexpected places. He’s an innovator, and yet, like all true innovators, he cannot be pigeon holed. While he loves the Jawaiian feel, he can’t restrict himself to only one kind of music. So with his CD Hawaiian Man released in 2009, he returns to traditional Hawaiian

music because music makes him feel good and good music, no matter the genre, makes him feel better.

Brother Noland also is a steward of the land. Hawaii is deep within Noland’s soul and so he cares for acreage on Molokai, preserving Hawaiian customs, indigenous plants and animal species. This work allows Noland to maintain his connection with being Hawaiian and this connection feeds his inner being and, in turn, allows him to work on his music with an understanding of

its relationship to his soul. As important as all of his interests are, Brother Noland credits his children for feeding his inspiration.

He has said, “They give me the opportunity and require that I teach the wisdom that I have been blessed to learn from others.”

At the same time they bring him the innocence

that allows for creative growth and self discovery.

Brother Noland at a 2008 Slack Key Festival. Photo courtesy of Milton Lau

As Brother Noland continues on his journey, he continues to leave his mark as one of Hawaii’s musical icons and visionary leaders.

Educator, community leader, musical pioneer, poet, musician, innovative, creative, visionary—these are just some of the words used to describe Brother Noland, native son. His life’s work reflects his quest for wisdom and harmony.

Your generous donation of cash in the calabash helps this unique program of Hawaiian music continue.

Sunday, January 29 through Saturday, March 31

All programs will take place at Kaua`i Beach Resort

E Kanikapila Kakou (EKK) — it means, literally, let’s play music together — is the Garden Island Arts Council’s grassroots Hawaiian music program now in its 29th season. An opening and a closing concert plus nine Monday night lesson/presentations make your cup runneth over.

Introduction

Stephen Inglis and The Rev. Dennis Kamakahi will be in performance at EKK on Sunday, Jan. 29. Photo by Marlowe Holt

E Kanikapila Kakou is the program that the revered Kumu Hula Kawaikapuokalani Hewett called the mole, or taproot, of Hawaiian music and declared every island should have. But every island doesn’t have it. You have to be on Kaua`i to experience it.

To start with, concerts are pure performance and pure pleasure — and there is a fee. These concerts are important to the EKK program for exposure, to assist our wonderful artists in earning their livings and for increasing the artists to even wider audiences for their music.

The Rev. Dennis Kamakahi. Photo by Anne E. O’Malley

And then, each Monday night, expect the following: three hours packed with loads of joy, tons of talk story, passionate, lovely and sprightly hula, gales of laughter and warm aloha of the audience. Don’t forget that early-bird ukulele and guitar toters get an hour of secrets from the pros on how they do that fingering or construct this phrase — insider info on the how-to, and sometimes, even a quickie lesson in hula, if the presenter is a kumu hula and so moved.

Stephen Inglis. Photo by Marlowe Holt

The biggest difference between the concerts and the Monday night performances might be considered the less formal feeling that pervades the space on Monday evenings.

All around, EKK Monday nights are the best-kept secret in the state. For just a dash of cash in the calabash that helps pay for the song sheets, you get all of the above and more.

Funding for the 2012 E Kanikapila Kakou program is once again made possible by a grant from the Hawai’i Tourism Authority and managed by the Kaua’i County Office of Economic Development. The Kaua`i Beach Resort lends partial support to the program, held in their Jasmine Ballroom. The Garden Island Arts Council is supported in part with funding from the Hawai’i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts.

Welcome to the New ARTS, the newsletter of the Garden Island Arts Council. Bringing you information about the GIAC and the arts community isn’t new, but the way it’s coming to you is.

We were pleased to enclose the ARTS newsletter on a quarterly basis inside of the publication For Kaua`i. Publishing expenses were high and grants have diminished. This Catch-22 caught up with us and we have gone the way of many publications these days, strictly on the WEB.

We’ll notify you via email when a new ARTS is ready for your viewing pleasure. In the email, we’ll provide the URL of the ARTS — its home address — and when you click on it, your browser will take you directly to it.

In this inaugural electronic-only edition of ARTS, we present to you our opening week schedule of the brilliant E Kanikapila Kakou Program, now in its 29^th season.