By Aero Coomer
Aloha All, and welcome back to another exciting edition of Your local events for May!
First off, you know what it is – its coming in large and in charge for our #1 hit of the week! Thats right, you guessed it, its the Puna Activate Party in downtown Pahoa this Saturday May 3rd. Definitely lots of food, so show up with a healthy appetite for ono grinds from the many vendors present.
There will be Live music at the former Akebono Theater and Luquins lot going on all evening. Showcasing the Kalapana Awa Band, The Drew Daniels Band, The Project ft. Damon Williams, Positive Motion, AND Kanaka Fyah all for only $15 presale or $20 at the door.
May 3rd marks the 7th anniversary of the Kīlauea eruption, making this celebration extra special – time to reflect on our journey, honor our resilience, and celebrate how far we’ve come as a community. All proceeds benefit the Pāhoa Lava Zone Museum, supporting community projects in Lower Puna, future town parties, and scholarships for Pāhoa students.
The music starts at about 4:30 pm and goes until 10 pm. But if you have some time before that, there is an opening act of the Hale Halawai o Puna, in the same location from 10 am-2 pm. This is a community project meant to elevate and showcase Hawaii Island grown or made products. Come on down to learn more and support our local businesses and economy!
The next Friday, May 9th at 5:30 pm, we have “A Brush With Words”, part of Puna Rising’s Moveable Feast. It will be a unique showcasing of paintings paired with storytellers at the Hawaiian Shores Community Center, aka the Stables. Come enjoy a relaxing event with The Puna Storytellers, a variety of local writers and authors, reciting their works, including passages from their books, along with a complementary pairing of art from The Stables Watercolor Workshop. Refreshments will be served, and books and paintings will be available for purchase. Admission is free, so come on down and immerse yourself in the joys of writers and artists sharing their craft. Please register for this event at https://bit.ly/ABrushWithWords if you plan to go.
Also on May 9th, we have a Cinco de Mayo-inspired event up in Volcano at 19-4030 Wright Road from 4 pm to 7 pm. The Cooper Center is putting on their annual “Fiesta in the Forest”, with free entertainment, a keiki corner for fun, piñata games, and Mexican-inspired cooking and margaritas. Get a full plate of food for only $16. The Cooper Center is also where they host the farmers market on Sundays from 6-10 am, the Swap Meet on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays, as well as many other events. So come check it out, have some family fun, and get tuned in to their calendar and future events at the same time.
The final event showcased this issue is a community grief ritual set for Saturday May 10th, hosted by the group “Hawaii Grief Rituals” at a private location in Pahoa.
In a sense, if even just 1 member of the community is in anguish, we all ought to be grieving. This community grief ritual allows us to be unashamed in our collective sorrow and agony. It provides us a place to release hidden and long-buried tensions in our consciousness. It gives us a place to unburden ourselves with minor and major traumas, whether recent, from childhood, or even from past lives. I can not speak highly enough of how powerful it can be as a catalyst for moving through our personal and combined accumulated grief.
“Our Dagara inspired community grief ritual is an earth-based ritual which utilizes elemental wisdom, sacred shrines, drumming, singing, ritual space, prayers, and the power of community to help people to transmute grief. “ ~ facilitator Alicia Sunflower
Learn more at www.sobonfu.com/ and/or SacredFuture.org. Register online to get one of the few remaining spots available for the event, although the group plans on hosting more throughout the year.
Aero Coomer
Aero grew up in a log cabin in the thick Wisconsin woods and has never been able to shake the Wilderness from his Soul.
A decades-long forager and wildcrafter, from Portland to Arcata to San Francisco, he supplied many grocery stores, restaurants, & farmers’ markets with gourmet mushrooms.
In the last decade, medicinal mushrooms and plants such as reishi, chaga, and lion's mane have taken a focal point in his life for his healing process, so he started Old Growth Organics, as he continually refines and creates some of the cleanest and most potent medicinal mushroom and la’au lapa’au products around. Find him at the farmers market just giving away the best Chaga Chai you have ever tried.
20-year master gardener, blue ribbon flower grower, with the knowledge to create diverse & specific compost teas. Highly attuned to the Moon and Elementals, he used his visionary artist skills to channel a new Planetary Moon Calendar, amongst other agricultural inventions. Here in Hawai'i, he has spent time as a teacher and permaculture facilitator at the Hawaiian Sanctuary.
Long-term volunteer of many issues of social justice, family and human rights, environmental rights, indigenous rights, food sovereignty, and community solidarity- here to continue the mission of bringing health & happiness to the world – starting with the Ohana gathered here.
Only eight years here in Puna so far, but here to stay, the love of Malama Aina has touched the core of his being, along with the Spirit of Aloha. 600 coconut trees deep, he prefers to spend his free time planting food forests for the future.