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Maoli Verse is an organization of multidisciplinary practitioners promoting literary access and engagement in Hawaiʻi by facilitating the literature, arts, and media by Kanaka Maoli. We work in solidarity with all Indigenous storytellers empowering abundant, innovative, caring, and decolonial presents and futures. We distribute books and educational materials, host workshops, support author conversations, and produce adaptations of publications into new media, such as film and traditional Hawaiian arts.
What is Maoli Verse?
We are a group of Kanaka Maoli book lovers supporting access to Hawaiian literature and media, as well as relative literatures, across Hawaiʻi with specific attention to ʻōpio and kūpuna. We empower all storytellers with additional care for wāhine, māhū, and diaspora writers.
"Maoli Verse" refers to the written lines of poetry governed by Kanaka Maoli poetics. It also references the ever expanding native multiverse that we participate in when we read, write, make art, or otherwise engage the world through our gifts.
What are we doing?
We are facilitating workshops, author conversations, and adaptations of existing literature into new forms such as film and art. Most importantly, we are giving free books around Hawaiʻi –– we want families on every island to have access to Indigenous stories!
Where did it start?
The project began as part of a PhD Dissertation in English at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa with a focus on moʻolelo Hawaiʻi. As a tool for empowering abundant, innovative, caring, and decolonial presents and futures, storytelling relies on responsive and responsible readership.
Maoli Verse was inspired by relative non-profit organizations such as NDN Girls Bookclub and Indigenous Nations Poets. We want to support the literary ecosystem of Hawaiʻi while strengthening our relationship with Indigenous Nations. We began little-by-little by distributing free books by Kanaka Maoli writers in K-12 public schools with book clubs and at community events.
Email Kalilinoe Detwiler at kbd@hawaii.edu to learn more, collaborate, or donate.