Mixing Innovative Arts

Local author Tyler McMahon reads his work at monthly reading series Mixing Innovative Arts M.I.A. PHOTOS

A few years ago, Joseph Han, then an undergraduate at University of Hawaii at Manoa studying English, wrote a short story about Korean-American immigrants that was loosely based on his father and grandfather. The story, at the time, was the best thing Han had ever written — at least by his own estimation. What he really craved was somewhere to present his work, take it for a test run.

The place to do that was Mixing Innovative Arts (M.I.A.), a reading session for writers, poets, musicians and more to share their work. Held on the third Monday of each month at The Manifest (it recently moved from its original location at Fresh Cafe), M.I.A. regularly showcases a mix of short stories, novel excerpts, creative nonfiction, poetry and more.

“It’s a chance for people to share their work and come together, bringing in an audience that you can interact with, while also feeling a little more involved as you write,” Han reflects.

Although it was nerve-wracking, Han’s first brush with M.I.A. was fruitful in helping him evaluate his work — other artists shared their feedback with him afterward.

But, as he remembers it, the real success was in the way that he was able to transmit such an intensely personal anecdote to other people.

“There is something inherently valuable and direct in an intimate way that we communicate with one another face-to-face and not through other mediums,” adds Han, who currently is finishing his master’s in English at UH and has since taken over as the coordinator of M.I.A.

M.I.A. not only is an outlet for writers to showcase their work, but it also has morphed into a gathering place where artists and audience members partake in an exchange of sorts — an intimate, interactive discourse that is as much about the people reading their work as it is about the people hearing it.

M.I.A. was launched in 2009, created by Jaimie Gusman, who at the time was a Ph.D. candidate and instructor at UH. Gusman was fresh out of a graduate program at University of Washington, where she had had the advantages of the city’s large literary community and regular live reading events that helped students hone their skills.

Initially she conceptualized M.I.A. as being specifically for students, but it quickly garnered a wider reach. Within a few months, Gusman began to notice attendees included a number of people she didn’t recognize from campus.

“I was really surprised and happy how it turned into more of a community event,” recalls Gusman, who now is a freelance writer. “I really liked the idea of bridging the gap between what was happening at UH and what was happening also in the local artistic community.”

Over the years, M.I.A. has featured writers at various stages in their careers — student writers, artists from the community and well-known local authors such as Chris McKinney and Kaui Hart Hemmings. In a couple of instances, it also has hosted renowned, internationally known writers and poets.

For writers, the benefits of M.I.A. are obvious: “It is valuable to see how the audience expresses interest — or not — when you are reading something,” Gusman says.

For the audience, the experience is a little more vague — but also perhaps a little more poignant.

“Readings are very intimate, in that a lot of the time, it will feel like (the reader) is directly speaking to you and only for you,” Han muses. “It’s a lot more personal than reading someone’s work from a page … Just by listening and really paying attention, you become a part of the process.”

But beyond becoming a part of the writer’s process, the audience goes through its own process, too.

“If I go to a reading, I have to confront what that person is telling me,” Han explains. “To be confronted by art really means to reassess your entire life up until the moment that you engage with that art … Whether it’s awareness or knowledge that’s being transmuted through art, responsibility comes in carrying how you’ve been impacted forward.

“To me, it always comes down to a particular line or something from a piece from a particular reading — it’s the same thing that if I read a book and I come across a line so good that I need to put it down and kind of re-assess my life. But as an audience member, when you have that moment, it’s like a pang to your heart.”

For more information, visit miahonolulu.com. For details on how you can get involved with the event, email miaseries@gmail.com.

Up Next

The next M.I.A. starts at 7 p.m. April 20 at The Manifest at 34 N. Hotel St. in Chinatown. (Doors open at 6:30, and minors are allowed in until 9.)

This event is a celebration of the launch of the latest issue of Hawaii Review, a University of Hawaii literary journal, which recently released Issue 81: Muliwai. The reading will feature writers whose work appears in the journal.

As Hawaii Review explained in its call for submissions: “For Issue 81, we gather at the muliwai, which, in Hawaiian language, signifies the place where fresh waters and ocean meet, where the tide thrusts, and salt ebbs and flows. We gather at the river mouth. What happens here? What is said, dreamed, challenged and undone?”

Writers sharing their work at the event include Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio, Moana Nepia, Joseph Han, Rajiv Mohabir and Tui Scanlan.