Keoni Lee is Co-CEO of Hawaiʻi Investment Ready (HIR), an Indigenous-led nonprofit intermediary working to shift how capital moves in Hawaiʻi by strengthening local systems and supporting social entrepreneurs. HIR’s official “About” page lists Keoni as CO-CEO and highlights his connection to HIR as both a social entrepreneur and a participant in the organization’s inaugural cohort.

Before HIR, Keoni co-founded ʻŌiwi TV, widely described as Hawaiʻi’s first Native Hawaiian language and cultural television station/production company—built to reshape modern Hawaiian narratives through media. He is also a co-founder of Waiwai Collective, a contemporary Hawaiian gathering space grounded in shared responsibilities and collective values.

Keoni has been recognized for leadership in impact investing and ecosystem-building in Hawaiʻi, including being named to Hawaiʻi Business Magazine’s “20 for the Next 20” (2022) and profiled by Omidyar Fellows. Public bios also note his membership in Toniic and service on multiple nonprofit boards.

LIVE from the Stacks: Ku'oko'a as Practice gathers artists, storytellers, and cultural stewards to reflect on independence as a living practice, not just a political destination. Held among the stacks of Native Books, this event invites conversation about how creativity and art can transform our communities.

This event was not only a reflection of independence, but of interdependence. The event aligned with the exhibit 'Off the Wall at Arts & Letters, featuring rare and out-of-print books, emphasizing how the written word is both artifact and act of preservation. Together, the conversation and exhibit ask: how do story and sovereignty meet — on the shelf, in the studio, in our homes?

Follow us!

Instagram @salted.logic

YouTube @SaltedLogic

https://saltedlogic.com/

Adam Keawe Manalo-Camp is a Kanaka Maoli writer, poet, Indigenous researcher, and public historian raised in Papakōlea. His work explores Native Hawaiian history, Indigenous knowledge, diaspora, language, and cultural preservation, drawing on community memory and ancestral knowledge to challenge colonial narratives and connect the past to the present. Through writing, research, poetry, and public scholarship, Adam creates space for Hawaiian voices in the diaspora while honoring the relationships between ʻāina, history, identity, and community.  

LIVE from the Stacks: Ku'oko'a as Practice gathers artists, storytellers, and cultural stewards to reflect on independence as a living practice, not just a political destination. Held among the stacks of Native Books, this event invites conversation about how creativity and art can transform our communities.

This event was not only a reflection of independence, but of interdependence. The event aligned with the exhibit 'Off the Wall at Arts & Letters, featuring rare and out-of-print books, emphasizing how the written word is both artifact and act of preservation. Together, the conversation and exhibit ask: how do story and sovereignty meet — on the shelf, in the studio, in our homes?

Follow us!

Instagram @salted.logic

YouTube @SaltedLogic

https://saltedlogic.com/

Emma Broderick is a Native Hawaiian artist, cultural practitioner, and Executive Director of Puʻuhonua Society, where she leads work at the intersection of contemporary art, cultural practice, community healing, and Indigenous futures. Through weaving, archiving, education, and artist support, Emma is helping cultivate spaces where Hawaiian knowledge, creativity, and belonging can thrive across generations.

LIVE from the Stacks: Ku'oko'a as Practice gathers artists, storytellers, and cultural stewards to reflect on independence as a living practice, not just a political destination. Held among the stacks of Native Books, this event invites conversation about how creativity and art can transform our communities.

This event was not only a reflection of independence, but of interdependence. The event aligned with the exhibit 'Off the Wall at Arts & Letters, featuring rare and out-of-print books, emphasizing how the written word is both artifact and act of preservation. Together, the conversation and exhibit ask: how do story and sovereignty meet — on the shelf, in the studio, in our homes?

Follow us!

Instagram @salted.logic

YouTube @SaltedLogic

https://saltedlogic.com/

Kaʻiminaʻauao Kahikina (Kaʻīmi) is a Kanaka Maoli scholar, artist, hula practitioner, and PhD student in Indigenous Politics at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Their work explores Māhū genealogies, Indigenous politics, hula, and Hawaiian ways of knowing, connecting archival research and ancestral knowledge to contemporary community life. Through scholarship, art, and storytelling, Kaimi invites deeper conversations about kuleana, belonging, language, and the future of Hawaiʻi.

LIVE from the Stacks: Ku'oko'a as Practice gathers artists, storytellers, and cultural stewards to reflect on independence as a living practice, not just a political destination. Held among the stacks of Native Books, this event invites conversation about how creativity and art can transform our communities.

This event was not only a reflection of independence, but of interdependence. The event aligned with the exhibit 'Off the Wall at Arts & Letters, featuring rare and out-of-print books, emphasizing how the written word is both artifact and act of preservation. Together, the conversation and exhibit ask: how do story and sovereignty meet — on the shelf, in the studio, in our homes?

Follow us!

Instagram @salted.logic

YouTube @SaltedLogic

https://saltedlogic.com/

Puni Jackson is a Native Hawaiian cultural practitioner and community leader whose work has steadily bridged art, healing, land-care, and education. Based at Ho'oulu 'Aina @hoouluaina in Kalihi Valley — a 100-acre nature preserve operated by Kokua Kalihi Valley @kokuakalihivalley focused on 'äina-based healing and cultural revitalisation — she has led efforts for over eighteen years to weave traditional knowledge into the fabric of community wellbeing. Jackson is not only an administrator and educator but also a practicing artist working in large-scale painting and installation, one of the few female carvers in Hawaii, and a practitioner of lã'au lapa'au (traditional Hawaiian medicine) and birthing cultural practices. Under her leadership, Ho'oulu 'Aina has become both a refuge and a rising model of how caring for land and caring for people proceed together — helping to restore native forests, cultivate food systems, and invite community healing.

LIVE from the Stacks: Ku'oko'a as Practice gathers artists, storytellers, and cultural stewards to reflect on independence as a living practice, not just a political destination. Held among the stacks of Native Books, this event invites conversation about how creativity and art can transform our communities.

This event was not only a reflection of independence, but of interdependence. The event aligned with the exhibit 'Off the Wall at Arts & Letters, featuring rare and out-of-print books, emphasizing how the written word is both artifact and act of preservation. Together, the conversation and exhibit ask: how do story and sovereignty meet — on the shelf, in the studio, in our homes?

Follow us!

Instagram @salted.logic

YouTube @SaltedLogic

https://saltedlogic.com/

Cory Kamehanaokala Holt Taum is a Kanaka 'Oiwi muralist and cultural practitioner based in Hawaii whose work spans large-scale public art, pattern language, ecological reflection and urban consciousness. Drawing inspiration from ancestral visual forms and teachings, Taum uses unconventional surfaces—rusted metal, moss-covered concrete, even invasive trees—as his canvas to provoke dialogue about land, culture and community. His approach reflects a deep engagement with place: the health of the 'aina, the overlapping narratives of urbanization and tradition, and the possibility of cultural reclamation through public art.

LIVE from the Stacks: Ku'oko'a as Practice gathers artists, storytellers, and cultural stewards to reflect on independence as a living practice, not just a political destination. Held among the stacks of Native Books, this event invites conversation about how creativity and art can transform our communities.

This event was not only a reflection of independence, but of interdependence. The event aligned with the exhibit 'Off the Wall at Arts & Letters, featuring rare and out-of-print books, emphasizing how the written word is both artifact and act of preservation. Together, the conversation and exhibit ask: how do story and sovereignty meet — on the shelf, in the studio, in our homes?

Follow us!

Instagram @salted.logic

YouTube @SaltedLogic

https://saltedlogic.com/

Kealoha (born Steven Kealohapau'ole Hong-Ming Wong) is an internationally recognised poet, storyteller and educator whose voice has shaped the poetic and cultural landscape of Hawaii and beyond. Born and raised in Honolulu, he holds a BS in nuclear science & engineering from MIT, followed by a transition from technical science into full-time performance, poetry and community engagement. In 2012, he was appointed the first official Poet Laureate of Hawaii, a role that underscored his work bridging voice, community and culture. Founder of organisations such as Hawaii Slam, Youth Speaks Hawaii and First Thursdays, he has harnessed the power of spoken word to nurture youth voices, uplift community narratives and connect local identity to global platforms.

LIVE from the Stacks: Ku'oko'a as Practice gathers artists, storytellers, and cultural stewards to reflect on independence as a living practice, not just a political destination. Held among the stacks of Native Books, this event invites conversation about how creativity and art can transform our communities.

This event was not only a reflection of independence, but of interdependence. The event aligned with the exhibit 'Off the Wall at Arts & Letters, featuring rare and out-of-print books, emphasizing how the written word is both artifact and act of preservation. Together, the conversation and exhibit ask: how do story and sovereignty meet — on the shelf, in the studio, in our homes?

Follow us!

Instagram @salted.logic

YouTube @SaltedLogic

https://saltedlogic.com/

Enoka Phillips is a Native Hawaiian feather artist from the island of Maui whose work embodies the intersection of ancestral tradition and contemporary expression. Rooted in the practice of hulu (feather-work), his craft draws from centuries-old Hawaiian protocols: he honours the symbolic role of feathers as elements of status, spiritual lineage and connection with the natural world. During his immersion schooling, he encountered images of 'ahu 'ula (feather capes), mahiole (helmets), kähili (feather staffs) and lei hulu, which awakened a deep fascination with the materials and their cultural meaning. Through his practice he weaves together the cultural, ecological and artistic threads of Hawaii's past with the aesthetic sensibilities of the present, seeking to both preserve the lineage of feather-arts and respond to contemporary contexts.

LIVE from the Stacks: Ku'oko'a as Practice gathers artists, storytellers, and cultural stewards to reflect on independence as a living practice, not just a political destination. Held among the stacks of Native Books, this event invites conversation about how creativity and art can transform our communities.

This event was not only a reflection of independence, but of interdependence. The event aligned with the exhibit 'Off the Wall at Arts & Letters, featuring rare and out-of-print books, emphasizing how the written word is both artifact and act of preservation. Together, the conversation and exhibit ask: how do story and sovereignty meet — on the shelf, in the studio, in our homes?

Follow us!

Instagram @salted.logic

YouTube @SaltedLogic

https://saltedlogic.com/