Richard Hamasaki, poet and spoken word artist, author of “From the Spider Bone Diaries: Poems and Songs,” literary critic, editor, publisher and producer of four CDs of “amplified poetry,” has a new project. And he needs our help to make it a reality.
Hamasaki is a friend to all poets of Hawaii Nei and beyond, including Hawaiian poet, journalist and activist, Wayne Kaumualii Westlake, who was killed in 1984 by a drunk driver. Hamasaki has maintained a creative- collaboration with this soul-brutha through projects like the one he’s working on now: “Down on the Sidewalk in Waikiki.” It’s a new CD of Westlake’s poems and songs performed by other great poets, such as Imaikalani Kalahele, Sia Figiel, Teresia Teaiwa, and more.
This collection of poetry will soonly become a series of major (short) motion pictures, a project I plan to be a part of.
To learn more about “Down on the Sidewalk in Waikiki,” go to Redflea’s blog and then hightail it over to The Westlake project’s Indiegogo page and donate what you can; there are 16 days left to raise $790.