Pilina Aloha: Hula Kiʻi, Kauaʻi, and Beloved Queen Emma
Mauliola Cook2026 Visual Art Grant Recipient
This project will birth new kiʻi in the Beamer tradition of Hawaiian puppetry and present three mele through Hula Kiʻi at the annual Queen Emma Festival which honors the Queen’s 1851 journey to Alaka‘i after the passing of her husband and son. The hula kiʻi mele presented will be one new, one enduring, and one classic.
In the 1990s, Mauliola began her kiʻi training with mentor, Nona Beamer. They received an apprenticeship from the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, performed across Hawai‘i, and collaborated with John Lake to offer workshops on Kaua‘i and Moloka‘i. Mauli wrote a kiʻi drama filmed by Storybook Theatre of Hawaiʻi and served as editor and translator for Auntie Nona’s Mele Hula volumes. She is also the author of the children’s book Discover Hawai‘i’s Birth by Fire.
In 2014, Mauli co-directed Legends of Pele at La MaMa in New York City. She earned an MFA in Dance and Theater from UH Mānoa and became the first Hawai‘i-based Teaching Artist selected for the Kennedy Center’s National Roster.
On Kaua‘i, she has created numerous hula kiʻi works in schools, co-developed a literacy program using kiʻi, partners regularly with Hula Preservation Society, and leads Papa Laua‘e o Makana, Pua Aliʻi ʻIlima’s Kauaʻi branch.
In the 1990s, Mauliola began her kiʻi training with mentor, Nona Beamer. They received an apprenticeship from the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, performed across Hawai‘i, and collaborated with John Lake to offer workshops on Kaua‘i and Moloka‘i. Mauli wrote a kiʻi drama filmed by Storybook Theatre of Hawaiʻi and served as editor and translator for Auntie Nona’s Mele Hula volumes. She is also the author of the children’s book Discover Hawai‘i’s Birth by Fire.
In 2014, Mauli co-directed Legends of Pele at La MaMa in New York City. She earned an MFA in Dance and Theater from UH Mānoa and became the first Hawai‘i-based Teaching Artist selected for the Kennedy Center’s National Roster.
On Kaua‘i, she has created numerous hula kiʻi works in schools, co-developed a literacy program using kiʻi, partners regularly with Hula Preservation Society, and leads Papa Laua‘e o Makana, Pua Aliʻi ʻIlima’s Kauaʻi branch.