A visual artist, Associate Professor, Humanities Department Chair and Visual Arts Program Coordinator at University of Hawaiʻi Maui College, Michael Takemoto's November 2020 ʻAlalā Renaissance brought pre-registered, socially-distanced artists together in Wailuku, HI to insert hundreds of brightly colored chalk ʻalalā silhouettes throughout town in an expression of hope, rebirth and healing. “I want people to realize what a powerful tool the arts are. Not only the visual arts, but spoken art; it’s all about the human experience,” shares Takemoto, “looking to the ʻalalā and their plight kind of reflects on our own experience now. We’ve been locked up for - I don't know how many months - and we see that not only are the ʻalalā fragile but so are human beings, so it’s a bigger idea not only of them but of us as well. Relating one person to another, relating our history, our mana'o, from one generation to another and how we hope to perpetuate this and continue this art for our community.” Learn more at https://www.smalltownbig.org/takemoto.html

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