N. Haʻalilio Solomon

I currently teach a range of courses in the Kawaihuelani Hawaiian Language Department, including HAW 100, HAW 101, HAW 102, HAW 201, HAW 202, HAW 321, & HAW 383.

Additionally, I am in the process of developing courses that focus on mele Hawaiʻi as a cultural and theoretical methodology to deepen our grasp on ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi, while indigenizing our conceptions on Hawaiian rhetoric and oral tradition. Simultaneously, I strive to create pedagogy that helps uncover how discursive processes form the beliefs and attitudes surrounding Hawaiian and Pidgin in Hawaiʻi.

(Forthcoming) Solomon, N. Haʻalilio (2019) Rescuing Maunalua: Shifting Nomenclatures and the Reconfiguration of Space. UH Press. Print.

(Forthcoming) Yarbrough, Dannii & Solomon, N. Haʻalilio (2019) Animated Haʻi Moʻolelo ʻŌiwi: Place-Based Pedagogy in Practice. (Proceeding Paper of the 23rd Annual Graduate Student Conference of the College of LLL) University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

Solomon, Baker, & Gramberg (2018) I ʻIke ʻIa Ke Kanaka Ma Kāna ʻŌlelo: Historical, Legal, and Social Impacts on the Success of the Hawaiian Language Revival. Presented as a Panel at the 22nd Sociolinguistics Symposium in Auckland, New Zealand in June.

Solomon (2018) Ke Kūlana ʻŌlelo: Nā ʻAno Manaʻo Like ʻOle e Pili Ana i nā ʻŌlelo o ka ʻĀina: Ideologies and Attitudes Surrounding Hawaiian and Pidgin in Hawaiʻi. Presented as a talk at the Hawaiian/Pidgin Summit at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in October.

Solomon (with Melillo and Madley) (2018) Rescuing Maunalua: Shifting Nomenclatures and the Reconfiguration of Space (to present). Panel presentation at the 23rd Pacific History Association Biennial Conference at the Royal Academy of Arts, London and the University of Cambridge, England in December.

Yarbrough & Solomon (2019) Animated Haʻi Moʻolelo ʻŌiwi: Place-Based Pedagogy in Practice. Presented at the 23rd Annual Graduate Student Conference of the College of LLL at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in April.

Solomon, de Silva, Gramberg, Puniwai (2019) Land Use and Spatial Reconfiguration in the Context of Sustainability. Panel presentation to be given at the 2019 Hawaiʻi State Association of Counties Conference in Maui, Hawaiʻi in June.

Nogelmeier, Sai-Dudoit, et al. (2019) A public presentation on behalf of Awaiaulu in which our team highlights the way our critical analyses and translations of Hawaiian language primary sources inform our current and contemporary approaches to our individual work, research, and pedagogy.

I began hosting a weekly radio show on KTUH in 2007 that features classic Hawaiian music and run entirely in Hawaiian language. My commitment to this has greatly expanded my knowledge of the different sub-genres, time periods, depth, and breadth within Hawaiian music as a genre itself. With this knowledge, I have been contracted several times by different companies to curate the musical content of certain spaces to provide that space with a suitable atmosphere and character. Even though the musical content of these spaces is often perceived on a subsonscious level, companies understand the importance of this task as the space's "audio-marketing", and the selection of appropriate songs becomes paramount.

In 2010, I assembled the playlists to be played at the 1st Annual Hawaiian Music Conference of the Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards. This "sonic curation" involved the meticulous selection of mele Hawaiʻi to accompany a retail space at the conference where attendees could purchase musical albums. I was also the music buyer and organizer of this project.

Since then, there have been various projects for which I have curated the audio selections to suit the appropriate setting for the event. In 2011, I generated the playlists for various spaces around the Disney Resort ʻAulani at Ko ʻOlina. The different musical collections imbued each distinct space with a certain ambiance and mood.

In 2014, I created a playlist of string ensemble renditions of Queen Liliʻuokalani's compositions for the celebration of the rededication of her māla pua, or flower garden, called Uluhaimalama, where flowers were gathered and sent to the Queen when she was imprisoned in her own ʻIolani Palace.

In 2018, I assembled a playlist for the Global Tourism Summit, co-sponsored by the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority, who contracted me for the project. Over 1,000 people were present at this summit, representing dozens of tourism agencies and industries from around the world.

Sea Life Park, Waimānalo, H – Summer 2015 – Presented about Hawaiian language, history, and language shift in Hawaiʻi.

Hawaiian/Pidgin Summit at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Honolulu HI – October 2018 – Presented about ideologies of Hawaiian and Hawaiʻi Creole English in Hawaiʻi.

Solomon, N. Haʻalilio (2018) I Leʻa Ka Hula I Ka Hoʻopaʻa: The Evolution of Hula as Informed by the Evolution of Hawaiian Music. Presented as a talk at the 4th Hālauaola Conference at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo in June.

Talk Story Sessions – International Conference on Language Documentation and Conservation, Honolulu, HI – February 2019 – Co-faciliatated three separate talk story sessions on Hawaiian langauge ideologies and their impact on its revitalization movement. Two of the sessions were in English with conference attendees, and the third session was conducted in Hawaiian to invited guests as well as conference participants.

Invited lecture and public presentation – Amherst College, Amherst, MA – March 2019 – To present my book chapter "Rescuing Maunalua: Shifting Nomenclatures and the Reconfiguration of Space in Hawaii Kai".

Invited presentation – Lunalilo Home, Maunalua, HI – (forthcoming) – "Rescuing Maunalua: Shifting Nomenclatures and the Reconfiguration of Space in Hawaii Kai".

In 2017, I became the new president of the ʻAhahui ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi Hawaiian Language Society. As a non-profit, the ʻAhahui strives to provide community events to promote the use of Hawaiian language in its homeland. We revived this organization after almost 15 years of disuse. Today, the ʻAhahui organizes events for all those interested in perpetuating ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi, such as reading groups, huakaʻi field trips, camping weekends, and other immersion activities.

In the Fall of 2018, I joined a group of colleagues to form a group called CreaDivLang. We are a cohort of language teachers, especially endangered languages, and we use the TPRS (total physical response storytelling) method of language teaching. We meet weekly to practice teaching various languages to each other, and also to constructively criticize methods to improve one another's lessons.

In the summer of 2019, I was the translator and interpreter appointed by the University of Hawaiʻi for hearings regarding Maunakea as the proposed site for the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope for any testimony that was in 'ōlelo Hawaiʻi.

In May of 2019, I will sit on a panel for the Advocacy Pau Hana Series hosted by the Hawaiʻi Mission Houses. In my capacity as a ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi speaker, I will be sharing impromptu haku mele (compositions) in Hawaiian to be put to music by other panelists.

In July of 2019, I was the interpreter for a panel called Ka ʻŌlelo o ka ʻĀina ma ka Mālama ʻĀina, the first entirely ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi panel at the 2019 Hawaiʻi Conservation Conference.

In July of 2019, Dannii Yarbrough and I submitted our first ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi lesson to Ka Wai Ola, a monthly newsletter published by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. July marked the first issue of 12 total issues. In November of 2019, we will begin releasing short, bite-sized films to supplement and facilitate these lessons.