Student Exhibitions: "Speak Your Truth" & "Speak Hawaii's Truth"

Last Friday marked one of my favorite days out the year. For the past four years, I've co-hosted a large student art and poetry event with Kerri Schweibert (http://kerrischweibert.com), a literature teacher at my school where I teach. It was another amazing evening celebrating student photography and spoken word! Special thanks to everyone at 39 (www.thirtyninehotel.com) who generously donated their gallery space and time.

In addition to the overall "Speak Your Truth" theme, my photography students collaborated to create a 2nd display titled "Speak Hawaii's Truth: Paradise Lost/Paradise Found." Much of this project has been driven by my current graduate research exploring the notions of paradise and escape and various depictions of Hawaii in the media and tourism industries. It has been incredibly informative (and fun) to weave my graduate research into my classroom curriculum. Even better, the exhibition was received with enthusiasm and many viewers were interested in the themes behind the work. We showcased images of beautiful isolated beaches versus congested highway traffic, tropical flowers vs littered cement sidewalks, high rise buildings versus homeless tents, surfers versus giant vessels carrying Matson containers, glowing sunsets versus graffiti walls, etc etc the list goes on. It was exciting to see this display come together and to honor my students' hard work.

Here are a few images of the event in addition to our "Speak Hawaii's Truth" display.