“The struggles of artists and cultural workers for fair compensation and financial stability/sustainability cannot and should not exist independent of struggles for housing, healthcare, education, and protections led by people from all walks of life.”

“The composition layers keyboard played by Mary Elizabeth Jo Dixen Pelenaise Kapi’olani Lawson, her vocals (chanting, reading, humming), sounds inside a kitchen, and the voice of Paul Stephen Benjamin singing ‘Black Is the Color.’”

“Indigenous people of this continent have ancestral responsibilities and rights that others do not. Each of us is born with the opportunity to serve our community in a way that fulfills a need. My energy goes towards forging relationships with the plants from this region that remain.”