SPRING 2024
Queerphoria
Kumu Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu
Kūlia Nā Mamo
Kumu Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu is a recipient of the National Education Association Ellison Onizuka Human and Civil Rights Award, the Native Hawaiian Community Educator of the year, and the White House Champion of Change. USA Today named Wong-Kalu one of ten Women of the Century from Hawai’i. Wong-Kalu is also featured in Naomi Hirahara's book We Are Here: 30 Inspiring Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Who Have Shaped the United States that was published by the Smithsonian Institution.
Over the years, Kumu Hina has been deeply involved in work in the community, including serving as: a former Chair of the Oahu Island Burial Council for 13 years; a founding member of Kūlia Nā Mamo, improving lives of māhū; the former Director of Culture at Hālau Lōkahi Public Charter School; a former member of the Community Engagement Team for Office of Hawaiian Affairs; and a Cultural Ambassador, Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement. She speaks ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, Samoan, Tahitian, and Tongan.
Keiva Lei Cadena
Positive Womenʻs Network - USA
Keiva Lei Cadena is a leader in Grassroots community advocacy and activism across the country, and a Native Hawaiian cultural practitioner living in Pahoa, Hawaii. She has recently been hired as the Co-Executive Director of Positive Women’s Network – USA, a national organization for women living with HIV dedicated to uplifting the voices of Cis and Transgender women of color advocating for the human and reproductive rights and racial equity for all women affected by HIV. Prior to that, she served as the Director of Harm Reduction Services at Kumukahi Health & Wellness on Hawaii Island. She is a steering committee member of the Positively Trans National Advisory Board, a member of the CDC and HRSA Advisory Council on HIV and represents the Pacific region on the National Native HIV Network. She has worked in HIV navigation, outreach, linkage, and education for the past 13 years and is a consultant for many organizations across the United States helping develop programs and services based in harm reduction and transgender inclusion. She is a frequent lecturer at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and San Francisco State University. She serves on workgroups for the state of New York and Hawaii, Stanford University, Pap Ola Lokahi and The Transgender Law Center. In 2019 she was named one of POZ Magazines 100 most influential people in HIV and in 2023 she was honored with the Suzanne Richmond Crumm Award for outstanding contributions to HIV services in the state of Hawaii.
Syreeta D. Washington
Leeward Community College
Syreeta Washington (she/her) graduated from Temple University Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor’s in Psychology and Master’s of Education in Counseling Psychology.
Currently, Mrs. Washington is an educator, author, and motivational speaker with a passion for serving others and an advocate for social justice. She has authored two children's books addressing behavioral and emotional development. Syreeta co-founded and co-chairs the campus Social Justice League, serves as a contributing member for Love Pono and the Urgent Student Relief Fund. Syreeta currently holds a position as an Instructor and Early College Counselor at Leeward Community College, where she inspires students to exceed their own expectations for success.
Dean Hamer & Joe Wilson
Lei Pua ʻAla - Queer Histories of Hawaiʻi
Dean Hamer and Joe Wilson are Emmy and GLAAD Award-winning filmmakers and community advocates dedicated to telling stories that emanate from the voices of those on the outside and that catalyze community engagement, dialogue, and action on a range of often overlooked issues. From LGBTQ equality in small town America to gender diversity in public schools, from cultural erasure in Hawai'i to the criminalization of sexual and gender minorities in the Pacific Islands, Hamer and Wilson's campaigns have helped to elevate and center the stories of affected communities in movements for change. Films such as Aikāne, Kapaemahu, The Rogers, Leitis in Waiting, Kumu Hina, A Place in the Middle, and Out in the Silence have screened in festivals around the world and have been supported by the Sundance Institute, Ford Foundation, ITVS, and Pacific Islanders in Communications and highlighted by PBS Learning Media, Learning for Justice, ACLU, Kanaeokana, the Native Hawaiian Education Council, and others.
Kapaemahu, produced and directed in collaboration with their longtime filmmaking colleague and Native Hawaiian cultural advocate Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, centered on the long-hidden story of four mahu, extraordinary beings of dual male and female spirit, who brought the healing arts from Tahiti to Hawaiʻi. The project resulted in an animated short film that was shortlisted for a 2021 Academy Award, a children's picture book published by Penguin Random House, a feature length PBS documentary, a major exhibition at the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, and was the inspiration for the Lei Pua ʻAla – Queer Histories of Hawaiʻi Project.
Prior to recent projects in multimedia activism, Hamer was a New York Times Book of the Year author and National Institutes of Health scientist emeritus whose work played an important role in current understandings of human sexuality and gender, and Wilson served as Director of Human Rights at Public Welfare Foundation, Producer of Pacifica Radio’s Democracy Now, and was involved in numerous grassroots social justice efforts.
DeSoto Brown
Lei Pua ʻAla - Queer Histories of Hawaiʻi
Curious, inquisitive, a seeker of information and a reader of anything and everything, DeSoto Brown might have become a professor or a detective. Lucky for the historical wealth of Hawai‘i, he became the archivist and collections manager for the Bishop Museum. His great-great grandfather, John Papa ʻĪʻī, was a 19th-century writer and Hawaiian historian who served as adviser to Hawaii kings Kamehameha III, IV and V. Brown’s parents were also history buffs who sparked his curiosity in the past. He has a wide range of interests, and has co-curated numerous exhibitions including The Healer Stones of Kapaemahu, Kaula Piko: The Source of Strings, and Mai Kinohi Mai: Surfing in Hawaii.
Maximillian Soares Miehlstein (he/they)
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Max is a graduate student in the Psychology department at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. He studies minoritized identity and how individuals showcase, disclose, hide, or modify their identity expression depending on the social and environmental context. As a trans person, he tries to incorporate a non-binary and disability perspective in his research while recognizing the personal significance of gender and gender identity.
Avalon Paradea (they/them)
University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo
Avalon Paradea (they/ them) is a genderliminal, neurodivergent haole, raised and residing in Waikōloa, Kohala Hema, Moku o Keawe. They are a poet, writer, and ʻāina-based visual artist, co-creating with earthly elements such as kapa, plant dyes, and earth pigments. Their works centers around themes of human and more-than-human pilina, queerness, mental wellbeing, and ancestral connections. They obtained their bachelor’s in anthropology with a minor in ethnobotany from UH Mānoa in 2014 and completed their master’s in environmental science at UH Hilo in 2023. In their spare time, Avalon enjoys singing to plants, cooking ʻono grindz, loitering at their local library, and cuddling their ancient cat.
Kaleiheana-A-Pohaku Stormcrow (ʻo ia/they/them/theirs)
Keauhou Bird Conservation Center
Kalei is a māhū Kanaka ʻŌiwi artist, cultural practitioner, botanist, wildlife biologist, and etho-ornithologist. They grew up in Koʻolaupoko, Oʻahu and Maine. Kalei recently graduated with a Masters of Science in Natural Resources and Environmental Management from UH Mānoa where they studied indigenous knowledge and detectability of Pueo. Their Bachelors of Science is from Oregon State University in Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences with a focus on ecosystem dynamics. Kalei now works with some of our most endangered endemic manu (birds) at Keauhou Bird Conservation Center in Keauhou, Kaʻū on Hawaiʻi Island. Kalei lives in a house they built with their partner in Kapuʻeuhi (Mountain View) with their three dogs, and some chickens. They have a collection of endemic plants already growing, and are in the process of building a sustainable farm.
Keoki Robello
Hale Makua Health Services
Keoki Robello is currently living in Makawao on the island of Maui. Maui has been his home for 23 years. He graduated from the University of Hawaii Maui College in 2012 and is currently serving as the Director of Nursing for the second largest skilled and long-term care nursing facility in the State of Hawaii. He has also served in executive leadership roles in Hospice and Palliative Care.
Bunnie Cruise
Transgender Resource Center of New Mexico
Bunnie has been doing fundraising and community work in New Mexico since the early 90’s. She has served as Chairwoman of The Transgender Resource Center of New Mexico, Queen Mother of The Imperial Sovereign Court of New Mexico and Board Member of A Light In The Night. Bunnie recently ran to be appointed to The NM House of Representatives, while she did not win, she made history as the first out trans woman to run for public office on NM. This past summer Bunnie became the only out trans woman to become a licensed Real Estate Agent in New Mexico. In her spare time Bunnie likes to train for 5k runs and triathlons and shop.
Kaleikūkamakani Ruiz (māhū: he/she)
Leeward Community College
Kalei serves as a counselor at Leeward Community College, working with advising, financial aid, and student support technology. He has conducted research geared towards decolonial understandings of gender and sexuality and provided sessions on these perspectives at various conferences within the University of Hawaiʻi as well as the community. He currently serves as a commissioner with the UH Commission on LGBTQ+ Equality.
In 2022, Kalei created and coordinated the first Queerify series, as well as Queerphoria in Spring 2023. His goal has been to provide a platform for queer and māhū voices to be heard, amplified, empowered, and connected.