‘We Go Jam’ At WCC Library

A unique gathering of authors and musicians is set for 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Windward Community College’s Library Learning Commons, offering a full menu of local culture and sound.

As part of the college’s Out Loud at the Library series, the event marks the recent release of the book We Go Jam: Celebrating Our Music, Our Soundscape, Our Hawaii with guest readers, book sales and signings and music by WCC’s own TRiO students.

Hawaii Council for the Humanities, publisher of the 118-page softcover anthology, will give away 10 of the books to the best entrants in an informal “Write to Win” contest. (Students and the public are inviting to write 100 words or less about what a song, or music, means to them and bring it to the Jam.)

We Go Jam is a collection of 36 island writers sharing their poems, short stories, oral histories, lyrics and essays. Contributors expected to attend are Puakea Nogelmeier, Thelma Chang, Calvin Hoe of Hakipuu, Aiko Yamashiro and Jerry Santos, both with Windward roots, and editor Susan Yim. We Go Jam is available for $14.95 at Native Books/Na Mea Hawaii in Ward Warehouse, or for $10 at Thursday’s program.

“Nothing brings us together quite so wholeheartedly as does music,” stated HCH executive director Bob Buss, “connecting us to a place and telling stories about ourselves and the world around us.

“We Go Jam is a pure humanities project, and we are happy to join WCC in celebrating the music of Kaneohe and Windward Oahu.”

The music begins at 6 p.m. in the library breeze-way, and the readings, music and talk story portion will run from 6:30 to 8 in its first-floor atrium. WCC’s award-winning poet and English teacher Janine Oshiro coordinates the Out Loud programs.

For more information, call 235-7374.