Music, Media, Activism, and Aloha!

About the Event

The UCSC Common Ground Center is
hosting an evening presentation featuring Hawaii-based slack key guitar player
Makana and TEDxMaui founder Katie McMillan, who will share their experiences on
the power of art and digital media to impact social change. From the tactical
to the visionary, this is an opportunity to learn from two individuals who have
merged their desire to create a better world into their life’s work. What have
they learned? What are the challenges and risks? Where are the opportunities
and gifts? How can you build a successful career with a social mission?

About Makana

Described as “dazzling” by the New York Times, Makana is an
internationally acclaimed guitarist, singer, and composer who is widely known
for lending his musical talent for social change. When he was
asked to play for President Obama and other world leaders at an APEC World Leaders’ dinner, he saw it not
only as an opportunity to showcase his musical talent but also as an
opportunity to get a powerful message to world leaders. His plan resulted in
major media coverage from outlets such as CNN and Yahoo and became the #1 news story on Yahoo worldwide for two days.
Through his music, he galvanized a community hungry for social change. In 2011, at the apex of the “Occupy” movement, Makana’s
song We Are the Many went viral on YouTube, garnering more than half a million
views and was coined the “Occupy Anthem” by Rolling Stone magazine. His sound,
while rooted in the tradition of Hawaiian slack key guitar, encompasses
multiple genres to include folk, pop, world, and his own unique style coined
“slack rock.” With music ranging from Hawaiian classics to sexy love ballads to
songs of resistance, Makana is not only keeping Hawaii’s musical traditions
alive–he’s evolving them.

 About Katie McMillan