Listening Across Oceans: Story, Memory, and the Making of Memorials
On September 18, 2026, Maui Public Art Corps and the County of Maui will bring its Lāhainā Think Space pilot project to New York University. Part of the ongoing community engagement process for the future Lāhainā Memorial honoring the 100+ lives lost in the August 8, 2023 wildfires, this gathering seeks to share Maui stories while also listening deeply to Hawaiʻi students and diaspora communities whose perspectives are essential to remembrance, recovery, and rebuilding.
This interdisciplinary panel exploring how storytelling, public art, and community dialogue help societies grieve and remember after collective loss. Artists, cultural practitioners, students, government leaders, and museum professionals will consider how memory travels across generations and oceans, offering perspectives that inform the creation of memorials rooted in community voice, cultural stewardship, and long-term resilience.
- Panel: Kelly White, Maui Public Art Corps; Erin Wade, County of Maui Deputy Managing Director; Sissy Lake-Farm, a cultural advisor whose work centers Hawaiian knowledge systems and community storytelling; NYU student Pua Farm; Amy Weinstein, Vice President for Oral History and Museum Collections at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum; artist Richard O’Connor.