A Pacific creative incubator community
Fanning the flames of Pacific creativity for the future health of our peoples and our planet
ABOUT US
Mōhala i ka wai ka maka o ka pua.
The blossom thrives where water flows
Pulse Oceania believes that a flourishing creative ecosystem
rooted in aloha ʻāina will advance the health of our communities and lands wherever Hawaiians live in the world.
Our vision
is is a thriving and healthy Pacific Islander community in Hawaiʻi at the forefront of global experimental performance.
Our mission
is to bring to light out-of-the-box performance projects not supported in the local marketplace through creative exchange rooted in aloha ʻāina.
What we do
We unite performing artists and creative writers in collaboration through 9-month creative cohorts, semiannual land-based artist retreats, and our annual Pacific New Arts Festival.
WAIWAI • VALUES
Pacific centered, driven, and celebrated:
We celebrate the multi-cultural, intersectional, diverse global communities and networks of Pacific Islanders too often flattened and strive to amplify equally diverse voices and experiences that reclaim their narrative on their own terms
Honoring and responding to Pacific artists preceding us:
We acknowledge ʻike kūpuna–the insightful, innovative contributions made by our ancestors–as our constant source of inspiration and learning; we celebrate the advances made by previous generations of cultural practitioners and artists around the world in whose footsteps we follow
Kilo and theory:
Both embodied physical experience and theoretical labor are essential for creative growth and will be part of the unique solutions contributed from the Pacific region to the world
Pilina and process over product:
Building holistic, sustainable support for Pacific performing artists requires responsiveness to community needs and space for slowness in the development of new ideas
FOUNDER & PRESIDENT
Nāwāhineokalaʻi Lanzilotti
Nawahine Lanzilotti is a kanaka ʻōiwi (Native Hawaiian) artist and arts educator born and raised in lower Mānoa valley on Oʻahu in Hawaiʻi. She holds graduate degrees in ethnomusicology (ʻ12) and experimental music (ʻ19) from Eastman School of Music and the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College respectively.
From 2012-2018, Nawahine lived between Hawaiʻi and New Delhi, India training in hula, studying North Indian classical music, and creating new performances with artists across North India. Working with indigenous artists in India and the continental US motivated her to return home in 2019 to build more opportunities for global exchanges between Native Hawaiians and international indigenous artists.
IIn 2024, Nawahine was selected to join the third cohort of the Culture of Health Leadership Institute (CoHLI) through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National Collaborative for Health Equity. Nawahine founded the nonprofit Pulse Oceania to create opportunities for Pacific Islanders performers to realize our most courageous work and bridge the global stage without having to displace ourselves from our lands.
