Aloha Paul ~
Hope you are well & Happy Holidays! I don’t think we’ve officially met. My name is Ishle Yi Park aka Lani, and I am a writer, mama, musician and gardener with a Certificate in
Sustainable Farming from Kauai Community College and a recent FAM (Farm Apprentice Mentorship) graduate from UH Maui, where we learned regenerative farming practices from the island’s best organic farmers.
I am also the first woman to become Poet Laureate of Queens, New York. I have published two
books, The Temperature of This
Water, and Angel & Hannah, which are the recipients of 3 literary awards, and my work has been featured in The New York Times, San Francisco Weekly, The Economist, and more. I’ve also written for major publications like The New York Daily News, The Boston Review, and Tribes
Magazine.
I’m currently on a mission to help empower as many women, mamas, and gardeners as possible to grow our own food forests so we can have more food sovereignty and independence in life.
I’ve been listening to your podcast, and really loved the episode where you spoke on Building a Better World. Really informative, honest, and inspiring! I’ve had similar discussions with my own friends and I am 100% with you on your resource~full ideas for sharing and building with community.
Part of what I’m doing is organizing a grassroots farm~raiser to raise money to purchase
land for our family’s home * sweet * home, a healing center and BIPOC (and Allies) artists’ residency here on the Big Island of Hawaii.
We hope to serve a lot of people with this green
project: musicians, artists, activists, the
Native Hawaiian community, and our larger, greener family of
permaculture and food~forest growers.
Here’s a link for more info, and/or to join the grassroots movement & bless our campaign:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/help-grow-a-food-forest-healing-center-in-hawaii/x/26540378#/
I also have my own story of how I went from being an urban New York
city girl with a black thumb whose plants all died to growing gardens all over Hawaii as a work trader, woofer, and later, property manager and caretaker of private estates and large farms in Hawai’i.
This seems to be super well aligned with many of the topics you cover on your podcast, so if you’re looking for new guests to have on your show, I could speak to the topic of why working
class women of color must acquire land for food sovereignty and
freedom, and why inexperience really isn’t an excuse and how to overcome it.
Head here to listen to other podcasts I’ve been a guest on, and some interviews I’ve done, so you can get my vibe.
Here are some links:
https://bigislandmusic.net/kehaulani-releases-her-new-single-milk-honey-and-you-should-hear-it/
https://hawaiireviewofbooks.com/stories/the-poetry-and-song-of-ishle-yi-park
https://www.penguinrandomhouseaudio.com/blog/on-the-podcast-alessandra-narvaez-varela-laura-hankin-and-ishle-yi-park/
I’d be happy to
answer any questions if you have them; otherwise, I hope to hear from you if you feel I’d be a good fit for your show.
Thanks again, and have a great rest of your week!
Sincerely yours,
Ishle Yi Park aka Lani
http://www.ishleyipark.com
http://www.kehaulanimusic.com
@ishleyipark on IG
808-657-8772
