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In January 2019, ILI Partner PAʻI Foundation hosted the second of three place-based intensives for ILI Fellows in Hawaiʻi. The five-day leadership immersion brought together the second cohort of ILI Fellows for shared learning, personal exchange and direct experience with the true history and sacred places in Native Hawaiʻi.  2018/19 ILI Fellows Cohort, Partners and Facilitators at ILI Hawaiʻi intensive. Photo: Melisa Cardona Mehanaokala Hind is the ILI Host Facilitator for Hawaiʻi, the location for the second of three place-based intensives for the ILI Fellows. She shared her thoughts about preparing to engage Fellows in Native Hawaiian experiences, encouraging their best, and facilitating healing cultural practices.  Photo: Melisa Cardona ILI Fellow muthi reed shares their thoughts and photos from ILI Hawaiʻi.  Aloha. Mahalo. ‘Āina. Hawai’i. Land of sacred relationships thank you for welcoming us home to sovereign sensibility. Home is….. feelings and places of agreement, acceptance, awareness…. healing… sources of purpose….. kinships built from knowing and working side by side. Home is shared between us. Home is complex and difficult and maybe a myth. Regardless, the idea of kinship calls us lifetime after lifetime, in the people we meet, the conflicts we experience, the foods we savor and the places and spaces where we are held.
Get a glimpse into the ILI intensive experience through this day-by-day look.  Photo by Melisa Cardona Interview with Nijeul X. Porter, ILI Core Facilitator & Design Team Member  Grounding moment at ILI Lakota intensive. Photo: Melisa Cardona Nijeul shared his thoughts about what he calls the “ILI Experience 2.0,” his personal reflections and his role as a model cultural leader.
ILI Fellow liza garza and ILI Fellow Alum Eli Lakes form the mother/son musical duo GROW. In 2018/2019, they embarked on a tour of “living room shows” - connecting with like-minded communities to share their original music of Love and Healing. liza shared her experience, thoughts about interculturality and what she holds most dear as meaningful and valuable.   These days, it seems easier to talk online than in person. ILI Alumni Fellow, Shey Rivera Ríos, is trying to change that. Shey Rivera Ríos isan artist and former artistic director at AS220, an internationally renowned arts center in Providence, RI. Rivera uses the mediums of performance, video, installation, and narrative to produce works exploring gender, family history, and colonization in Puerto Rico. After eight years at AS220, Rivera accepted a new role as Director of Inclusive Regional Development at MIT CoLab, in the Urban Studies and Planning department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
 Rhode Island Black Storytellers (RIBS) recently had their 21st Annual Funda Fest: A Celebration of Black Storytelling which took place from Westerly to Woonsocket, Peace Dale to Providence on January 26 to February 3rd. ILI Fellow Valerie Tutson who is the Creative Director of RIBS and Fund Fest founder wanted a space for storytellers to share, teach and entertain with stories from the African Diaspora.
ILI Fellow Kyoung Park guest blogs on Arts Leadership and the future of his own practice.  Kyoung's Pacific Beat's PILLOWTALK (The Tank, Jan. 2018). Photo: Walter Wlodarczyk I’ve been thinking a lot about Arts Leadership. Last year, I realized Kyoung’s Pacific Beat has outgrown its current limits and that I need to re-imagine its future for the long-term. It was easy for me to imagine what we’d strive for creatively, but I was stumped by what it’d look like to paint that picture in numbers and what it’d take to make it happen. I think of my mentor, Lee Breuer, who started as a playwright and director, and did not return to his creative writing until his 70’s, having lived a life in the theater teaching and directing. I think of Abe Rybeck, who reached out during a moment of crisis to tell me that he, too, started as an artist and then spent a lifetime building an institution.
ILI Fellow Kahōkū Lindsey-Asing helped promote “Ōlelo Hawaiʻi Month” in February that celebrates and encourages the use and normalization of Hawaiian language. Here is his perspective and experience from this year’s activities:  Pūnana Leo o Mānoa Hawaiian Medium Education Preschool students attending the “2017 Ke Au Hawaiʻi- Year of the Hawaiian” ceremony at Washington Place, Honolulu. “...for me, every month is about celebrating, encouraging, and normalizing Hawaiian language. ”In September 2018, ILI Partner First Peoples Fund hosted the first of three place-based intensives for ILI Fellows in Lakota Territory/South Dakota. The five-day leadership immersion brought together the second cohort of ILI Fellows for shared learning, personal exchange and direct experience with the true history and sacred places in Lakota Territory.  2018/19 ILI Fellows Cohort at Red Shirt Overlook in Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Photo by Melisa Cardona “This work is so important,” said First Peoples Fund President Lori Pourier. “The partners who came together to start ILI have long term relationships, but we need to widen the circle and provide space for other arts & cultural leaders who voices are an important part of the larger story.”
By Lori Lea Pourier, Maka Citomi Omani Win | Woman Who Walks the Earth. Oglala Lakota, President, First Peoples Fund  Photo by Carlton Turner My Lakota name was given to me by my Unci Olivia Black Elk Pourier who made her journey to the Wanagi Yata (the place of the Spirits) when my daughter Shahiyela, now 19, was 8 years old.
During your stay you will learn about the Lakol Wicho’an (the Lakota Way of Life) and how we are taught that our life here on Unci Maka (Grandmother Earth) mirrors the stars (Lakota cosmologies). Our Creation Story begins in the Black Hills. Through story and in practice you will learn about the Lakota virtues of Woksape (Wisdom), Woohitika (Bravery) Wowacintanka (Fortitude) and Wacantognaka (Generosity).
Lynette Two Bulls is the ILI Host Facilitator for the Lakota Territory, the location for the first of three place-based intensives for the ILI Fellows. She shared her thoughts about empowerment, leadership and the sacred Black Hills as a powerful and centering place to start ILI Fellows on their year-long journey together.
Photo by Melisa Cardona
Lynette Two Bulls is Oglala Lakota and Cheyenne and her Lakota name Tuŋwéyaŋ kiyapiwiŋ means “Scouts Woman.” She is originally from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and now resides with her family on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Lame Deer, Montana.
Get a glimpse into the ILI intensive experience through this day-by-day look.
ILI Facilitator Nijeul X. Porter (l) and ILI Fellow Joe Tolbert (r) at Pe Sla (Black Hills). Photo by Melisa Cardona
ILI Fellow Christopher Sims shares his thoughts and experiences from Lakota Territory  ILI Fellows Robert Martinez (l) and Christopher D. Sims (r) “This is professional and spiritual development I will need to continue my work - the work we are all doing
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