Glenn Washington (4:23)

the calf down on a patch of hard earth. But doubt stops me. Fear. Then the anger returns, the fury. I have asked, begged their God to reveal itself as many ways as I know. Still it judges me. Unworthy of even a word, even a whisper. Answer me. This is all I have left. So I steel myself, look to the sky. One last chance. Answer me. Then I drop to my knees, bow my head and I pray to my own graven image. Spook stars. Now, Sam. Now how do you wake to God? Our next story begins on a spring night in 1986. Thousands of people have gathered in Hilo, Hawaii. Not just from around the islands, from the four corners of the earth to witness the largest, the most prestigious hula competition in the world. As the sun sets over Hilo, Rollers Pack IIR Kanakaole Stadium, the rafters air tastes rich with the smell of Kahlua pork and the sound of ancient drums. And in the distance, dark clouds roll in sleep.

Event Announcer (7:07)

Good evening and welcome to the 23rd annual Marian Monarch Festival Hula Competition. We are here live at Hilo tonight,

Commentator (7:14)

the Kahiko competition, where 30 halals will be sharing the ancient dances of Hawaii.

Narrator/Interviewer (7:23)

Leanne Durant is backstage with the other dancers in her halau, or hula school. After nine months of practice and preparation, they're about to take the stage and perform their rendition of the three windstorms of Hina.

Commentator (7:41)

The women's chant Kimo speaks of the goddess Hina from Molokai and her three devastating winds that were able to bruise skins and devastate land.

Event Announcer (7:54)

And so we should get from these dancers, male and female, very strong, emotional Kahiko. Ancient dances should be very interesting this evening.

Leanne Durant (8:06)

And we were all ready to go, and we're standing in a circle and then all of a sudden the lights went out. It's pitch black. The storm is going crazy. That's when the dread really comes. Like, I had bad feelings from the very beginning of learning the dance. I was like, okay, what do we do to stop this?

Narrator/Interviewer (8:41)

Leanne has been dancing hula for almost as long as she can remember. As a girl growing up in Honolulu, she learned to dance a version of hula called hula awana. It's an instrumental style of hula that became popular after the Hawaiian language was banned in the islands.

Leanne Durant (8:58)

I grew up in the generation where Hawaiian language hula was not accepted. During the overthrow of our monarchy, we were illegally taken by the United States. And once that happened, as a people, we weren't allowed to speak our language. Ancient hula was underground because we were not allowed to Dance it. And then when I came home from college in 1977, there were things happening here in Hawaii which they called the first renaissance of things Hawaiian. And it all started with the hula.

Narrator/Interviewer (9:43)

All over the islands, young Hawaiians were reviving hula kahiko and bringing back those traditional dances and chants.

Leanne Durant (9:52)

It looked exciting. So I asked my neighbor if she was dancing hula anywhere, and she said she was. So I went down with her to a hula class with kumu hula Mapuana di Silva. She was teaching kahiko, which is the ancient hula. Those chants go back, way back. It tells those stories of our ancestors. What kind of beauty did they see in a flower? What kind of beauty did they see in a rock? What did they do if things weren't right? What kind of battles did they have? And I just fell in love with.

Glenn Washington (10:43)

Sam.

Narrator/Interviewer (11:17)

One day, not long after she started studying hulakahiko, Leanne remembers overhearing her kumu, or teacher, Mapuana da Silva, talking about entering the merry Monarch Festival.

Leanne Durant (11:29)

I was like, what is that? That's how out of touch I was. I didn't even know about the festival. They started it as a little competition with a few halau, and over the years, it just by word of mouth, by, you know, more. The renaissance was bringing more and more halau into being, and it just became one of the biggest things ever. And that's kind of like our big gold star, you know, in the spring is going to marry monarch.

Narrator/Interviewer (12:09)

The first time Leanne went to marry Monarch, it was 1981. She was in her 20s and having the time of her life preparing for the festival with her hula sisters. Her halau didn't win that year, but

Leanne Durant (12:21)

it was just really a fun time. It was a really bonding time. Each halal would have their own fundraiser with their own little signature to it. And because even though we were in competition, we would support each other. We would go to each other's fundraisers. We would help them, they would help us. It was like a huge, huge family, but it was a lot of work. We make our own costumes, we make our own lei. We have to raise money to get there and be able to pay for

Narrator/Interviewer (12:58)

our hotels, our vans, not to mention the hours each week spent practicing the dances they were going to perform.

Leanne Durant (13:04)

They would have a dance of your choice, and then whoever the committee was would choose a dance where every halau danced the same, but each kubu brought their own spirit to it.

Narrator/Interviewer (13:20)

They'd start rehearsing their dances in September and work on them all the way through to the competition in the spring. But for Leanne and the other dancers in Halau Mohala Ilima, the point of all this hard work wasn't just to win. Although in her first five years with the group, they did win three times.

Leanne Durant (13:37)

What we would strive for was to share our hula and our interpretation with everyone.

Narrator/Interviewer (13:45)

And then came 1986 and the three windstorms of Hinata.

Leanne Durant (13:52)

It was about the goddess Hina. She's one of the oldest goddesses in Hawaii, and she was the female that could generate forest in Hawaiian cosmology. And she was kind of a protector of the land, too. She had this gourd, and if the people wouldn't take care of the land, she would open her gourd just a little bit. When she opened that gourd just a little bit, the rain got stronger, the wind started to pick up, and it was kind of like a warning to the people that you better take care of business. And so as the chant goes on, the people still don't heed her call or, you know, pay attention. So she opens her gourd a little more. That's when you start getting lightning, thunder, the rain gets harder, the wind starts whipping up. And on the third time, when she opens the gourd, it's the destruction of man.

Narrator/Interviewer (15:09)

Leigh Ann was a really experienced dancer at this point, and she was a mentor to some of the newer hula sisters. But when she got into the studio to start practicing this one, something was just weird.

Leanne Durant (15:22)

I remember going to hula and we learned the second verse. I all of a sudden just felt. I don't know how to explain it. I was a little frightened. I couldn't really explain why, but it was just a feeling I had in my nao, in my gut. And that feeling carried through the whole, what I call the marabonic season. Starting in September.

Narrator/Interviewer (15:53)

Leanne hoped that with time, she'd get more comfortable with the routine and the feeling would fade, but it didn't. When the spring rolled around, that uneasy feeling in her gut was still there. Whenever she practiced, she didn't mention it to her kumu or anyone else in her halau. She just kept pushing, trying to get

Leanne Durant (16:16)

it right, but I just couldn't get it. I couldn't get the dance. I couldn't get the chance. I made mistakes all the time. It just didn't feel comfortable to me. I never had struggles like that learning a hula.

Narrator/Interviewer (16:38)

Finally, the week of Merry Monarch arrived. Leigh Ann and her hula sisters flew to Hilo and checked into the Nani Loa Hotel. That night, they sat in the audience in Edith Kanakaoli Stadium and watched the Miss Aloha competition. The next day, it was their turn to compete Kahiko night. Leanne remembers waking up that morning to perfect Hilo weather. Blue skies with a cool mist coming off the ocean. The dancers spent the day rehearsing on the hotel lawn before heading over to the stadium. When they got there, they had some time to kill before they had to get ready, and most of the dancers wanted to watch the first group perform. But Leanne decided that she needed some time alone and fresh air to clear her head, so she made her way back outside.

Leanne Durant (17:28)

I was super nervous because I had a hard time with the chant. I needed to calm my nerves. So I remember going down. I sat on the sidewalk, kind of along the fence. I would just keep kind of just taking a deep breath. I would always just tell myself, just let it go. Just let it go. Once you get on that stage, you're gonna forget all your worldly worries.

Narrator/Interviewer (17:58)

As she sat there breathing in and out, Leanne could hear the first women's group take the stage inside the stadium and start to perform Hina's chant.

Event Announcer (18:09)

We welcome you, the people throughout the state of Hawaii, from all of the Hawaiian islands, and now from Las Vegas, Nevada, under the direction of Kumu Hula, Wayne Panoke.

Commentator (18:30)

This is our first opportunity to see the wahine competition chant, which will always be performed first.

Leanne Durant (18:59)

And then as I could hear the chanting on the stage, it started to rain. It came so fast. Pretty soon it was pouring rain. At first, I didn't think anything because Hilo is unpredictable. It always does things like that, you know? So I went in and I started dressing. And then my hula sisters came. We dressed under the bleachers so we could hear what was going on on the stage.

Commentator (19:35)

Making their first appearance at the Merry Monarch Festival, Another opportunity to see Hina and her devastating win.

Leanne Durant (20:02)

As I was dressing my hula sisters, I kept watching the rain, and I was noticing, like, the gutters of the tennis stadium was. The water was just gushing out, and it was coming really quickly. All of a sudden, I just felt like, this is the. The rain kept coming and the rain kept coming. It seemed like every time I heard the chant, the rain got worse and worse and worse. I was just, like, observing and thinking, wow, this is like the first storm clouds were really dark and heavy, and I could hear the chanting, and I would see lightning or hear the thunder. And then I went to. This is like the second Storm. We're dancing about the story, and the story is coming true. Everybody's on stage, like, they're chanting, and their energy is there, and they're bringing this to life. So I felt very uncomfortable, and I did not want to go on that stage. What if we were the ones that she decided then and there, let's open the gourd the third time, and it would be destruction of ma'.

Glenn Washington (21:38)

Am.

Leanne Durant (21:42)

And the stadium was full of men, So I really felt dreadful. But I was not going to disappoint my kumu or my hula sisters. Like, I didn't want to be the one that was like, I don't want to do this, you know, because not performing on Kahiko night automatically disqualified us from the competition. And you've worked so hard. You've sacrificed, you know, we've had girls sacrifice being in sports, going to proms, you know, doing all the things that you do as young people because we loved it so much. And what if I was wrong? So I talked myself back into it. It's just like, okay, you're here. This is a commitment. You can do it. Intermission was ending. People were going back to their seats.

Commentator (23:17)

Welcome back to Hilo, Hawaii, and the beautiful Edith Kanaka Ole tennis stadium.

Leanne Durant (23:22)

We're about to go on. My stomach is in knots. We were all ready to go, and we're standing in a circle, and then all of a sudden, the lights went out. You hear the audience say, whoa. And then there was silence. It's pitch black, and the storm is going crazy. I start to kind of panic because I felt like the lights were the warning. And I just kept thinking in my mind, we need to break the cycle. We have to do something to stop. To stop the momentum of this storm. And the only way I knew how to break the cycle would be to not dance. And then one of my hula sisters that was standing next to me, she told me that she was afraid and she didn't want to go out and dance. And several other people came up and told me that I went into care nurturing mode. So I said, okay, I'll go talk to kumu and see what happens. So I left the circle, and I went up to her and I said, mapu, I have to tell you something. We don't feel good about dancing. There was no anger. She just said, okay. So she came to the group and she talked to us and said, do you not want to dance? You know, of course, everybody's kind of like, what should I say? And then I just said, well, I don't want to. And then the majority of the girls were like, yeah, we don't want to, we don't want to.

Narrator/Interviewer (25:30)

Meanwhile, out in the audience, somebody had started to sing.

Leanne Durant (25:35)

I don't remember what song, but just to take the tension off, I think someone started to sing and then everyone was singing.

Event Announcer (25:45)

So despite the festive mood, it was haunting, if not coincidental to think that the night's intense lightning and thunderstorm literally shook Edith Kanaka. Ole indoor tennis stadium. The storm caused a 40 minute blackout.

Leanne Durant (26:00)

Eventually, the lights went on.

Narrator/Interviewer (26:03)

With the storm raging against the black sky. The announcer got on the mic.

Leanne Durant (26:08)

He says, I'd like to announce our next halau, Halau Mohalima, under the direction of Mapuana Da Silva. She comes up, goes up the ramp by herself, goes to a mic in the middle of the the stage. And nobody knew what she was going to say. But then she said, we have decided that our girls will not be performing this evening. My concern and care is first for my ladies. Thank you. Then everybody was clapping. I think they were clapping because she made her students number one. It mattered what we felt mattered to her and that we were willing to be disqualified. So this mopoana came back from being on stage and making that announcement. The rain just stopped as we were undressing and putting our costumes away and taking care of everything. It went back to being a light mist with a little breeze. And it was no rain for the rest of the competition. I don't know what would have happened if we went up. There were a whole bunch of halau after us. They danced no problem, but I felt it's not meant to be danced by us. It didn't matter that we missed this competition, that we got disqualified. None of that mattered because I feel that we broke the cycle.

Glenn Washington (28:29)

Thank you. Thank you, Leanne, for sharing your story. Leanne told us that even though her group was disqualified from the 1986 competition, the next night they did have another chance to dance. And after all the ups and downs of the festival, they rocked the stage with one of the best performances ever. And spooksters, you should know the next Merrie Monarch Festival is just days away. There'll be a link in our show notes where you can learn more. This piece was scouted by Ixchel Lopez. The original score was by Clay Xavier, was produced by Zoe Ferrigno. Now for just a moment, let's talk about babies. Tiny little bundles of joy Fat cheeks that smell, that baby smell the other baby smell makes your heart grow three sizes too big But Longtime listeners to this show know that it often starts at the beginning. And if you know an infant or a small child that demonstrates knowledge, powers, understandings or memories that they didn't learn in nursery school, tell me about it. Spooked@snapjudgment.org because there's nothing better than a spooked story from a spooked listener. Spooked studios stand centered between this world and the next. Cloaked by KQED in San Francisco. Don't seek to find it, lest it seek to find you. No SNAP studio content may be used for training, testing or developing machine learning or AI systems without prior written permission. On Team Spooked, the union represented producers, artists, editors and engineers are members of the national association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians Communications Forum America, AFL CIO Local 51 and this book is brought to you by the team that loves to hula dance. Except for Mark Ristich. Now Mark prefers to dance with the devil in the pale moonlight. There's David Kim, Zoe Ferrigno, Eric Yanez, Marissa Dodge, Regina Berriaco, Miles, Lassie, Tao Dakot, Suyi Chu, Evan Stern, Eve Jeffcoat, Ishell Lopez, Jack Darrell, Doug Stewart, Nicholas Marks, the Spook theme song it's by Pat Mercede Miller. My name is Glenn Washington, and you know, on the way to my auntie's house, my auntie's place, I'm contemplating my little quest for the divine. A search I know she would think was silly. My auntie, she always wanted kids of her own. I think she did. I think that she did. But it never happened that way for her. So I believe this was my personal stroke of good fortune. Because when I was in the crazy at my house, she could sometimes be the escape, the respite, the hug, the hot meal, the field trip fee, the couch to sleep on, the kind word, the new kicks, the gas money, the good book, the screaming from the stands at the graduation, the address to write down when when I didn't have an address, an emergency contact when I didn't have an emergency contact. All these little things I think about this walking to her tiny apartment, busy searching for the divine. But here the divine is shining bright in front of me and now the divine is cussing me out, flooding all that cold air inside, leaving her door wide open. Never ever, ever, ever, ever turn.

Leanne Durant (33:00)

It.