Where

Ong King Art Center

184 N. King st

Corner of River and King st, up the stairs and to the right

When

August 6th First Friday

Gallery open from 5-9 Performance 9-2

What

$5 all you can drink Kava

Music

Ticket Down

Black Square

Quadraphonix

Movement

Hawaii Fire Artists

Poetry

Bay Area All Stars

Artists

Erin McCullough

Serena Dawn Hashimoto

Momonas Farm Project

$5 8-9m $10 9pm-2am

Bring your friends and family, all ages welcome

hip hopalypse was written and directed by See, Cristian Ellauri

Hip-hopalpse: High Culture Meets “The Bomb”
At Ong King Arts Center
Review by George D’range

I may not be an authority on hip-hop or rap. In fact, its or the
most
part, not of my generation. The last time I felt truly cool, I was into

Janes Addiction, when they played at the Aloha Tower, before it was
a
shopping center. And I have precious little familiarity with the works
of William Shakespeare. (Usually I have to watch a Shakespeare play
twice and read it, to really absorb it) But the writer/director of Hip-
hopalypse, Christian Ellauri (AKA, SEe) does have a mastery of these
performance elements, the credentials to prove it, and his presentation

of this odd mixture of ingredients is truly visionary.
Understanding and mastering iambic pentameter is difficult enough.
Weaving it together with hip-hop, elements of Stomp and a
surprising
metaphysical angle was nothing short of inspired. Topping this tasty
philosophical tale of humanitys swan song are feats of acrobatics,
martial arts, and interpretive dance that almost creates a sensory
overload. Ah, theres the rub. I wish I’d seen it more than once!
The
pace was both dizzying yet engaging, and I got the distinct impression
that was part of the design. The troop does warn in the introductory
scene, “Try to keep up!”
There are three aspects of this performance in which I do have a level
of understanding, if not expertise: drama, post-apocalyptic novels, and

metaphysics. These are also critical elements of the instant classic
that is Hip-hopalypse, In the area of drama, I grew up with an
actor
(my stepfather), and my sister was a member of the cruel theater acting

troop, and star of the play, Double Above the Knee., and got her
start in the Mid Pacific Program for the Performing Arts, as well as
appearing in the U.H. presentation of The Vagina Monologues
Post-
apocalyptic tales in particular are a specialty of mine, (Ive read
everything from Vonnegut Cats Cradle to Stephen Kings
The
Stand 5 times) and as a Gen-Xer who grew up under the threat of the
bomb, I found this to be a riveting setting for a play of this nature.
Even though the play is seeing its last performances this week, and
this probably wont be published in time to be a true spoiler, but I
will defer to my friend See anyway, by not revealing too much, in case
we should be so lucky as to have a future repeat performance. I
personally feel he should take this one on tour.
The play opens as society has already crumbled, presumably from a
nuclear exchange, with an introductory soliloquy from the former
scribe, turned tribe leader, Dante (Tui Scanlan). We are given a very
concise, yet head spinning blow-by-blow of the events past and present,

which set the stage of the tale. The story centers on a tribe of
survivors who must labor under back-breaking, and sometimes fatally
hazardous conditions to mine enough coal, in order to refine drinkable
water. The workers, as well at their beloved queen (Simone Derow)
suffer from radiation sickness, are starving, and often succumb to
their labors. Three MCs, bards of sorts, DO, Dune and Dewm (Jonathan
Sypert, AKA intREPID, Harumi the HYmn, and Jason TOm) are tapped by
Chief Dante to recruit fresh laborers from the wasteland to come and
join the coalmining band. (Sorry for all the ebonic lettering folks, it

came that way in the program. Not easy with MSWord constantly
correcting me!)
As with any tribe, this band is not without its warriors, and two
agile stick fighters, Essu, (Justin Young) and Juolian (Michael
Hamilton) patrol the realm for wandering threats presented by other
nomads. And they are out there. And by “out there”, I mean whack.
Strange, mutated interlopers with mysterious healing capablilities roam

the outland, seeming to survive on nothing but The fruits of the
desert and the universal mantra: Ohm.
Intrigued? Good, because I may have said too much already, except that
folk singer Christina Nelson also plays an integral part in this hip-
hopalyptic opus magnum, and with all these elements thrown together, it

made for an incredibly interesting and wonderful evening. Easily worth
paying the extra five dollars to upgrade to a coach seat, as I have a
bad back, and floor seats were ten.
Didnt get a chance to catch it? Found other ways to spend your
evenings, or just plain forgot? Do yourselves a favor, and get in touch

with See at Ong King, and ask him to do that funky thing again! (More
about how to do that at the end of the article)
And even if that doesnt happen, definitely do yourself a favor and
drop by Sundays from 9 PM to about 1:00 to 1:30ish, when the real party

happens for only the price of one dollars ($1!) admission. Theres
all
you can drink Kava for five dollars, and sometimes other tasty treats
for sale. OR, for the turbo-charged version of Ong King, hit them up on

First Fridays each month for ten dollars admission. Its well
worth
the money, just to be a part of the coolest place in town.
Many have searched for this seemingly mythical venue, so Im going
to
explain it, and as See reminds us: Try to keep up! Where King
Street
meets River, at the end of China town, go to the Mauka side of King
street. Now face Diamondhead. Walk about 15 to 20 paces, keeping your
attention focused on the left. The wall of the street is collaged with
waves and other psychedelic visions. Youre not seeing things! Well,
I
cant speak for you, but I digress There is a rather plain white
sign
hanging above the door to a stairwell reading Ong King Arts
Center Go
up the stairs and at the top, hang a hard right. You will see a red
sliding door. If you are a Bohemian or free spirit, enter. You are
home.

See and his associates can be reached at:
Ong King Arts Center
184 N. King Street
www.ongking.com
see@ongking.com
808-306-7823

Tonight, Ong King celebrates Year One
By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Staff Writer

ONG KING ARTS CENTER’S FIRST ANNIVERSARY
184 N. King St.
Free for 5-9 p.m. art gallery opening; $10 for 9 p.m.2 a.m. performances
www.ongking.com

Jonathan Heraux presides over Ong King’s ever-eclectic mix of art, music, poetry and burlesque. Cristian “See” Ellauri sees Ong King as a merger of aesthetics.

Ong King Arts Center’s actual first anniversary was in February. The first Friday in February, to be exact.

So why are Jonathan Heraux and Cristian “See” Ellauri — co-founders of the Chinatown performance space and all-things-art gallery — celebrating the occasion belatedly at tonight’s First Friday?

Blame it on the butoh.

The duo were so deep into planning Ong King evenings such as tonight’s typically eclectic First Friday open house, they simply forgot. Stop by Ong King tonight and you’ll find avant garde Canadian guitarist/performer The Genie, Heraux’s longtime world beat jazz-n-funk band Quadraphonix, slam poets, jugglers, burlesque and works by every local artist Ong King displayed in its first year of existence.

“It’s like a circus in here,” Heraux said, describing Ong King’s everything-but-Coco- Chandelier-in-the-kitchen-sink approach to slotting performers for its popular First Friday gallery openings. “Just so you know, none of it ever goes very smoothly. People are stepping on each other. Costumes are flying. We’re running around. It’s insanity. … But somehow we pull it off every time.”

“There’s nothing like merging aesthetics,” said Ellauri, a theater director and performer fond of employing a similar diversity of elements into his own original work. “You can come here and dance your head off for a half-hour … sit down and listen to a spoken word piece next … then just release and get ecstatic with a band that’s just out of its world for another half-hour.

“That blending of different styles? When I go out … that’s what I want to go see.”

Heraux launched Ong King Arts Center with Ellauri a year after the disappointment of having his lease abruptly pulled from under him on a similar project — the gallery/performance space called On The River. He’d renovated the ground-floor space in a century-old River Street building with his own hands and much of his savings before shuttering On The River in February 2005 after little more than a year of operation.

“I was sort of (expletive) off for a couple of months,” said Heraux, relaxing in afternoon sunlight pouring through Ong King’s large windows. “But driving by here, I’d always see a sign on the window that said ‘For Lease.’ ”

That sign was on one of the panes of a two-story North King Street walk-up, right around the corner from On The River. The second-floor space housed eight tiny offices, which Heraux knocked down to create a single large performance space. Seven months of self-renovation, more digging into his savings and one built-but-abandoned in-house surfboard design business later, Heraux opened Ong King with business partner Ellauri on First Friday, February 2006.

The name Ong King is a combination of two musical sounds denoting the venue’s location and Chinatown roots.

The airy urban space overlooking fish and vegetable markets on King Street is essentially a blank canvas. Its walls are white; its wood floors devoid of clutter. There’s no stage for performances and very few seats for patrons, save for a couple of loungers and the floor. Performers at Ong King are encouraged to become sort of organic to the space as part of their art.

“This place is meant to be open to everybody. It’s an empty space,” Ellauri said. “It’s about having that sense of sustainability. That I can come here and perform anything. I can feel free to take risks. I can feel free to state what my opinions are about the world … to say what’s going on in my heart, what’s going on in my mind.”

Ong King hosts afternoon and evening classes and workshops on interests such as sustainable living, belly-dance, swing dance, acting and even qigong healing-through-breathing techniques throughout the week. A Sunday evening open-mike night often creeps into the wee hours of the a.m. The partners hope to open an artist co-op in a vacant space down the hallway from Ong King — offering small, affordable non-live-in spaces for artists to do their work. A recording studio is also planned.

Ong King’s busiest night is always its First Friday open house and its wickedly diverse co-mingling of gallery and performance art. The partners collect a portion of Ong King’s income from instructors who teach classes there and private rentals for parties and performances. Both Heraux and Ellauri use the space for their own artistic endeavors.

“But First Friday is how we pay our rent, basically,” Heraux said.

Take a walk down King Street from First Friday’s Nu’uanu Avenue nexus tonight and find out exactly what feeds the landlord.

full article: click here for fuLL ARTicle

‘We want it to be about the performance’
The Ong King Arts Center will burst out with “OPEN Stage”

By John Berger
jberger@starbulletin.com

Skateboarders are so unwelcome in many parts of Honolulu that even carrying a skateboard can attract suspicious or hostile glances, but the Ong King Arts Center isn’t one of those places.

full article:

‘Open Stage’

Place: Ong King Arts Center, 184 N. King St.
Time: Art gallery opening 5 to 9 p.m. Friday; performance from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m.

Admission: Free until 9 p.m.; $10 after

Call: 306-7823

“Come on in,” was the greeting on Sunday when Jonathan Heraux, co-founder of Ong King and emcee of the gallery’s weekly “Sunday OPEN StAGE” night, noticed a man standing in the doorway, a skateboard under his arm.
Heraux not only welcomed the man, but also invited him to ride his board across the hardwood floor.

The skateboarder accepted the offer, capped his ride with a flashy reverse, and received a round of applause.

The indoor skateboarding demo was an ad-libbed extra in a casual but well-moderated showcase of semiunderground talent that has been going on in this second-floor spot near River Street for a year now.

Heraux and partner See/Cristian Ellauri celebrate Ong King’s anniversary with a First Friday party showcasing 15 artists and performances by The Genie, Quadraphonix, the Cherry Blossom Burlesque, Giinko Marischino with Coco Chandelier and national slam poet Quentin Talley.

The late-night show will also feature the Amazing TJ in his farewell island performance, the duo of Lyz Soto and Jamie, and a preview of MC See’s one-man show, “Dicho Inquietos (Un-Quiet Truths).”

In the last “Sunday OPEN StAGE,” the cavalcade of performers included a pair of poets who combined poetry and dance, a tap dancer, a blues singer/comedian, a female singer/songwriter, a male singer/songwriter and a young man who read his latest poem from his notebook.

The level of professionalism varied. One performer plugged in his CD and suggested that anyone who didn’t already have a copy should rectify that deficiency as soon as he was done. Others were working out new material or still finding their comfort zone as public performers.

Several seemed to be regulars with established followings.

Heraux told one member of the audience that “anybody can play drums,” gave the guy a couple of quick pointers as he pushed him behind the Ong King drum set, and had him play long enough to more or less prove the point.

Everyone got a polite hearing. Everyone got applause.

“We want (the evening) it to be about the performance,” Ellauri explained. Bars and lounges often host jam sessions, open-mike nights and karaoke as a way of cutting overhead by getting performers to provide free entertainment while customers pay standard drink prices. But as Ong King doesn’t sell alcohol, Ellauri pointed said, people go there for the art and the entertainment, not to get rowdy, and those under 21 can be welcomed.

And in the unlikely event that a Sunday night comes up short on poets, musicians and tap dancers, Heraux and Ellauri are a show in their own right. Heraux, percussionist of Quadraphonix, is Ong King’s resident drummer. Ellauri is a commanding beat-boxer and performance poet; his freestyle recitations of passages from Shakespearean plays were among the most artistically impressive contributions to Sunday’s show.

The doorway that leads to Ong King, a second-floor hideaway on King Street near River Street, is easy to miss, and the neighborhood can be intimidating after dark, but it should be quite a party.

full article: http://starbulletin.com/2007/04/06/features/story02.html