E Kanikapila Kākou Week 4: “The Amazing Charlotte Apo with the Mokihana Serenaders”. Plus “Hot Kūpuna Strut Their Stuff”

E Kanikapila Kākou 2025

OUTRIGGER Kaua‘i Beach Resort and Spa

Theme: “Music Heals” & “Hawaiian Music Traditions”

Monday Nights – 6:00 – 8:30 pm, through March 24; Doors open at 5:00 pm

Week 4, February 24:  “The Amazing Charlotte Apo with the Mokihana Serenaders” (Paul Ventura, Pancho Graham, Norman Kaawa Solomon, Kilipaki Vaughan). Plus “Hot Kūpuna Strut Their Stuff”

Born in the fishing village of Miloliʻi on Hawaiʻi Island on May 29, 1937, Charlotte Apo grew up in a close-knit community where singing and playing Hawaiian songs was a basic lifestyle. Charlotte attended Kamehameha Schools from 1952 to 1955.  She worked for Hawaiian Airlines playing music and also played music with Aunty Genoa Keawe. Music was a major part of her life. In 2011, at the age of 74, Charlotte was clinically diagnosed with Alzheimerʻs. Her short-term memory is nearly non-existent, but music and long-term memories related to music are fortunately intact.  As long as she is prompted with her song titles, Charlotte can draw from her encyclopedic memory banks of traditional Hawaiian songs and accompanies herself with her zesty ʻukulele strumming. Does she get tired? Not when she is accompanied by the Mokihana Serenaders, a dynamite ensemble of Kauaʻi musicians including Pancho Graham on upright bass, Kilipaki Vaughan on steel guitar, and Norman Kaʻawa Solomon and Paul Ventura, Charlotteʻs son, on guitar.

Adding to the fun and action for the evening, kupuna are invited to get up and “strut their stuff” when they are so moved.  It will be hard to keep the kupuna in their chairs with such rousing Hawaiian music.

Charlotte and the Mokihana Serenaders are embarking on a new “career” playing on the set for the upcoming movie, “Hawaiian Vacation” which will be released, hopefully, soon.

Purchase tickets at: http://EKK2025.eventbrite.com

Hotel Parking Options: Parking options at the OUTRIGGER Kaua`i Beach Resort include the following three choices: 1. Valet parking at the porte-cochere; 2. Free event parking in the unpaved area beyond the covered parking stalls — get there by turning right at the first opportunity and then take a left into a dirt field; or 3. Enter the first gated area on your right, a bit closer to the ballroom entrance than the dirt entrance, and turn into that gated area. Press a button to make the gate rise, collect a ticket issued by the machine and hold onto it. Get it validated just inside the ballroom door to receive a special validation for a $10 total parking fee. Use that ticket to exit the gate, paying the balance due at a kiosk machine near the restrooms or at the gate with your credit card.