2026 HLA Spring MeetingSaturday, May 30, 2026 from 10am-2pm
Platform: Zoom Cost: FREE. [If your membership isn't current, please consider Joining/Renewing Now.] Schedule:
Information about our program, speakers, and facilitators can be found lower on this page. |
This Year's Theme
CONNECTING THROUGH STORIES Stories shape who we are, and where we are going. At the 2026 HLA Spring Meeting, we discover stories of our place, our profession, and our power to make a difference. Come listen, learn, and be inspired to add your voice to the conversation.
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About the Presentations
Tūtū Nyla Fujii-Babb
Kumuwai: the source of the stream is a program that Tūtū Nyla performs with her musician husband, "Papa" Jeffry Stephen Babb. Family oral history, paired with music, and wahi pana (legends) of the Waikīkī ahupuaʻa, Tūtū's hometown will encourage others to explore the stories of their place and own family histories.
Kamaka Dias
During this session, Kamaka shares about the personal and community-centered talk rooted in his journey as the host of the Keep It Aloha podcast. His story is really about growing up in Hawaiʻi, learning what aloha truly means beyond just a word, and how that value has shaped his path in storytelling, business, and life.
Dr. Cathy Fleischer
In this Storytelling for Advocacy presentation, we will reflect on their stories being told about libraries, and then learn how we can change public narrative through our own stories.
About the Speakers
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Krystal Kakimoto
Krystal Kakimoto grew up on the island of Kauaʻi and is currently serving as the Vice President of the Hawaiʻi Library Association. She now works at Bishop Museum as a reference librarian where she supports research and connecting people with knowledge and resources that preserve and illuminate Hawaiʻi’s history and heritage. Blending her professional experience, she draws on her background in the wine industry to design engaging historical presentations enhanced by thoughtfully curated beverage pairings. Through this unique approach, she invites audiences to experience history in a more immersive and sensory way – bringing the past to life through taste, storytelling, and scholarship. |
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Tutu Nyla Fujii-Babb
“Tutu” Nyla Fujii-Babb, of Asian and Native Hawaiian ancestry, grew up in the Territorial Years in the Ahupua’a of Waikīkī. Professionally she began her career as a student helper at the Waikīkī-Kapahulu Library, completed her studies and served for almost 35 years in various positions as a librarian and administrator in the Hawai‘i State Public Library System. In that time she garnered an Allie Beth Martin Award from ALA, Employee and Administrator of the Year Honors, as well as a Legislative Certificate of Recognition for Outstanding Public Service. Concurrently and after retiring she was Adjunct Faculty for the Graduate School of Library and Information Sciences at UH Mānoa for twenty years. “Tutu” has been a professional storyteller, artistic director, voiceover talent, teacher, and actress much longer than her career as a librarian. For over 60 years she has produced shows, performed in, and directed storytelling concerts for numerous organizations in Hawai‘i, including several of the campuses in the University of Hawai‘i System, the Volcano Art Center on the Big Island, the Hawai‘i State Public Library System, and the Lana‘i Art Center. She is on the Board of Monkey Waterfall, a non-profit dance/theatre company. She has also appeared on stage with Kumu Kahua Theatre, Honolulu Theatre for Youth, Palikū Theatre, Kennedy, and Leeward Community College Theatres for the University of Hawai‘i System. She has performed at both campuses of the Kamehameha Schools and at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center. She has retired from performing as Queen Lili‘uokalani at the annual Mai Poina performances on the grounds of ‘Iolani Palace. And has performed the role of Queen Ka‘ahumanu twice in Playwright Victoria Kneubuhl’s “The Conversion”. On the mainland she has performed at the Aratani Japan-America Theater in Los Angeles, and the Emerson Majestic in Boston. She has appeared in a few locally produced movies and has been a voice-over talent for a number of Hawai‘i Public Television specials. She has been a featured teller at several mainland storytelling festivals including: the Illinois Storytelling Festival, the San Juan Capistrano “Once Upon a Story Festival”, the Bay Area Storytelling Festival, the Oregon Multi-Cultural Storytelling Festival, and the St. Louis Storytelling Festival at the Arch. She is the only storyteller from Hawai‘i to be both an “Exchange Place Teller” and an invited “Featured Performer” at the prestigious National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee. |
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Kamaka Dias
Kamaka Dias is a Native-Hawaiian from the Big Island of Hawai'i. He grew up in Hilo attending Hawaiian Language Immersion schools all of his life until moving to Kaiser High School on Oʻahu his senior year. Before leaving to Madagascar to volunteer in the Peace Corps for three years, he attended the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa and graduated with a B.A. in Communications and a certificate in Spanish. After returning home from the Peace Corps in 2019, Kamaka started a campaign called The Race To 50K where he paid off $53,757 of student loans in one year. He is a co-founder of Hawaiiverse, President of the Keep it Aloha Foundation, and the host of the Keep it Aloha Podcast. |
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Dr. Cathy Fleischer
Dr. Cathy Fleischer is a former high school teacher and Professor Emerita from Eastern Michigan University where she taught writing and English education for 32 years. She has written and presented widely about writing pedagogy, teacher research, and advocacy. These days, she focuses on Everyday Advocacy, a movement she co-founded to help educators learn specific ways to change the public narrative of education. Through that work, she has co-authored both the book Everyday Advocacy: Teachers Who Change the Literacy Narrative and the Everyday Advocacy Playbook, a how-to guide for creating change. |
