Gardens of Eatin’ Artists’ Residency and SOL

island sanctuary + healing arts centre

Aloha! My name is Ishle Yi Park and I am a mother, gardener, hula dancer with Halau Hula Ka Makani Hali ‘Ala O Puna, lomi lomi practitioner, certified yoga teacher, award~winning writer, and the first woman to be named Poet Laureate of Queens, New York. For the past 12 years, I’ve been blessed to live in Hawai’i, and my campaign is to help raise funds to purchase land on the Big Island where we can live and create a healing center, artists’ residency and food forest for our island community.

​Become Part of Our Dream!

With your collective help, we can grow and build a sanctuary here on the islands where artists can come to rest, renew and recharge their creative batteries, as well as give back to da ‘aina with regenerative, sustainable, and organic gardening practices. We invite you to join the collective movement to co~create a healthier, more natural and abundant tomorrow for our keiki with your actions today! 

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Curated by poet, musician, mama, and educator Ishle Yi Park, Gardens of Eatin’ Artists Sanctuary is an BIPOC artists’ residency in Hawai’i open to local & visiting artists and invited guests.

The sanctuary will be composed of an organic garden, herbal medicine wheel, two round garden studios for short~term artist residencies, BIPOC eco~poetics reading room, yoga & lomi lomi massage room, smoothie, cacao and tea bar and recording studio ~ will be open to artists who are granted residencies in the garden studios.

What We Need & What You Get

Let me break it down for ya’ll in more detail:

• What We Need: While we already have some seed money to start, the funds raised from this campaign will go towards ensuring that we purchase a large enough land for this vision ~ ideally a 1-3 acre parcel of partially cleared land so that we can start building and growing as soon as possible. We already have an ideal location on our radar and are in talks with real estate agents about this property, which is why time is of the essence.

  Funds will also go towards building our first three round structures, one for my family, one for the healing room (massage & lomi lomi), and one for the artist / guest residency, and the solar, water, and plumbing for these hales.

  Additional funds will go towards land clearing, hot tub, and planting seeds, starts & trees for our medicine wheels, lei and la’au la’pa’au gardens and permaculture food forest with a focus on native plants. You are welcome to bless us with funds for specific trees if you like ~ i.e., if you want to fund the planting of a koa tree, or a mango tree, you can do that, or if you’d like to bless us with enough to get an entire yurt ~ wonderful! It’s up to you how you give ~ all blessings graciously accepted with gratitude & aloha. 
   

• What You Get: If you give us funds for a mango tree, we will allow you to come visit & eat da fruit from this tree when it eventually fruits! You will be first in line to learn about our retreats & offerings on this property, and will be given opportunities to participate in the growth of this center as it unfolds!

  As contributors, donors, angels & patrons of the arts, you are welcome to visit Lani’s Gardens of Eatin’ Artists’ Sanctuary when you are on the Big Island once it is complete.  Here is what the full vision for the land includes & what you can enjoy: 
   

  Lani’s Smoothie, Tea & Cacao Cafe & Library: will feature Lani’s delicious organic smoothies, teas, and cacao elixirs, sell artworks made by artists in residency & provide a lending library of quality books for children & adults. 

  Khaya ~ House of Song Music Studio : Artists in residence and other local musicians may work & record in this humble yet professional quality round music studio yurt that will feature music created to offer soothing benefits to listeners (some of this music will be created & recorded in the music studio).

  SOL Space for Performances, Salons & Acoustic Concerts, and Farm~to~Table Meals ~  
  A Community space will be designed for dinners & acoustic concerts, readings, intimate gatherings & community workshops.

  Artist Residency Studios: 
  Designed to serve artists, activists, musicians, and front~line cultural workers, these round short term artists residency spaces would host 1-2 artists at a time. Artists will have access to the music studio for recording & performance.

  Organic Vegetable Garden: A good portion of the ‘Aina will be dedicated to abundant organic vegetable & herb gardens, including an herbal medicine wheel, a lei garden & la’au la pa’au garden. We also envision a permaculture paradise with edible fruits & flowers. The garden will be tended by Lani, her Ohana & resident artists, and volunteers.  

The Impact

This artists’ residency & healing center is designed to serve a very real need among Hawaii, mainland & international BIPOC musicians, artists, and cultural workers & allies, by providing artist~led space to gather, share ideas, and practice regenerative gardening. Our vision is to make this ‘aina be a valuable resource for local Hawaiian healers and hula dancers from local halaus like Halau Hula Ka Makani Hali ‘Ala O Puna to harvest medicine and traditional hula regalia for ceremony, as well as for our children and our children’s children to enjoy the fruits of our farming, and a space where artists & musicians can come to gather, celebrate, connect & give back to the natural world. 

Here are some of the things that I’m envisioning on this land:

-writing workshops

-hula & yoga classes

-organic cooking workshops

-lomi lomi sessions

-marketing consultations

-gardening & coconut weaving workshops

– Hawaiian culture workshops from Hawaiian elders 

-workshops for na keiki o ka ‘aina (children) 

-music studio for community

– and a round yurt (traditional Mongolian style, to pay respect to my ancestors) that would be available for local & visiting artists, friends, and family. 

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In the past, I have served as the Arts-In-Education Director of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, the Artist in Residence at Youth Speaks, and have been a creative writing & music teacher, poet, activist organizer for over 20 years.  I studied massage at the Hawaii Healing Arts School in Oahu, and lomi lomi with Kumu Dane Silva, and am certified in hot stones and detox massage. I received my 200 RYT Yoga Certification from Cloud Nine Yoga at Hawaiian Sanctuary.

I have created numerous flourishing gardens from scratch on private farms and estates here on the Big Island when I have worked as a property manager, gardener, woofer, and work~trader, and I have a Certification in Sustainable Farming from Kauai Community College and recently completed the FAM (Farm Apprentice Mentorship) Program at UH Maui, learning from Maui’s best organic farmers, so this vision is in total alignment with my life’s purpose, which is to create a safe space for learning, growth, creativity, healing and the flourishing of nature. 

It is time I put all of these skills to practical use to serve my ohana and my community and help green the earth ~ “seed by seed, tree by tree”, as I sing in my song, ‘Aloha ‘Aina’. I am committed to this vision which I have held dear to my heart for over a decade, and given recent world events, it is absolutely crucial and necessary for us, ESPECIALLY as mothers, Asian Americans, and people of color, to have food sovereignty and to learn how to self~sustain and live independently from a system that does not always nourish or sustain us in healthy or positive ways.

It is up to us to learn from our ancestors and remember & recreate a way of living more in harmony and balance with the earth, which is of course, an ancient way ~ a return to roots and a simpler way of co~existing with our natural world. With God’s help and the help of our beloved community, near and far ~ we trust that we can mana~fest this vision for the greater good. 

Of course, we will naturally encounter risks and obstacles on the way to achieving our goal.
One thing we do not want is too many chefs in the kitchen making this complicated, so for this reason, we will keep it small & family run, so Gardens of Eatin’ Artists’ Sanctuary and SOL will not be co-operatively curated or managed or long term housing for other artists or tenants. It will be a gathering space for musicians, artists, activists & creatives, and a site for healing & planning retreats that serves API, BIPOC, native Hawaiian artists, activists, musicians, local families and traditional healers & builders. 

I am confident that with hard work, focus, prayer, communication, and aloha, we can overcome any hurdles that appear in our path. Mahalo nui loa e malama pono.

Have Fun at Our Campaign!

While we’re asking for your support, we also want you to enjoy what we have put together. Check out our perks for various levels of donations. We work together with many other artists, such as the talented musicians behind the digital albums we offer as a thank-you-gift. So by donating to our campaign you will also support them. If you enjoyed our campaign video, and our launch event, stay tuned: There may be more where they came from! Most importantly, even if you can’t donate, please help us spread the word!

If you just can’t contribute $$ right now, you can STILL help! Here’s how: 

• Ask folks to get the word out and make some waves about your campaign.
• Share with your more affluent friends who are patrons of the arts! 
• Please use the Indiegogo share tools!