ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW WITH MEGAN KAMALEI KAKIMOTO

Megan Kamalei Kakimoto is a Kundiman community member who has served as Co-Chair of Kundiman’s Hawaiʻi Regional Group since March 2024. She was interviewed by Gina Chung on May 19th, 2025.

INTERVIEW EXCERPT 1

Megan Kamalei Kakimoto describes her desire for an AAPI literary community. She recalls learning about Kundiman and its Hawaiʻi Regional Group.

TRANSCRIPT

KAKIMOTO: I've been an avid reader my whole life and always writing for most of my life, and I think I was always really looking for a sense of a literary community, and especially an AAPI literary community, particularly as a part Native Hawaiian woman. And I think that for a while, especially after I moved back to Honolulu after undergrad, I had a really hard time finding community and understanding where even to begin looking. And for me, I was trying to remember when I had first learned about Kundiman, and I still can't remember if someone had told me or if it was me just being very much on Google and trying to find groups of writers and Asian American and Pacific Islander writers who met up or had events or just, you know, trying to find my own way into the community here in Hawaiʻi. And I remember coming across the existence of a Hawaiʻi Regional Group and I thought that was super cool, and I had reached out and I think that there was a period of transition with some of the chairs at that time. And so Kundiman was always sort of on my radar in that way, even though I didn't attend any events immediately from learning about them. But then things started to happen in the last like three-ish years, where Kundiman was always sort of ever-present in a lot of conversations, and I became close with Joseph Han, who I know was a past Fellow and closely involved in the organization. I became familiar with Kristiana Kahakauwila, who has, I believe, taught workshops for Kundiman. And then I believe like a year and a half ago, I interviewed Cathy Linh Che for Poets & Writers in honor of Kundiman's at the time forthcoming anniversary, and had a really wonderful opportunity to speak with her and in that way of conducting the interview get to know the organization a lot better.

INTERVIEW EXCERPT 2

Megan Kamalei Kakimoto discusses how Pasifika voices have been reduced, dismissed, and misunderstood within the larger literary landscape. She then describes Kundiman’s intentionality toward amplifying Pacific Islander stories and reflects on the opportunities she’s had to nurture AAPI community by organizing and participating in Hawaiʻi Regional Group events.

TRANSCRIPT

KAKIMOTO: I've spoken with other writers who have felt, in the past, the Pasifika voices and stories kind of reduced or dismissed in a lot of ways. And I think that, in general, I would argue that that has to do with a kind of lack of understanding sometimes of what Pasifika or Pacific Islander even means. But I've felt a lot of really wonderful intentionality with Kundiman and I think a keen awareness of the importance of uplifting and amplifying Pacific Islander stories, and I think that's something in general that -- or something very specific that I have really appreciated from working with Kundiman and getting the opportunity as a Co-Chair to see this beautiful collision of AAPI community members in the shape of events, coming together in events and coming together for different authors, for book launches, for readings, and I think that just that sense of nurturing community really thoughtfully and intentionally is something that, I've perhaps, you know, really appreciated in working with Kundiman and within that larger AAPI literary landscape.

INTERVIEW EXCERPT 3

Megan Kamalei Kakimoto recalls a celebration for the paperback launch of her own book, Every Drop Is a Man's Nightmare, at an event in 2025 through the Hawaiʻi Regional Group. In order to showcase community, she invited five local writers to read their work at the event.

TRANSCRIPT

KAKIMOTO: I had the opportunity to celebrate my own paperback launch with the Hawaiʻi Regional Group, and that was a really beautiful collision of my many communities in Hawaiʻi, and really wonderful gathering of the AAPI literary community in Hawaiʻi. We hosted it at da Shop, which is an independent bookstore in Kaimukī where I also work as a book seller part-time. And I think that the approach to that event was a wonderful celebration of the paperback, but the intention was to showcase community. And so instead of doing any kind of reading of my own book, I had invited friends of Every Drop [Is a Man's Nightmare], of my collection, to come and read their own work. And so we had I think five readers total. And what they read, you know, they’re such a diverse group of writers with really deep Hawaiʻi ties. And I think that getting to hear their voices and also having that opportunity to have works read by both established writers and new writers that were emerging, and really having this beautiful range of works being read was really moving, and I felt like it kind of marked one year with Kundiman as a Co-Chair of the Regional Group. And so, it was kind of wonderful to see just with that passing of time how many more people had come out from that first event to this most recent event, and a lot of them who had heard of it from Kundiman and were there to kind of connect with other writers in that way.

CITATION

Kakimoto, Megan Kamalei, Oral history interview conducted by Gina Chung, May 19, 2025, Kundiman Oral History Project.