Waikiki Natatorium War Memorial

Hey, does this sound familiar?

A great natatorium opens in the 1920s. It’s a wonderful community resource; people from all across town come together there and enjoy swimming together.

But there are years of deferred maintenance and neglect; eventually, it’s closed as unsafe.

Same story; happy ending

For once, we’re not talking about the Waikiki War Memorial Natatorium. This is the story of the Municipal Natatorium in Richmond, Calif., better known there as The Plunge.

In Richmond, as this article on the New York Times websiteattests, there was a happy ending! Citizens groups rallied to support the local natatorium. The city, the state and private funders worked together.

The pool has been restored and reopened. According to the story, it’s “open seven days a week for swimming, aquatic fitness programs and water sports like kayaking.”

If Richmond can do it, we can, too!

What can you do?

Write to Mayor Carlisle and members of the Honolulu City Council. Tell them about the Municipal Natatorium in Richmond, Calif. Tell them you think Richmond’s story should be a model for our own. Tell them that you favor stabilizing the Natatorium and preserving it while financing comes together for full renewal and reopening. Thank them in advance for their support for what will eventually be another success story worthy of New York Times coverage.

Mahalo!

If you missed the Friends of the Natatorium’s 23rd annual Memorial Day observance, here’s your chance to see it. If you were there and want to record a speech or performance you found particularly memorable, here’s how.

The observance was taped for cable TV and will air this week on ‘Ōlelo Community Media .

It was a truly inspiring commemoration of the servicemen and women, especially those from Hawai’i, who have died for our country. Here’s when and where to see it:

Natatorium Memorial Day Service Broadcast Schedule

Tuesday, June 28: 1 p.m. on OAHU 52
Thursday, June 30: 12 noon on FOCUS 49
Friday, July 1: 10 a.m. on OAHU 52
Saturday, July 2: 6 p.m. on OAHU 52

To view the program online, check out Oahu 52 and Focus 49 web streams at http://www.olelo.org/whatsonolelo/.

You don’t want to miss the moving talks by Lt. Gen. Duane D. Thiessen, commander of U.S. Marines in the Pacific, and Ron Oba, veteran of World War II’s heroic 442nd Regimental Combat Team.

The Waikiki War Memorial Natatorium is one of 10 culturally important Honolulu locations chosen as venues for “Speaking in Silence,” a work of performance art highlighting Hawaiian history and the diversity here of concepts of enlightenment and consciousness.

The work – conceived by artist Ernesto Pujol – takes place this Saturday, June 18; the portion at the Natatorium is scheduled to run from sunrise to sunset.

Pujol is a visiting artist at the Contemporary Museum, where a survey of his work called “Walking Ground” is on display until Oct. 2. He refers to himself as a “site-specific public performance artist and social choreographer,” interested, among other things, in the notion of sacred ground and the sacredness of places and spaces.

Saturday’s daylong event will involve performers – alone or in pairs – at the Natatorium and the other venues.

“They will be simply dressed in red and humbly barefoot,” says Contemporary Museum executive director Allison Wong. “Each performer will carry a little red book containing selections from the history, literature (fiction and nonfiction), poetry, popular songs, and native chants of our islands.”

Wong says that the performers “will spend the day walking and sitting, alternating between reading out loud and meditating in silence.”

“The 14 performers will act as gentle public speakers and silent wandering monks,” Wong says. “At the end of their long day, they will disappear quietly with the sunset.”

Visitors and passerby will receive a map that directs them to the other locations where the work is being staged. The performance will be documented with video and still photography so that it can be shared later with those who are unable to witness it in person.

The Friends of the Natatorium thank Pujol and the Contemporary Museum for selecting the Natatorium as one of the venues for this performance. Go witness it; it provides all of us with an opportunity to reflect on the cultural and historical importance of the Natatorium and to meditate on its value – and the value of all the sites – to us as individuals and as a society.

Here is a complete list of the venues for “Speaking in Silence:”

–Aloha Tower (sunrise to sunset)

– Chinatown Historic District (sunrise to sunset)

– Hawai’i State Capitol (sunrise to sunset)

– Tamarind Park (sunrise to sunset)

– Waikiki War Memorial Natatorium (sunrise to sunset)

– Oahu Cemetery (7 a.m.-6 p.m.)

– Hawai’i State Library (9 a.m.-5 p.m.)

– Iolani Palace (9 a.m.-5 p.m.)

– Mission Houses Museum (10 a.m.-4 p.m.)

– Honolulu Academy of Arts (10 a.m.-4:30 p.m.)