Briefs for Oct. 14: Veterans Day ceremony to honor legacy of U.S. service members, three students to showcase visual voices

Annual Veterans Day Sunset Ceremony to recognize generations of service

The annual Veterans Day Sunset Ceremony will honor the service, sacrifice and enduring legacy of the men and women who have served in the United States Armed Forces at the Battleship Missouri Memorial.

This year’s ceremony, themed “America at 250 – Honoring Generations of Service,” commemorates America’s 250th birthday by recognizing generations of veterans whose courage and dedication have helped shape the nation.

First observed as Armistice Day in 1919 to mark the end of World War I, Veterans Day was renamed in 1954 to honor all who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces.

Today, the Battleship Missouri Memorial continues the tradition of remembrance and gratitude, serving as a place of reflection and respect for service members, past and present.

Featured speakers will include Major General Suzanne Puanani Vares-Lum (Ret.), Director of the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies; John P. Alamodin, Director of the State of Hawaiʻi Office of Veterans’ Services; and Rear Admiral Alma Grocki (Ret.), a member of the USS Missouri Memorial Association Board of Directors.

Attendance to the ceremony is free and open to the public. For guests without access to Ford Island, a complimentary shuttle service is available from the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center.

Bags are not allowed on the shuttle. A paid baggage storage facility is near the visitor center’s entrance and bags can be retrieved after the ceremony.

Three Windward photography students to be featured in an art exhibit exploring Native Hawaiian themes

Native Hawaiian artist and photographer Kapulani Landgraf has featured three of her Windward Community College photography students in a public exhibition.

Richard Heirakuji, Lily Kamālamalama Kelly-Jervis and Shiloh Perkins are showing their photography with Landgraf in PUKA, a photography exhibition at the First Hawaiian Center in downtown Honolulu.

The opportunity grew out of the students’ work with Landgraf. After teaching the three in ART 207, she invited them to continue their development through ART 299, an independent study course.

“Richard, Lily and Shiloh really stood out to me in ART 207,” Landgraf said. “I invited them to continue because I saw that potential in each of them.”

While the possibility of exhibiting at the First Hawaiian Center was an incentive, Landgraf said it was never guaranteed. The students had to develop cohesive bodies of work that met the standard for public exhibition.

Heirakuji’s work explores his relationship with Kohala, the birthplace of his ancestors. He said Landgraf challenged the students to think beyond individual photographs through research, community connections and storytelling.

“We had to do research, connect with people, and think deeply about the story that we were trying to tell,” Heirakuji said.

Kelly-Jervis developed her technical skills in black-and-white film photography and darkroom printing while exploring her relationship to hala through her mo‘okū‘au (genealogy) and Keanahala, a community weaving program under Pu‘uhonua Society.

“Every critique and conversation with Kapu and my peers has taught me that artistic growth doesn’t happen in isolation,” Kelly-Jervis said.

Perkins’ Pa‘a is a portrait series rooted in her family’s ties to Wai‘anae Moku and offers a perspective of a place she says is too often defined externally by what it lacks.

“Her mentorship goes far beyond darkroom technique,” Perkins said. “She pushed us past our comfort zones to find true purpose in how we document our surroundings.”

Puka can mean to emerge, appear, come into sight or open—a reflection of the students beginning to develop and publicly share their own visual voices.

“PUKA marks a moment of opening,” Landgraf said. “It is an opportunity to share work publicly, to step into visibility, and to begin the lifelong journey of developing a visual voice.”

PUKA is on view through March 25, 2027, at the First Hawaiian Center, 999 Bishop Street in Honolulu. The exhibition is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.