Downtown art galleries that have turned the area into a fun-filled district will host a special party

By Joleen Oshiro

Luck is great and all, but good things happen to those who employ their smarts with bold industriousness.

Take the businessfolk of the Honolulu Arts & Culture District, who have made it their mission to revitalize downtown Honolulu. Since 2003, the district - some 12 blocks bound by Bethel and Maunakea Streets, Nimitz Highway and Beretania Street - has been transforming from a site of urban blight into a lively, engaging arts neighborhood. The area is home to the First Friday Gallery Walk, that wildly popular monthly event that brings people of all demographics to the district for dining, art appreciation, family activities and nightclubbing.

“We want people to know we’re a family-friendly neighborhood,” says Marsha Joyner, program director at the Pacific Traditions Gallery on North Pauahi Street.

“People come here to shop, to eat, to have fun,” Sandy Pohl, owner of the Louis Pohl Gallery on Nuuanu Avenue, chimes in.

“Not just to drink,” Joyner adds. “Now, it’s a good kind of busy.”

SO WHAT’S 08-08-08 got to do with this practical bunch, the 50 members of the Arts District Merchants Association? Simply that they’re wise enough to welcome any luck that could enhance their hard work.

“We’re the only arts district in the United States (situated) in a Chinatown,” Joyner says. “How could we NOT have an 08-08-08 festival?”

Naturally, the event includes good luck lion dances and fireworks. But it will also take on a whimsical, magical feel, thanks in no small part to Pohl, a true believer in “always writing down my wishes.”

“All the positive energy forces come together on this most auspicious day,” she says in explaining plans to have visitors write wishes on special bookmarks and tie them to bamboo thickets placed throughout Chinatown. The tags are decorated with a symbol designed by Fong Tran of the Art Treasures Gallery on Nuuanu Avenue. It includes the Chinese character for “awesome,” surrounded by three “lucky” characters.

“Visitors can make wishes for the planet, for the nation, for their families, for themselves. And then over the weekend, we’ll take the thickets to the Sechi No Ie Jisso Center in Kahaluu and burn the wishes into the universe.

“What better day to ask for a wish than on the luckiest day in the millennium?”

University of Hawaii football star Ashley Lelie

athletes

The number 8 in popular culture:
A few notable athletes have worn the numeral 8 on their jerseys, including Cal Ripkin of the Baltimore Orioles and Yogi Berra of the New York Yankees. UCLA Bruin, NFL quarterback and Hall of Fame inductee Troy Aikman led the Dallas Cowboys to three Super Bowl victories in four years while wearing an 8. So did San Francisco 49ers quarterback Steve Young, who won one Super Bowl during a Hall of Fame career.

And didn’t University of Hawaii football star Ashley Lelie, the first Warrior to be drafted in Round 1, don No. 8? NFL players Lynn Swann, Michael Irvin both wore 88, and Marvin Harrison still does. Kobe Bryant used to wear eight, but he’s switched back to 24, his high school jersey number. Well, at least it’s a multiple of eight. — Katherine Nichols

FOOD VENDORS will set up outdoor tables throughout the area, venues will have wine tastings and art displays. A stage on Nuuanu Avenue will feature entertainment and martial art demonstrations. Visitors will be presented with “lucky” tickets, to be stamped by eight merchants and redeemed for hundreds of prizes, including $100 restaurant certificates and fine art.

Hotel Street will be closed to traffic and house a big-screen television airing the broadcast of the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Festivities will continue through 10 p.m.

But it’s at 8:08 p.m., on Nuuanu and Hotel streets, that the festival will literally shine. Fireworks will light up the night and visitors will congregate to simultaneously blow soap bubbles in a symbolic release of their wishes, adding another touch of whimsy to the celebration.

And in a merging of the practical and the lucky, eight lions dancing along Bethel and Smith streets - the two ends of Chinatown - will converge on Nuuanu and Hotel, infusing the entire district with “very good luck.” Says Pohl: “That’s the best.”