Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Information
Bank of Hawaii
(
742-6800; 2360 Kiahuna Plantation Dr, Poʻipu Shopping Village;
8:30am-4pm Mon-Thu, to 6pm Fri)
Does not cash traveler's checks.
Poʻipu and the whole South Shore.
Getting There & Around
To get here from Lihuʻe, the quickest way is to exit on Maluhia Rd. Poʻipu, a sprawled-
out town, demands a car to go anywhere besides the beach. Navigating is easy, with just
two main roads: Poʻipu Rd along eastern Poʻipu and Lawaʻi Rd along western Poʻipu.
The Kauaʻi Bus (
Click here
)
runs through Koloa and into Poʻipu. It's an option to get
here from other towns but has limited in-town value.
THE CREATIVE COLLECTIVE
Bass-heavy house and hip-hop thump off the graffiti bombed walls in this spare
dance space tucked behind the Union 76 station in Kalaheo. A tight mob of four- to
freestyle, one at time. Their parents bob their heads, stomp their feet and giggle as
the kids go all wild child, egged on by their teacher, leader and local arts visionary,
Lila Metzger. A Kauaʻi-born former pro surfer and model, Metzger, 32, left the is-
land for Los Angeles at 17, where she fell in love with hip-hop and dance. But it
wasn't until she returned to the island, four years later, that she found a crew -
whom she describes as 'real B-Boys' - and together they started holding regular
jams at Lydgate Park.
Soon she was tapped as a 'Red Bull Rider' (a sponsored break-dancer) and be-
came a leader in Hawaii's emerging hip-hop scene. Yet Kauaʻi's B-Boy apex was
short lived as most of Metzger's crew were lured to professional dance gigs in Ve-
gas and NYC. That's when Metzger founded Kuga, a nonprofit arts collective that's
become a haven for south and Westside kids who don't necessarily identify with
the island-dominant surf culture.
She teaches dance fundamentals to the youngkeiki(four to seven) and break-
dancing to some of the older kids (eight to 12), the best of whom become Kuga
Foot Soliders (10 per year). The Foot Soldiers perform at various events around the
island, including the Kuga-sponsored Love Life Creative Festival (
Click here
)
. In ad-
dition to the festival and Metzger's dance classes, Kuga has brought in two local
artists who teach visual art (
Click here
)
classes to students.
