Hello World! I’m excited to welcome you to the inaugural post of Rhetorical Review. Keolanani (Keola), here—editor, writer, founder, and CEO (😅😉) behind the website and operations. I’d like to introduce myself and my new website to you. If you already know me, you know I’ve been acting, directing, and music-directing shows and musical theatre for a while. I think I was ten when I landed my first role 😅. If you follow me on social media, you probably also know I’ve been reviewing shows for the past year and a half with #FrontRowReviewers. I am a Big Island girl (from Hawai’i) who recently started a PhD in Writing and Rhetoric at the University of Utah, and I’ve been trying to figure out a way to bridge my love of academic writing and theatre into one. This website is where I want to start to do that.
I strongly believe in the power of well-researched knowledge. I have always believed knowledge is power; however, I also think there is so much knowledge out there outside of academia yet to be discovered or shared, especially from Indigenous populations. I consider myself a feminist and decolonial rhetorician—what does that mean? I seek to unsettle the hegemonic constructs of our society that tell us that certain races or genders must act a certain way or can or cannot say or do certain things. My dissertation will hopefully center around the theatre in some form or fashion, focusing on unconventional forms of theatre and/or Indigenous authors and playwrights. I hope this page and website offer insight(s) to you about the complicated nature of knowledge power structures and how you can better understand and support Indigenous artists.
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