By Macey Wurm

An ensemble of ukulele players filed into St. John’s Presbyterian Church in the Inner Richmond on Sept. 26, and began to set up in anticipation of their annual performance raising money for immigrants.

Na Hoaloha has been playing at the church since 2018, for a cause that keeps them coming back year after year.

This year, proceeds go directly to helping immigrants with legal fees, which St. John’s Pastor Theresa Cho explained are important for court hearings, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) check-ins, filing asylum applications and getting removal orders removed.

“From the donations that are raised here, one of the biggest things that give these people a chance when they go inside this building is having a lawyer. And it’s expensive,” Cho said.

These fees also help immigrants proactively, by putting money toward annual fees to apply for asylum and work permits.

“The vast majority of people are not represented. They’re not informed of this annual fee,” explained Bill Ong Hung, a University of San Francisco professor and the founding director of the Immigration and Deportation Defense Clinic, who spoke in between songs.

St. John’s attended protests in October and December, and presently holds daily vigils outside ICE headquarters – providing immigrants with coffee, snacks and rights information in more than 35 languages, in addition to hosting this annual fundraiser.

The music serves as a more joyful event for the church community – to gather and continue to show their dedication to supporting immigrants in the Bay Area.

“I think one of the big themes that happens in a lot of Hawaiian music is about hospitality and bringing ‘aloha’ to people, so we thought that this was a nice way to provide some entertainment,” said Evelyn Ho, a member of St. John’s and Na Hoaloha, the ukulele group.

Ho originally brought the two groups together for the first fundraiser in 2018.

“We were at a moment politically where we were like, ‘How do we protect the neighbors around us?’ We wanted to do something concrete within the scope of our Presbyterian Church.”

Na Hoaloha consists of members of the ukulele program at the Japanese Community and Cultural Center in Japantown. The group has been around for more than 20 years, and has been led by Don Sadler since 2013.

“He weaves in the narrative of Hawaii and how the immigration and the protest and the colonization really, these are all the same issues, just different times, different people, but the same narrative,” Cho said about Sadler.

This year’s program centered on the songs composed by Queen Lili’uokalani, the last sovereign monarch of the Hawaiian Kingdom before U.S. annexation.

Sadler took the audience on a journey through time – situating each song in its historical context. Every few songs, hula dancers were welcomed to the stage to perform.

As the concert wrapped up, the ensemble played the Queen’s most famous piece, “Aloha ‘Oe,” or “Farewell to Thee,” which was inspired by Lili’uokalani’s witnessing of two lovers parting in Oahu. Sadler invited the crowd to sing along if they knew the tune.

“It’s a very joyful event. We are talking, of course, about serious issues, but the music and then the intergenerational aspect, it reminds us of how important joy is, and that’s what roots us in community,” Cho said.

St. John’s Presbyterian Church raised more than $3,000 since the concert.