Showing posts with label Habilitat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Habilitat. Show all posts

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Navigating Change: Making A Difference!

Kealoha Poetry Slam-134Kealoha Poetry Slam-133Kealoha Poetry Slam-128Kealoha Poetry Slam-122Kealoha Poetry Slam-120 (1)Kealoha Poetry Slam-113
Kealoha Poetry Slam-112Kealoha Poetry Slam-100Kealoha Poetry Slam-89Kealoha Poetry Slam-40Kealoha Poetry Slam-31Kealoha Poetry Slam-27
Kealoha Poetry Slam-23Kealoha Poetry Slam-22Kealoha Poetry Slam-19Kealoha Poetry Slam-16Kealoha Poetry Slam-9Kealoha Poetry Slam-8 (2)
These 16 pictures are courtesy of Habilitat!
An Evening of Poetry at Habilitat, with special guests Kealoha, the first Poet Laureate of Hawaii, myself Connie D. and Fellow Pen Woman, Marcia Zina Mager

A Special Thank you to Habilitat Poets
Sarah S.
Ocie G.
Shannon N.
Mark B.
Krystal A. for the ART

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Chicken Scratch:Bridging the Gap A Poultry/Poetry Slam






Chicken Scratch: is Poetry, Dance, Music and just plain FUN!! 

"Why did the Chickens cross the Bridge? To get to the Poultry Slam, of course!" 
"Why do Chickens scratch dirt? Concrete is too hard on their nails" ~ Connie DeDona

Chicken Scratch is also a PSA on GM (genetically modified) food

Protect yourself; YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT!! Choose Non-GM food
There are four major GM foods: soy, corn, cottonseed, and canola. They entered our food supply about 12 years ago and are likely contributing to the deteriorating health of Americans. Without any human clinical trials or post-marketing surveillance, we can't tell which declining health statistic may be due to these foods. But we also can't afford to wait to find out. GM foods must be removed from our diet now. To learn which foods are genetically modified and how better to protect yourselves, visit:http://www.ResponsibleTechnology.org

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Powerful Words—Opening Doors


Closed Poetry Slam Show
January 29, 2012
Habilitat-the place of change
Coming Soon--to Olelo and the Internet 

Hosted by 
Cornelia Connie D. DeDona
Special Guests
Kumu Hula Anita `Ilima Kauka Stern
Author, Poet Dr. Kathryn Waddell Takara
Author, Poet Marilyn Maya Mendoza
Author, Poet Peggy Baxter Barnhardt
Artist, Author, Poet Marcia Zina Mager
Featuring Habilitat's Resident Slam Poets
AND A FEW SURPRISES!
Produced by Jeffrey V. Nash

Cornelia Connie D. DeDona is an Author, Poet and Slam Artist
She is the award-winning author of Letters to a Prisoner by Connie D., released in Jan. of 2011.    She first appeared at First Thursday’s Fresh Café Poetry Slam hosted by Kealoha in October of 2010 where she wowed the judges with her poem, “I Want to be a Poet”. She has been published in Rain Bird, Windward Community College’s award winning annual journal, since 2008.  Her poems and photography have also been published in various online and print magazines



Kumu Hula, Anita `Ilima  Kauka Stern
is a retired educator, has taught creative writing at the women’s prison in Kailua for six years.  Through the Prison Writing Project, she has helped inmates publish five editions of their work in Hulihia.  She divides her time between writing, teaching hula and the study and practice of Hawaiian spiritual traditions. Ms. Stern lives in Kailua with her family. http://www.alohablessings.com/chant2.html

Marilyn Maya Mendoza was born in Brooklyn NYC and has lived in  Makaha, Hawaii for the last 35 years. Her debut memoir,"From Agoraphobia to Zen" was released in June 2011 to good reviews.   An English teacher at Stevenson Middle School and earlier Japan, Marilyn is working on her second book, a memoir in poetry. http://fromagoraphobiatozen.wordpress.com/

Dr. Kathryn Waddell Takara is a performance poet, author, retired university professor, and motivational speaker. Winner of the American Book Award in 2010, she has toured and read her poetry across the Hawaiian Islands, the USA mainland, in Africa, and China. She has published three books of Poetry: New and Collected Poems, Pacific Raven: Hawaii Poems, Tourmalines: Beyond the Ebony Portal. Contact info:  www.kathrynwaddelltakara.com

Peggy Baxter-Barnhardt  is originally from Cincinnati, Ohio and  North Carolina, she now makes Kapolei, Hawaii her home.  She is the author of Season Of Light, written in 1996 and  last  released in 2009. She is presently writing a book about Hawaii's homeless situation to be complete in 2012.   Mrs. Barnhardt's poetry is powerful and electric. "' Writing has always been my passion, fueled by my mother’s razor wit," she states. Her first submission as a child was to Humpty Dumpty magazine.  http://bookstore.xlibris.com/Products/SKU-0036785017/default.aspx

Marcia Zina Mager is an author, journalist, poet, award-winning mixed-media artist, as well as performance artist. Her books have been translated into ten languages. Her international best-sellerBELIEVING IN FAERIES: A Manual for Grown-ups, is now available as an e-book, along with her trendy 31 Words to Create an Organized Life. Marcia regularly entertains audiences in Chinatown as a wild improviser with HomeWreckers, and also performs her original slam poetry at Fresh Café’s First Thursdays.




Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Mele Kalikimaka 2011



Here it is December again —Tom and I are still healthy and mobile. Life is good as we continue to maintain our dream home and keep the spackle wet and pliable as we sculpt our aging bodies into rock hard shape.   
(I'm doing the face exercises and lifting and stretching my neck part--A,E,I,O,U.)

We have two new additions to the family Rocky and Apollo—that today become one year old.  We are having a party later, inviting all of their cat, and dog friends.  This week Apollo chewed up my brand new business cards, which the FEDEX driver so graciously let him bring back to the house—ALONE!  Imagine, the driver thought Apollo was so well trained he didn’t even bother to honk his horn!  Apollo eagerly ripped open the box and drooled and chewed on each and every card inspecting them for quality and leaving his stamp of approval.  I am so proud doesn’t quite describe it.   Zeus, our most royal Great Dane spends most days sequestered in the garage. He is eight years old now and can only take so much excitement. He prefers to stretch out on a premium carpet next to the Bentley until two in the afternoon, or until nature calls.

Tom and I are still working out in the gym, only not at the same time. I prefer to walk or jog on the treadmill, alternating on the recumbent bike with a dash of weight lifting and crunches thrown in for good measure, whereas Tom does about one thousand crunches a day, and will grunt and groan through a grueling workout, his sweat glistening from every pore and then want to blend up a fruit tree mixed with protein powder for breakfast.   I am still counting calories and limiting my excitement to writing and I’ve just taken up bowling again. Golf is too hard on my lower back and pinched sciatic nerve. The doctor approves so long as I continue to lift weights. (Doc-what about the bowling ball?)     I know you are wondering at this point (I wrote pint first, so what the hell, I’ve quit but do go ahead) how much longer will she go on? My eye lids are drooping and I think I have a crick in my shoulder.  Seriously, whose idea was it anyway to send Christmas letters?

At harump-donk-humpf my memory is starting to fade. It is a good thing that I keep an appointment book throughout the year to record all my activities or I would have to make this shit up. 

Tom’s daughter Natalie came for the summer with three of her children, Ashley, Andrew and Kaitlyn.  We were thrilled –and the time passed quicker than originally expected.  Thank GOD for diazepam.  

I am working on a novel.  Goodreads.com is sponsoring my two book giveaways, click on my blog links. My book, Letters to a Prisoner by Connie D. received an Honorable Mention in Poetry at the New York Book Festival, not bad for a self-published book on a small budget.  And I just released Meadow Pause Revisited by Cornelia Connie D. DeDona, another poetry and photography book that is available on Amazon and my blog.  On Saturday April 16, 2011, I lead a panel on Alternative Publishing at the Kapolei Public Library.  In September I was accepted as a member into the NLAPW (National League of American Pen Women).  I had three poems and two photographs published in the 2011 issue of Rain Bird, Windward Community College’s  award winning annual journal and will be in next year’s humor issue as well, that makes five consecutive years. Also two of my short stories were published in One Forty Fiction. I appeared on Olelo from Jan. 11-14th (local Hawaiian TV channel) in January to share my story with Habilitat- the place of change; a drug rehab in Kaneohe. I also like to write and perform slam poetry.  I went back to Habilitat in August and performed my slam poems and invited some of the Habilitat residents to join me, we had a blast.   You can Google me; I have three Facebook pages, two domains and one ex- large weakness for dark chocolate and peanut M&M’s.   

I am looking forward to foreign travel again sometime in the near future, where and when is top secret even the pentagon doesn’t know.  I am sending the documents to Mission Impossible as Vantage Deluxe World Travel has been permanently crossed off my Christmas list; clearly service at Vantage is not something they do these days what with cut backs, news link and joke forwarding not to mention arranging air travel to and from Hawaii.  I’m also boycotting them in support of the Amazon Rainforest, which has suffered huge blows  just by Vantage Travel’s  mail order business ALONE.  

But I digress; I have a brand new Nikon D-5000 which I picked up in Vegas this October. Tom and I saw Elton John and the Million Dollar Piano in the Coliseum at Caesar’s Palace.  Elton John named his new piano Blossom, after jazz singer Blossom Dearie. The Coliseum is so big—they have people every so many feet just to direct traffic, luckily I didn’t have to use the restroom.  It was awesome and ear splitting at first—I’m not quite sure if I’m now permanently deaf or if they actually lowered the sound but I was really rocking to some old favorites by the end of the concert.  

 Tom regularly goes out fishing on his 26’Navy boat and has had some admirable catches to show for it.  We are eating plenty of Mahi-Mahi and Ahi these days.
Tom also contributes regularly to the Hawaii Fishing News. They like him so much, they gave us a whole page with photos in the June issue, Tom and his crew David Johnson--photographer, Dr. Steven Wonderlich and Mikey Ordenstein had the unfortunate experience of having  the boat’s prop get tangled  up in a huge cargo net out in the middle of the pacific ocean.  They had to take turns jumping into the ocean to cut the prop free, and it took hours.  I had recently written a poem about the one of the garbage islands in the Pacific Ocean titled The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which was also included. (BTW, also in my new book, Meadow Pause Revisited-- for more info: www.corneliadedona.com )     

So in-between crunches, feeding/ training the bull mastiff puppies, writing fishing poems and articles, buying flashlights, recycling cans and bottles, dumpster diving for perfectly good stuff, fixing lawnmowers and maintaining our one acre estate, Tom is learning the computer and has joined Facebook. You can find him there or email him at capttommydedona@gmail.com .  He was accepted into The Ono Golf Club, a men’s group at Hickam’s Mamala Bay Golf Course, where he walks the course every Thursday. Who knows he may even run into the President there?  Tom bought himself a 2011 Nissan Frontier truck.  He also accepts donations of gently used books for the Friends of the Library where we both volunteer year-round. (Please if it has mildew, a broken binding or dead insects, put it into the trash—otherwise thank you and let us know if you need a receipt.) 

Our son Jason is fit and doing well. He is still in a relationship and knows what it is like to have a teenager in the house, as his fiancé has a thirteen year old daughter. He spends Saturdays with us and occasionally comes bowling.  In September he helped Tom cut, and weld a new gate next to our automatic gate in the front. Now we can walk outside without having to open the huge sliding gate or use the electric gate mechanism.  He also convinced us that it was a good idea to install a photovoltaic system this year. My electric bill surpassed reasonable over two years ago.  We also purchased a new energy saver refrigerator, since the old one quietly died on Thanksgiving night.  It’s a good thing I have two.  We are hiking up Koko head trail together next weekend, (after I pick up my real Christmas tree from Habilitat) which is a walk in the park if you are a triathlete.  The last time I climbed up that hill, I sweat bullets and swore with the eloquence of a sailor.  This time I’m bringing my new camera—to video our adventure, just in case my amnesia returns.

Have a Safe and Happy Holiday Season!                                Tommy, Connie, Zeus, Rocky and Apollo


Jason, Connie and Tommy 11-24-11 Heeia Kea Boat Harbor


 Apollo and Rocky-one year old

 Apollo's stamp of approval
 Yikes! my business cards@#$
 New walk through Gate
 Zeus--8 yrs old
 The Cargo Net-And the garbage from Japan isn't here yet!


What?

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Capt. Tommy D.

http://blip.tv/habilitat/captain-tommy-d-at-habilitat-hawaii-long-term-rehab-program-5513585

My husband--giving back!

Monday, August 29, 2011

Habilitat's Last Saturday Poetry Slam




http://www.viddler.com/explore/habilitat/videos/43/


Featuring Connie D. and the Residents of Habilitat

Habilitat--the place of change

Habilitat--changing the hardcore into the responsible for

Who Do You Want To Be?

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