Powerful Words – Opening Doors is a Poetry Slam Dunk!

Prepare to be inspired, aroused and LOL!  

Powerful Words – Opening Doors is a Poetry Slam Dunk!

The production begins with a skit in the tradition of Saturday Night Live.  Add in six Author interviews sprinkled throughout, fourteen brilliant performances and we are LIVE, HAWAII!  
This time, I‘ve invited my friends, who have powerful and passionate things to say, that have overcome obstacles and opened a few doors of their own. Women who ROCK!  
Heavyweights like my  friend,  Kumu Hula, Anita `Ilima Kauka Stern who has has agreed once again to bless and  open the Pen Woman conference at Punahou this March. My old friend, Kathryn Waddell Takara, a highly accomplished author and retired UH professor, who has a distinctive voice and style and my new Pen Woman friend, Marcia Zina Mager, who does an inspiring RAP that you just have to hear!  Another of my W.C.C. Writing Retreat friends, Peggy Baxter Barnhardt, joins us to share about being a slam judge and her thoughts on the homeless situation and Marilyn Maya Mendoza, an author of a memoir, who I shared the podium with at the Kapolei Public Library who suffers from panic attacks.   She fills us in on a thing or two about mental illness.  
It is my distinct pleasure to introduce the Habilitat Resident Poets.  Deven R., Logovae A., Sarah S., Kalani M., Sherlyn A., Shawn H., and our sketch artist,  Kahoku.  A big thank you to my Artist friend, Jenee Wonderlich for the sketch stand.  Thank you to Caroline D. and Natalie G. for appearing in the opening skit and for my eloquent introduction.  
Thank you to my son, Jason DeDona, and my husband, Capt. Tommy DeDona,  who contributed their talents to construct and paint our set.  
Special thanks to Jeffrey V.  Nash, Habilitat’s Facility Director and our Olelo producer, whose creative talents worked overtime to film, refilm, edit and leave very little on the virtual cutting room floor. I couldn’t have done it without you!
In conclusion I’d like to quote a verse from the Nickelback hit song, ~ When We Stand Together -- That’s When We All WIN!!   I love the lyrics in this song!
Powerful Words--Opening Doors: Slam Poetry at Habilitat Hawaii

Coming Soon to Olelo—Stay Tuned!

Words are the keys that unlock the healing power within each of us. 
Authors, Slam Poets, Poets and Habilitat Resident Poets and Artists join together to
inspire a healing connection through the power of the Spoken Word. 
Get inspired and plug in to your power. 
In Order of Appearance:
Cornelia "CONNIE D." DeDona http://www.corneliadedona.com      
Kumu Hula, Anita `Ilima Kauka Stern http://insightmedia.us/alohablessings/index.html

Marilyn Maya Mendoza http://fromagoraphobiatozen.wordpress.com    
“I am honored to have been part of such a powerful program. I hope you all watch this and enjoy the talent of the young residents as well as the invited guests. We gave our all. aloha!”

Peggy Baxter-Barnhardt http://bookstore.xlibris.com/Products/SKU-0036785017/default.aspx

Marcia Zina Mager http://www.marcia-zina-mager.com  

Dr. Kathryn Waddell Takara http://www.kathrynwaddelltakara.com      “I just want to say cheers to your efforts, organizational skills, successful networking in bringing together such a wonderful diversity of voices, and an altogether successful evening at Habilitat. The video tells it all. Thank you so much for making it happen and including me, and all done in such a creative and memorable way.”
Habilitat Hawaii is a long term residential treatment center. Contact Habilitat at 1-800-872-2525 or go online at:  http://www.habilitat.com

First Thursdays- Loft in Space 2-2-12

Institute for Responsible Technology - GMOs in Food

Institute for Responsible Technology - GMOs in Food

Friends of the Library Legislative Breakfast

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-seller, BELIEVING 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.

Visit her at http://www.marcia-zina-mager.com/

Mokulēʻia--O`ahu

Silver and Gold

Mature

wire hangers

wrap bright silver and gold

toboggan down pine needle green

secure.

When ALL we can do is WRITE

“Poetry is what happens when nothing else can.” ― Charles Bukowski

Sometimes I wake

with a song in my heart

prompted by a hearty summons of nature

toot tooting down the hall

pontificating its departure

to the porcelain god

like the conductor on an express train.

Disturbed soon thereafter

by mindfulness and that first cup of JOE

by a rich heaping tablespoon

of medicine from the media

a slow and steady demoralization

similar to  being assimilated by the BORG.

And later

upon reflection

I concede,

as cattle

quickly lulled and

herded by the steady

Yippie yi yo kayah

being led to slaughter

tunneling reality

transfixed by nothing at all.

Yellow Tea Rose

Black and White

You cannot depend on your eyes
when your imagination is out of focus~ Mark Twain

Black and White

White is the shade

you pull down

on your eyes

when I get boring

as you shut your mind to the monotony and the drone

of my noise.

AND Black is

a buzzing fly

that has landed on your nose right after

he shat

on top of a giant pile of

dog shit.

Brown

is the smear

of that sticky fly

with robo eyes

that’s got your number

and won’t die.

The dark brown stain

that’s infected your brain

that you can’t train

or refrain

from keeping in the

dark.

A hot spark

that

lights the bench in the park

that the man in the long black Rolls

once sat on

that you ignored

floating high on your kite

of white

with black and brown lines

that you drew and wouldn’t cross over,

the same man

who could’ve taken you outta all this black and white and shitty brown.

Remember him

reading the paper on a bench in the park

Offering you

some grey poupon

for your shitty

blackened brown dog

pillowed in white?

Apollo - Watching the House

Bread Pudding

Pudding

made from soft bread

chewy raisin background

dark caramel sauce dribbles down

my chin.

Wrapping up the Year with a Corny Poem

I need a treetop ornament

an angel

a star

something decorative

to wrap the bald top of the tree

and tacky, plastic or fake won't do.

I need a special combination

a mixer

to swirl my feelings

so they don’t disperse unnoticed.

This Christmas

I am wrapping up my wishes

sizing up my resolutions

placing a tall order for

continued health,

and a truckload of happiness

mixed with a heaping man shovel of joy

because it isn’t about shopping at the mall

exchanging cards or how original your gift is

It is about the time

we cement

crafting our relationships

eating, talking, crying and giggling

because the best gifts

we give and receive  freely

without any wasted gravel or sand.

And the water is slowly added

to make sure good it is of good consistency

and then it is

packed down and smoothed

packed down and smoothed

packed down and smoothed

because it takes a lifetime to

to get  to the stage where

they will love you

no matter what you do.

so keep the cement turning

and don't let it dry out.

It's worth it!

And one day you will be able to look back

and admire the foundation. The foundation

of a life built through effort and self-discipline

from blood, sweat, and tears

and years of mixing, packing,

and smoothing over,

carefully erasing the cracks

erasing the faults

erasing the pain

of stiff joints

aching backs

and loss,

forging

strong unions

built on the promises

of honest caring,

sacrifice

and love.

Santa's Sandwich

Santa's sandwich

got eaten
by Sally, a very large mouse
with glasses
who absolutely loves
Salami and Swiss.
Her favorite is liverwurst
with tomato and onion
but mice have to eat what they can get
so today it is Salami and Swiss
on a toasted bagel with mayo
and sliced in half for her little mouse
size mouth which never shuts up anymore
according to her spouse
and like it’s TRUE—
Sally could go on and on and on
but she won’t
`cause she needs to finish her sandwich
and Miss Manners says it’s not polite to talk with a full mouthed mouse –which has Santa’s sandwich half eaten in her mouth. And Morris, the house cat is sleeping right now and she doesn’t want to wake him up `because he is such a grouch when someone wakes him …especially when he’s in the middle of a really good mouse dream. So Sally is chewing really QUIETly - shh!!
(WHISPERING NOW)
Miss Manners also says to finish the WHOLE sandwich or Sally is going to wind up on Santa’s naughty list… because it is not good to be wasteful, since people are hungry and would be ever so thankful for even one tiny morsel of that sandwich, so Sally better finish it all… and to chew it one hundred times or she is going to get one elephant sized stomach ache for eating Santa’s sandwich too fast…AND SALLY wants to wish you all a MERRY CHRISTMAS because mice don’t have to worry about being politically correct or any other human hang-ups—

BURP- WHEW! 

Sally is so full of salami that she needs to go take a nap now—but first she’s going to leave a note for the big guy –

DEAR sANTa,
I got Tired of Waiting and I’m real Sorry, but I ATE your Sandwich— I hope you don’t hold that against me. Because I was really looking forward to getting a fresh block of CHEESE for the winter and not for nothing, but you would be a lot healthier if you dropped a few lbs. OH - And I almost forgot, DON’T WAKE MORRIS!!
Signed,
Morris’s prey-mate,
Sally