Donna's Salon Utopia

Happy New Year Everyone! I'm having a quiet evening at home listening to Erykah Badu right now. I still have to read Jill Scott's poetry book and I hope to get through it before the end of this evening. Speaking of Jill Scott, here is a picture of her included in this blog post. This is my dream hair. I am hoping that my hair gets to this fullness and length by the end of 2011 and just keeps growing beyond that. I would keep my hair black though, with the bit of accepted gray coming in :-). I am getting there. Happy New Year!

I must share with you all about this wonderful product that I got from my friend/research participant Robbin Melton who is based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It is a "cocoawhip" as she calls it and it is shea butter with cocoa butter added. It is absolutely wonderful! I highly recommend that you get some and you contact her at: robbin.melton@gmail.com. The shea butter has been a lifesaver to me. She whips it up within a day and sends it out to you really fast! She is great! She has also been an extremely valuable research participant for my politics of black hair online study. I got a chance to strut my stuff (thanks to my former terrific professor Mr. Frajkor) at a National Ethnic Media Council of Canada function at the Cypriot Community Centre in Toronto with the shea in my hair. This picture I am including is not how I looked that night, however as you can see - the product really can improve the health of your hair. I also wore Robbin's product when I went to my niece O

Hello everyone, Sorry it has been so long since I have blogged. I have been wanting to do something different with my hair for a long time. I get really tired of wearing it in a bun or tying it up in a conservative fashion. Perhaps it is the fact that I am reaching 40 in two years that makes me think of doing something more hip and easier to deal with. I have been thinking of locks for a long time and I found the thin ones did not look good on me, just like a thin body does not particularly look good on me either. I'm reading an amazing book called The Fat Studies Reader that I saw a fellow thesis group colleague with in Dr. Lance McCready's circle at OISE/University of Toronto. So...I thought about going back to the woman Charmaine who did my hair back in August. Then I thought of calling another woman named Charmaine who comes to your home. Then I thought, I spent years and years doing my own hair in my 20s and 30s...why stop now? It seems to be working, actually I know it is

Hello everyone, Soon... The Politics of Black Hair Online Course Book will be published through Lulu.com. I'm really looking forward to this work. It is a compilation of discussions that have been on-going over a 7-week period of time from July 19th to August 29th. The discussions have been part of my research on the politics of black hair in education. I will be doing a discourse analysis of the research as part of my dissertation work. Here is a sneak peak at the cover of the book.

Hello everyone! I am on a brief hiatus from this blog until the online politics of black hair course finishes up at the end of August.

I can barely believe it. I went to a hairdresser for the first time in five years. Thank you Jill Andrew for having the BITE ME! Festival because I swear it was the inciting incident to my personal drama with my hair. I washed my hair on Friday and my hair was becoming quite dry because I was washing it too often. Charmaine told me I should only wash it every two weeks, which makes sense. Even Caucasian Jamie (my former student with the most beautiful hair!) told me that you should not wash your hair too often because it takes out the natural oils. Charmaine said the same thing! My best hairdresser so far in my life has been my younger sister Lisa. Charmaine is a very loving and lovely person. You really do need to have a loving heart to be a hairdresser. It's interesting because my sister is a Scorpio and Charmaine is also a Scorpio. My former fiancé is a Scorpio and he has terrific hair. Scorpio have good hair from my experience. Plus, they tend to be very loving people - just do

Well, I sent my funding package confirmation to OISE/University of Toronto today. I am extremely grateful to be receiving funding, although this will cause a significant setback in my finances compared to previous years. The positive side is that I have the strong potential to get out of this degree relatively debt-free, if not completely debt-free. When I did my undergraduate degree at Carleton, I had a scholarship from the school, as well as a scholarship that my Dad had paid into. By time I graduated, I was $12,000 in debt. I was lucky though and I found work, so I was able to pay back the loan system of Ontario within the six-month grace period. When I did my graduate degree at Concordia in Montréal, I ended up being $23,000 in debt. I was extremely fortunate to have a great common-law boyfriend at the time who helped me to pay off a lot of that debt. If you are reading this - I thank you to this day! At least I no longer have that sitting on my head. So, I guess I really should no

Hello! I'm looking for as many participants as possible, from all different walks of life and cultural backgrounds, etc., to participate in a survey on my online multimedia magazine Donna: http://kakonged.wordpress.com . The topic is the politics of black hair. I look forward to your participation. All participants will later be invited to be extraordinary students in a free online course linked to the politics of black hair that would last over four months and be targeted to young and old adults - and everyone in between like me. After completing the survey, please send me an email to both: dkakonge@sympatico.ca and dkakonge@gmail.com to avoid computer problems. The cap of enrollment for the online global course is 300 people. That is about all this teacher, journalist, author can deal with at max. I would like to fill it to maximum, so please - participate, help, learn and grow. Times of the classes will be flexible and will be modeled after a University of To

I have come to some major decisions this week. My work with Centennial College and Seneca College will be sporadic because I will be focusing on my PhD. The aim is to get it done ASAP. Other possibilities will still come up, however like anyone else - I am extremely interested in working less hours for higher pay so I can devote the time to my PhD studies, as well s the graduate assistantship position I will have with a professor. I have completed a preliminary draft of a research proposal that is very brief - about 10 pages in terms of actual content. I have gathered a lot of research material pertaining to the politics of the black hair. It is amazing how writing and research on this topic has just exploded over the last decade that I have not been actively researching in the field. The movie Good Hair by Chris Rock really just touches the surface. His name recognition is what creates a situation where everyone associates the topic with him more recently. I'm still waiting to he

The power went out in my neighbourhood this afternoon. I'm at a local cafe sipping on cafe and waiting for the power to come back. It could of even come back by now. I miss my home. I must say it was kind of nice having the lights out. I lit some candles and sat outside talking to my Dad who lives next door. I got some news last night about a dear, dear friend of mine and I have dealing with that. Really...the news is so devastating that it is something he is going to have to deal with for the rest of his life. It's a good thing that he is such a strong and stable person that I know he will get through it just fine. I'm reading through some curriculum theory and actually starting to find it easier to understand. It's going to take me awhile with this one. I am sure after some years, I will be able to sprout all this theory into plain language and teach a class with it if I am so inclined. The prospects are exciting. Well, off I go. I do not want my coffee

Wow, how time flies! I can hardly believe we are all halfway through the year. This year has been an interesting one for me. Getting into OISE/University of Toronto was realizing a dream I have had for years now. I am so excited about being in the program and now I am coming very close to completing my first course in the program. I'm currently working on a dissertation proposal on the politics of black hair. I am thinking of branching this idea out to discuss hair in general. There is so much to include on this topic, and so many great works that have come out since I started this research back in 1998 that I am really glad that I am revisiting it. My teaching with Ryerson for the Spring/Summer semesters this year is drawing to a close. It has been a wonderful experience that I have thoroughly enjoyed. I have applied to teach there for the fall, and will be applying to teach for the Chang School again in the fall too. I am hoping that by keeping my bases covered, something will pa

Hello everyone! I started my PhD program as a full-time student officially on May 3, 2010. I am taking one online course in foundations of curriculum with Dr. Heather Sykes and an in-class course with Dr. Stephanie Springgay on arts-based research. I am enjoying both tremendously. With the online course, it is really interesting how you can respond to the discussion postings, as well as produce work that has links to videos, podcasts and include stories from blogs and photographs. I'm having a lot of fun with it. I have not received any marks back yet, however I hope the fact I am having a lot of fun with it is an indication that I am doing well. The arts-based research class is a blast too. On the first day we all learned some fascinating things about the origin of arts-based research, as well as some of the schools of thought on the topic. On the second day, we went down to Trinity Square Video at 401 Richmond St. W. in Toronto and saw three documentaries and a piec

Things continue to go great through the blessings of God. I am really excited about starting my PhD coursework at OISE/University of Toronto. I start in May. I have now paid my fees and looking forward to getting my Robarts library card activated so I can make full use of their wonderful resource. OISE looks as though they have a good library too. I found out some terrific news lately. I will be teaching a dramatic writing course at Ryerson University's Chang School. This is in continuing education. The contract should come in the mail by Thursday. I'm really looking forward to this. I have been sent the course outline and I now have the required text that looks really interesting to teach from as a base. I have seen the movies we will be screening and it's going to be a really exciting class over May and June. For July and August I will be teaching the second half of media writing, taking over from the esteemed Roger McTair at Seneca College. I'm really looking forward

Things are going great. I'm starting my PhD in May. I have some great part-time job prospects on the horizon. I will most likely be working in French again - which I love. My students are terrific! I was just doing some marking today and the things they come up with are excellent. I'm so proud of them. I especially love it when they come to class. I'm taking on an intern from Seneca College's Journalism program. He will be working with Donna Magazine for a month at least. He's a very promising writer named Chris Temelkos and expect to see great stuff from him on the mag. I'm coming up with a strong idea for my dissertation at the University of Toronto that will follow in the tradition of Salon Utopia and Afro Forever . Afro Forever was the original title of my thesis at Concordia University that I did more than 10 years ago. I'm loving the Macbook Pro I'm typing on now and I know it is going to come in very hand for the work I will doing over a few yea

Well...after more than 10 years of being out of school to formally study - I'm going back. I received today my official letter of acceptance from OISE/University of Toronto to do my PhD in curriculum, teaching and learning development. I feel lucky. It's even raining in Toronto today. The thing is, and the great thing is, I did not get into the University of Toronto's PhD programs on first try. This year marks about four years of applications, every time a round came up just to the University of Toronto. This does not even include my years of applications to York University and Ryerson University. Bothering all of my bosses, former teachers and colleagues over so many years as I applied from one program to the next - sometimes throwing that dart at the same program over and over to get rejected just the same. Thank you to those of you who were so patient, supportive and encouraging. All this to say that perseverance pays off. I am so happy with where I have landed and it is

It's here! My new book is called Love at a Distance . I published it this morning and I must say I love the ease and facility of the self-publishing platform on both Lulu.com and Amazon Kindle that can make your works of art come alive so fast. The book started its creation at the end of February, and you will enjoy the script-like nature of the book. It is compiled from chats that took place with one person over Datehookup.com, as well as Gmail. You can buy it today at: http://stores.lulu.com/kakonged . You can also find it available on Amazon Kindle and Amazon in a few days.

I have a confession to make. I have been in a long distance relationship over the past month. I've just decided today to write a book about it tomorrow that will be called Love at a Distance . The good thing is the publisher will be Lulu.com and it will also be available shortly afterwards on Amazon, as well as Amazon Kindle. Look out for it in the next day or so.

Hello everyone, It has been a really long time since I have written on this blog. I hope you have enjoyed the new Donna Magazine's Salon Utopia. I am writing this entry from a new Macbook Pro 17" that I bought used on Craigslist. To tell you the truth, when the battery wore out I was a little scared that I had been shafted. Now everything seems fine with it and I am extremely pleased with my purchase. I'm planning to do some disciplined research in the area of hair, clothes and the body in the near future. More details of that will be announced once everything is confirmed. I'm really excited about it though because I have not delved into this area on a full-time basis since the late 90's, or 1999 about, when I graduated from Concordia University in Montreal with my master's degree. So many new developments have occurred in the area of hair, clothes and the body that this really needs to be explored more in depth. May I also add, especially giving some of a Can