Donna's Salon Utopia

Hair extensions in Uganda are called a "Bob Marley" kind of hairstyle. Here is a video of my late Aunt Betty getting her hair braided in Uganda.

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.

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...

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 ...

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...

You can take Donna Magazine with you anywhere! While you are on the bus, in the doctor's office - anywhere. You can buy it now in hardcover, paperback or ebook format at: http://stores.lulu.com/kakonged .

Magazines can be a wonderful thing. When I was younger, my sister and I created a magazine called Miss Sassy . My Dad was working for the Ministry of Natural Resources then and he would come home with these glossy pieces of paper that as a true environmentalist, he did not want to throw out. So, he gave them to us. We created issues of a magazine out of these pieces of paper. The magazine ran during the early 1980s. It was fun doing that magazine. We would do the drawings of our dolls, some of them Barbies, and there was always a cover model. Since we both really enjoyed watching Little House on the Prairie , we would have the late Michael Landon do the interviews with the cover model for the inside spread of the magazine. Our knowledge of magazines came from all the pre-teen rags that were out there that we devoured. All this to say that creating your own magazine can be a wonderful experience. I have my own now called Donna that you can look at here: http://kakonged.wordpress.com . ...

Yesterday I had a great day. I met with someone about writing book and I have been looking into doing French language teaching. As well, I received my schedule for the fall semester from one of the schools I teach at. I'm still working on Abilene's Child/Tormented Hope. One of my interns for Donna Magazine wrote an excellent short story called Bicycle Time. She is really a good writer and I am so happy to have her on board. As well, I have been working with a fellow collaborator, Brikena Ribaj, a PhD graduate who also teaches and knows writing and the Internet well. She even has podcasts of hers up on iTunes. She has been sharing her material with me on her blog that I have been reposting on my magazine. Things are going well. I am hoping that I can have another podcast up today on my podcast site: http: //kakonged.podomatic.com . Things are going really well.

I have been experimenting with my hair. Yesterday I received some great products from my friend Gifty Serbeh-Dunn who is based in British Columbia. She owns a company called Shea Butter Market that I did a story on for Donna Magazine : http://kakonged.wordpress.com . She sent me some lip balms, a great smelling hand cream, and a body, face and hand cream. I am thrilled to receive these things and started putting the hand cream in my hair to help me to form locks. We will see how it goes. I still have time to take them out if I change my mind. Let me know what you think of them so far in this picture I am including. I apologize for the picture being blurry, however I took it without my glasses and could not tell how unfocused it was.