A Big Thank You

Thank you to all of you who will be participating in one of the first ever courses on black hair politics done online. All of the 50 participants are pioneers and part of history. I thank you all for joining. I apologize to anyone who wanted to join the group and could not. The participation far exceeded my expectations. This is absolutely terrific! God Bless you all!

The course starts on Monday, July 19th. The ebook from the course will be made available for free on Lulu.com and will let everyone know about it.

More of an April Update

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 to that too. I have an interview for another teaching job this Monday coming up, plus finally a face-to-face interview for some bilingual consulting work I have been working on in French and English. Things are looking good. I had another interview on Tuesday for some occasional work with a consulting firm working with the University of Toronto and I should know for sure about that by Friday.

I have completed my work at George Brown College. I learned a lot while I was there and the students were absolutely excellent. I'm just wrapping everything up with Centennial College and also wrapping things up for the winter semester with Seneca College. My latest book has been Teaching Curriculum Ideas. My book sales have not been too bad, however I am really looking forward to the booth I have rented at the Word on the Street Festival in September that takes place in Toronto.

My recent intern Chris Temelkos from Seneca College is working out really well. I found out that my hunch about Rachel Muenz's career was right. She is a former intern of mine on Donna, and now will be working for a newspaper in Saskatchewan, Canada. I'm so happy for her. She will do excellent work I know for sure. I know she will really enjoy her experience too. Another one of my more recent students, Jonathan McGill, who is actually related to one of the founders of McGill University, is an extremely talented singer. Please check out his MySpace page by following the link posted up on my magazine at: http://kakonged.wordpress.com.

I was recently a guest on a show with host Robin Marvel (her real name) on "Live out Loud." It was a lot of fun. On the show I discussed a lot of things, as well as a play I was going to be in at Artscape Wychwood Barns in my neighbourhood. It turns out I will no longer be in the play. The experience helped me to fully realize that I should stick with what I know - the nuts and bolts of what my business is about (freelance communication). Well, it was a great experience and I got a chance to work briefly with some really amazing people.

The wonderful thing about the play experience is that every black woman I met associated with it was wearing her natural black hair. It was a great experience and I am still pondering if this project could work into part of my research for my dissertation on hair and clothes politics, art and education. It sure was a refreshing experience considering that it is in the aesthetically dominated field of the creative arts. Something to think about.

I'm having a blast. It sure does help that my place is tidy. Thank you Crystal Clear Maids. I recommend them. I do not do it often, however, when I do - it really does help to clear my head. I also washed my hair and that helped too :-).

Until next time.

April Update

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 years.

One my former interns with Donna Magazine, Rachel Muenz, looks as though she is on the verge of making a huge career breakthrough. I'm so excited for her. Another one of my former students at Centennial College, Thandiwe Vela, will be reporting for the Edmonton Journal this summer. She is an extremely promising young journalist. Another one of my former students from Centennial College, La-Ttoya Comrie, just had a beautiful baby boy. I'm so happy for her and her partner.

One of my students, Michael Albertini who is now at Seneca College is promising material to be a MuchMusic of MTV Canada VJ. Anyone reading this who could give him a job, hire him now! He is absolutely brilliant.

I was in the Toronto Public Library doing research on my advisor at the OISE/University of Toronto, Dr. Stephanie Springgay, and I bumped into another one of my former students, Abbas Somji. Abbas is doing his master's degree in communication and culture through a joint program with Ryerson University and York University. He also recently contributed to a spoken word project.

The list can go on and on about all of the terrific things the students in my life are doing. I'm really looking forward to this summer and things are looking as though they will be really exciting. I'm learning a lot and enjoying every second of it.

It's Been A Long Time

Hello everyone out there!

It's been a long time since I have posted to this blog site. I am fortunate that blogspot has forgiven me and not relinquished my membership. Things have been busy.

Last semester I had seven classes to teach. Three of them were at Seneca College's Markham campus and three of them were at Seneca College's York campus. I also taught a beat reporting class with the University of Toronto Scarborough campus (UTSC) and Centennial College's Journalism program. I co-taught that class with Ellin Bessner who is excellent to work with. I had a lot of fun and the semester was great. Of course there was some anxiety working on the front lines as a teacher with H1N1 being such a huge deal for many people. It was an interesting experience to navigate through the health issues of some of the students, plus dealing with my own bout of flu, that was not H1N1.

This semester has been extremely interesting. I am teaching two news announcing courses at Seneca College's York campus. Plus, I am teaching a magazine journalism course with UTSC-Centennial. This year, the magazine journalism students have a chance to get their stories published on my magazine Donna Magazine. As well, I started working at George Brown College teaching skills for college English. It is in the continuing education program and this is my first time teaching in the continuing education. I must say the students are great and I am truly enjoying the experience. Many years ago, I used to be a student taking an acting course at George Brown College. I have also taken French courses in continuing education at Concordia University - so I am not a stranger to continuing education.

There are many exciting things I have been up to. I have now written 35 books. My latest one is called Smoking. Even though I have not stopped smoking, I wanted to write something that would still help those people see how they could quit by including stories from people who have successfully quit. In my mind - I have set my quit date - and it will happen. I will write it down when I have a calendar that goes that far to make sure it is the exact date I would want.

I have also started a new online portal called Donna Magazine's Salon Utopia. It's a place for me to showcase some of the files I was able to salvage from the master's research I did at Concordia University that ended in part with my graduation in 1999. It's been fun to set up that site and I did it all myself. I did receive some excellent technical guidance from Register.com, HostPapa, my hosting company, and motivation from Kent James who I also did a story on for Suite101.com.

I have some writing work I am doing for an NGO, plus some other plans in the works. I am working on publishing another book soon and have been busy promoting my efforts. Having your own business is a lot of work - however, I would not call what I do completely a one-woman show. Many people do help in their own way.

Well...there's the update from me on how things have been going. Thanks to my student Jennifer Winters at George Brown College who helped to inspire me to update this blog. I will certainly make more of an effort to do so. For daily content, please do check out Donna Magazine.

The Best of Donna Magazine Published

Take Donna Magazine with you anywhere you go. You can buy it now in hardcover, paperback or as an ebook at: http://stores.lulu.com/kakonged.

Running a Business During the Recession

There can be disadvantages and advantages to running a business during a recession. I have found some promising things happening, as well as some not so promising things as well.

Due to the fact the recession does exist, I am finding it hard for my writers to actually get paid for their work. I feel bad about this because I was really hoping with my advertorial business model that all of my writers would receive an income. So far, although it has been about a month, this is not the case.

The promising news is that there are writers out there who are willing to work on a volunteer basis and this still creates fresh content for my online multimedia magazine Donna. I also plan to dip into my own funds and to transfer some of my VHS content into digital format so I can upload it onto the magazine. This way I can take advantage of the fact that I have been given the opportunity to include video material and to also have a more updated version of my documentaries and video stories.

So far, it also looks as though I will not be getting more work with Humber College and the University of Guelph-Humber for the time being. This is unfortunate because I had really depended on that income, however it is a good thing that I diversify my work. I still do have work with Seneca College, Centennial College and Trebas Institute - so I do not have to feel economically stranded.

My books are doing well. I managed to sell some during the month of May. I am hoping that sales will pick up even more this month. My Roxanne seems to be selling especially well. I also plan to start working on a new book this summer. I was going to work on a book called Story Ideas, however I found that I was not satisfied with what I had and would like to polish it some more. I may change the content of that book and actually turn it into a book of short stories which is something I am interested in writing again.

So...that is my latest update of my business efforts. I am managing to survive during this recession, however I will be very thankful when it is over. I am sure I am not alone in those thoughts.

Keep Copies of Your Stories

Today I spent some time looking for a story I wrote back in 2002 with the hope of publishing it in a new book. I originally had written it for an anthology series and when I got in touch with the editor about a year ago, she could not find it either. She also had not ever given me a copy of the anthology and to this day I still do not know if it was even published.

It is extremely important to make sure that you have copies of everything you have done. Make sure that you keep your writing, radio and videos in a safe place so you can always refer back to it. This way you can keep a body of work that would be great for a portfolio or something that you can keep for your records.

Oh well, now I know that my story is lost for good as far as I know. Try not to let this happen to you.

I look forward to those of you who would like to make submissions to my magazine Donna and make sure that you keep copies of your work.

Get Your Story Told

Robert Payne and Donna Kakonge are teaming up to help YOU tell your story.

Ever wanted to have documented proof of something you have gone through? Ever thought of passing on your life story to your children and/or grandchildren? Ever just wanted a chance to star in your own story?

All these dreams can come true with the assistance of Robert Payne and Donna Kakonge. Contact Donna Kakonge at: dkakonge@sympatico.ca to set up a free consultation.

New Opportunity Learning Centre

The interview went well today. I just finished editing the story down that I plan to put on my podcast on Thursday afternoon if I can. The website for my podcast is: http://kakonged.podomatic.com. Listen out to a podcast about exercising from me for tomorrow morning. I am also in discussion about doing writing classes with the centre as well.

I got my first volunteer submission for Donna Magazine from Roselyn Keledra-Sedra. You can find her article on my multimedia online magazine at: http://kakonged.wordpress.com. I also just found out that all of the books I have published have now been made available through Amazon.com. Look out for them and buy early and buy often. Thank you.

Call for Volunteers or Making Money

Hello!

If you know about my advertorial model for Donna Magazine - please feel free to contact me for details if it is something that you would be interested in.

Other than that, I am also looking for volunteer submissions for Donna Magazine in both print and broadcast. I look forward to hearing from you.

School Works - Other Essays

Yesterday I had two classes to teach at Seneca College. They went well. I did more talking in these classes than in the first classes because I had to lay down the groundwork of the some fundamental knowledge, however the class still did go well.

Today I hope to publish my book School Works - Other Essays. I have some editing to do with that book, plus a whole lot of marking to do for assignments at Seneca College. I am hoping that the students understand that if I give them a week to hand in an assignment, they should at least give me a week to mark it. I hope they understand that is fair. I will send out an email about that just to clarify, in case anyone is expecting to get it right away.

Other than that, things are going well. I have a lot of work to do today and have organized many of my stories to put together for my new website (or really revamped from an old one) Donna's Salon Utopia. I have also assembled some stories for my main magazine Donna that I plan to start rolling out closer to June. I would like to work more on podcasts, as well as video work, which I definitely will do. Things are going well. I cannot complain.

Advertorials on Donna Magazine

Things seem to be going well with finding a lot of talented people to add advertorials to my other online magazine called Donna. I feel really good about it. Although it is not a get-rich quick scheme, I think the writers who put in the work and deliver good stories will have a lot of fun doing it and it will add more interesting content to that site.

Embarking on a new endeavour always has the bit of fear that goes into it that it may not work out. I am feeling the positive feelings more that this will work out. I have been thinking about it since 2005 and it really should work out. There is so much talent out there and I know they can make doing advertorials for Donna Magazine a win-win situation all around.

Making Money From a Blog or Online Magazine

Many people have been talking about how to make money from a blog or any online presence such as a magazine, newspaper or podcast. Can you blame them? It takes a lot of work and dedication to put such things together and to be compensated for it just seems to make sense.

I currently have this business model where I am looking for writers who would essentially work on a commission basis. They would write advertorials and receive 80 per cent of the income they earn - I would receive 20 per cent for editing the material and posting it to my site Donna Magazine. That magazine is done through Wordpress and currently that particular blogging platform does not take advertisements unless you are willing to pay big bucks.

So I hope the plan I have been thinking about for four years will work out. Please do wish me luck...I need it.

EduBlogs

There is a new blog service that is fast, free and easy to use. It is called EduBlogs: http://edublogs.org/.

This blog service makes it possible for teachers and students to create blogs for the learning environment.

Every chance I get, I try to get my students creating blogs, plus podcasts and video blogs. Eblogger is one of the software that can be used for this. Also I have an online multimedia magazine at: http://kakonged.wordpress.com with Wordpress that also allows for media and text uploading.

Publishing Your School Essays

I am working on this current book called School Works - Other Essays. I have also written recently Yes, School Works and School Works. All of these books were spawned from my realization that all those essays you write in postgraduate education are publishable work.

Many terrific ideas come out of school essays. I know this from doing them, as well as reading them in the past, plus currently reviewing student work as a teacher. I would encourage everyone - from professionals to students to consider publishing the work they have done while in school. When you think about it, your teacher, instructor, professor is acting as the editor and you have the perfect opportunity to benefit from making some money out of all the money you have put into school. There are various sites you can go to that would help you to self-publish if that is an option for you. The one I use is Lulu.com and the website to buy my books is: http://stores.lulu.com/kakonged. I have now written 17 books, edited one and I have a CD of radio documentaries I have done with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, plus two audio stories for download. You can make some residual income from it.

Education Issues

Many people go to Liveperson.com for advice on various matters, from fashion advice to writing advice to tarot counseling. The times I have used the service in the past were once under a screen name of "Toronto." I discovered many interesting things about the people I chatted to online that eventually lead me to writing two books called Draft: eSpirituality Chats and Draft: Part Two. These books can be bought at: http://stores.lulu.com/kakonged.

The main reason why I was going to the site was to find out if going back to school was the right choice for me. I teach and write in Toronto and wanted to know if going back to school would be the right career move.

The psychics I spoke to, most of them told me I would get in, however I did not get into the doctorate-level programs I was hoping to get into. Instead I got into a second master's program, yet this time in education.

Recently I have had my third offer from my first choice school and once I did accept and registered for courses, I realized that I could take doctorate-level courses, while still being a master's student. If I had understood this from the beginning, I would have accepted my first offer, however at least it is not too late. The ironic thing is that I could have had the degree finished by now.

Schools often make you wait a long time in order to find out the status of your application. My training and experience in journalism has helped me a lot, however did not help my patience. I would recommend from my experience to keep busy as you are waiting for those school offers to come in. Stick to your dreams - and when they happen be grateful for them.

University of Metaphysical Sciences

If you have ever been interested in metaphysical topics, ranging from Feng Shui, tarot readings and improving on your psychic abilities - there is actually a university in the United States of America that concentrates on these topics.

You can take a bachelor's degree, a master's degree, as well as a PhD in metaphysical sciences. The School, the University of Metaphysical Sciences, also boast that you can actually perform marriages with the credentials you receive.

Doing a search on Wikipedia, the school does seem legitimate, however there are people on the Internet that call it a cult. The tuition is about $2,000 USD, for all three degrees. If you already have one of those degrees and only want to take one of them - you cannot. You need to take all three degrees.

If you are interested in the program, check it out. Do your research too on whether it would be the right thing for you. The website is: http://www.umsonline.org/.

Kelly Willougby

Kelly Willoughby at: www.kellyharrington.net is not in the business of psychic work anymore. She does it a little bit, however she is mainly focusing on her family and working as a fitness instructor. She has great psychic abilities and you should find out how she could intuitively help you reach your fitness goals.

You can find out more about Kelly on my original magazine: Donna Magazine at: http://kakonged.wordpress.com.