HONOLULU PEN WOMEN MEETINGS

We meet for lunch in the conference space of Alan Wong's Pineapple Room (Macy's at Ala Moana Shopping Center) on the first Wednesday of each month.  We break for summer and start a new season every September.  This September I wanted to open the series with a native Hawaiian speaker (Yeah, I volunteered again to do the programs - love doing it!) and immediately thought of poet, Zen priest, community activist, cultural translator, and one of Hawaii's Living Treasures, Puanani Burgess.  Because she is in such demand and travels the world over, the chances of getting her on the date of our meeting were slim, but... the stars aligned and we were treated to Puanani's moving presentation on "Building Beloved Community."

 Puanani Burgess

She shared stories to illustrate the Poha and Popo Principle, the Sylvester Stallone Principles, The Two Dot Theory, The Mauna `Ala and Gandhi Principle, and The Gift Principle.  She had us do the Weather Ball and in the course of it some of us cried.  Which is a good thing.  It bonded us.  Blessings and aloha ka kou, Puanani.

This October we invited Stephan Jost to speak.  He is the new director of the Honolulu Museum of Art.  Wow, he could be an entertainer, he's that compelling a speaker.  He is the perfect person to guide the Museum through its changes and he seems to be doing it with intelligence, wit and grace.  We're lucky to have him.

Stephan with Pen Women president Sabra Feldstein

And here are pictures of some Pen Women members and Friends.

Friends are supporters of Pen Women.

You can see, we do welcome men in our midst, 

but they must be able to handle all the estrogen in the room.
Check out the Honolulu Pen Women website:
www.nlapwhonolulu.org 

FASCINATOR

Ready for Halloween!

At the Cirque de Soleil "Quiddam" performance last week I bought this fascinator hat (I think that's what it's called) and promptly wore it to our AWOL meeting to show off.  Later I shared it with those of us that stayed late and here are the results after I played with colors and contrasts.

ESTROGEN RISING

I feel blessed and lucky to be among a full-blooming circle of women friends, most of whom are wickedly fun artists, writers and performers.

This blog is meant to shine a light on them:

• The amazing Honolulu Pen Women
• My 15 crazy sister-friends at AWOL (Artist Way of Life, spawned from Bad Art Monday)
• My four hard-nosed but loving writing groups (three autobiographical, one poetry)
• My Open Studio Group (Okay, I'll include Jahn-Peter...)
• And my aloha sister-gardeners in the Diamond Head Community Garden

Being on a small island there's overlap, of course.  Some of my writing group friends are also active with  Pen Women and AWOL.  It makes for more bonding and, even as we grow older, more estrogen rising. 

Here's to all my women friends:
Do something dangerous every day!
Oh, okay...  think something dangerous then.