The Speakers

Cooking Demonstrations and

Rain Stick Making

Presenters

MC: Kalehua Kamakawiwoole

Mrs. K is an ESL Instructor at Honolulu Community College. Her international experiences include participating in an exchange program while she was an undergraduate student (she studied in Nagasaki, Japan) and teaching at Hakuoh University (Oyama, Japan) for two years. She loves all kinds of games and is looking forward to meeting all of you!

MC: Kym Hogan

Ms. Hogan is an ESL instructor at Honolulu Community College. She has been teaching for the last 12 years both in the US and abroad. Although she has traveled to many different countries, Hawai'i is the place she loves most.

Food Demonstration Viewing Party with Soroya Kukulies


Soraya is from the Northwest province of Ecuador called Esmereldas. It is a major port city in where the Spanish first arrived in Ecuador 1526 - so it is rich in history. Cultures with roots spanning the globe come together amidst jungle, river, and sea. Esmeraldas is also the lushest province, full with estuaries, mangroves, and flooded tropical forest. Though only about 3% of Ecuador's population traces its roots to Africa, 70% of the people in Esmeraldas province are Afro-Ecuadorians. Their ancestors arrived in Esmeraldas in the 1600’s via wrecked slave ships or escaped from Colombian sugar plantations. The isolation of Esmeraldas (roads did not reach the north coast until almost 30 years ago) has helped these people retain their African roots. Soraya Kukulies is the sister-in-law of Emily Kukulies (Student Life & Development Director at Honolulu Community College. Originally from Ecuador and long time resident of Spain she now lives in Maryland raising two adorable girls, Esmerelda & Ruby.

Live Cooking Demonstration with Jamal


Bienvenidos!

My name is Jamal, and I am a math instructor at UH Manoa. I moved to Hawaii to obtain my PhD in mathematics, upon which I completed in 2019, and I have been teaching math since. I was born in California, to a Lebanese father and Ecuadorian mother. With my father being a chef specializing in middle eastern cuisine, I grew up with an affinity for cooking, and a passion to communicate my culture through food. When I was eleven, my parents made the decision to move to Ecuador, where I lived the next seven years of my life. Throughout this time, I was fortunate to learn a new language, travel across the high mountains, beaches, rain forests, even gettting a taste of the island life on Galápagos , as well as being introduced to a brand new culinary experience. My passion for cooking has only strengthened with time. Living in Hawaii, I am yet again blessed with the opportunity to learn another culture, as well as share some of my own! I chose to take an Ecuadorian-style ceviche, a staple of the coastal cuisine, as it is reminiscent of the lifestyle on these islands. I hope you enjoy!


Buen Provecho!

Rain Stick Making Master: Jill Teraizumi

Jill Teraizumi is an Academic Counselor for the Carpentry, Sheet Metal, Electrical, and Welding programs at HonCC. Her international interests include: Japanese singing and dancing, culture, and language.


Rain Stick Making Master: Melodee Kawano

Aloha! My name is Melodee Kawano and I am an academic counselor at Honolulu CC. I love yoga and eating yummy food! My most recent hobbies are gardening and crocheting. I enjoy helping students throughout their academic journey and I am so grateful to be part of the HonCC ʻOhana!

Thursday, 03/11/2021

Dance and Music Presenters

Emily Hodges dabbled in dance throughout her life but her main focus was always music performance. She ultimately became incredibly passionate about dance, as it merged her two favorite things, movement and music. While in college pursuing a degree in music performance at New York University she discovered salsa. After taking lessons for some time, she then trained, taught, and traveled internationally to perform under various schools in New York City.

Upon moving back home to Hawaii, Emily founded Linda Melodía Dance Company, a salsa and bachata dance company and school. Emily believes anyone who has the desire and work ethic can become a dancer. LMDC dancers travel around the world, teaching, performing and competing. In 2019 Emily opened Infinity Movement Studio at SALT Kaka'ako, where a fun, energetic and welcoming community of people come together to take salsa, bachata, contemporary, ballet, yoga, pilates, barre and other classes.

Sandy Tsukiyama

A Honolulu native, Sandy Tsukiyama grew up in a musical household. She discovered Spanish language and Music Theory at her alma mater, Roosevelt High School and received a BA in Ethnomusicology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. At UH she continued in Spanish and began studying Brazilian Portuguese. Fascinated by bossa novas on radio jazz programs, she embarked on a quest to further investigate the music of Brazil. Her first vocal gigs were with Brazilian-inspired group, “Ohta-San’s New Thing” and the Ebbtides, in 1975. She began studying voice with Marilyn Kim and was backup singer and percussionist for Nohelani Cypriano. In 1980, recipient of a Rotary Post-Graduate Fellowship for International Understanding, she studied Brazilian folk music traditions and voice at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro Escola de Música. During her three-year stay there, she became immersed in the vibrant musical culture of the city. Fortunate to perform backup for Marku Ribas and Robertinho do Recife, along with numerous, well-known artists, Sandy appeared at various venues from posh piano bars such as Chiko’s Bar, Rive Gauche, and national TV broadcasts on Rede Globo. She was house vocalist for two years in the piano bar at Restaurante Antonino in the Lagoa District, where Lisa Ono, who later became Japan’s primary bossa nova exponent, would occasionally sit in. At the “Todos os Cantos” music festival, in Curitiba, Paraná, in 1981, she was accompanied by the yet unknown, Eliane Elias. While married to percussionist Carlinhos “Pandeiro de Ouro” de Oliveira, she befriended countless household names on the Brazilian music scene.

Rafael Borges Amaral

Rafael is an active composer and guitarist from São Paulo, Brazil. Founder of the paulista group Peixe Seco, a quartet consisting of Rabeca, Pífano Flute, Viola Caipira and Accordion to perform new music, Rafael received commissions from institutions like São Paulo Symphony Orchestra (OSESP), Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Singapore Wind Symphony Orchestra. Orquestra São Pedro, Orquestra Experimental de Repertoire (OER), Baccarelli Institute Percussion Group, among others. Rafael received fellows and awards from Funarte (Brazil contemporary music bienal), SBME 2012 (Electroacoustic music brazilian society), Witener Tage für Neue Kammermusik“ and “Acht Brücken – Musik für Köln“ – New Music in NRW, and “Forum Nueva Musica” de Córdoba from Goethe Institute, and was also composer in residency for the Mise-en ensemble (NY) at the I-Park institution in 2015, and Sound Icon Composition Competition (Boston). His work “Sozinhos entre Fatias”, in collaboration with the artist Cynthia Domenico and André Uba, has been presented in festivals like Lakino: Cinema Babylon in Berlin, Inshadow 3: Festival Internacional de Video, Performance e Tecnologias in Lisbon, Plataforma Festival and UferStudios in Berlin, Festival Internacional de Videdanza Agite y Sirva no Mexico. He holds a Master’s degree in music composition with honors at Boston University and bachelor at Universidade de São Paulo.