MAnaFest Big Island 2017 Producer and Music & Art Coordinator
 Hope Medford (hopemedford.com) works in the creative and healing arts~ as a musician,  midwife, and educator. She is recently best known for her percussion and performing with the tribal world roots band, Medicine for the People.  She has been playing and touring around the world with this socially conscious, activating music project since 2007.  She has spent years leading and empowering over 2,500 participants in youth and women’s groups in rhythm & drum circles, encouraging participants’ creativity and strengthening their voices through music. Hope has 3 solo music albums as well, featuring women’s voices.
 
Hope is also a midwife, having graduated from the National College of Midwifery and attended over 450 births, both in the US and in Senegal, West Africa, where Hope worked at a village birth center with the African Birth Collective. Her approach to birth has always been natural and holistic, focused on out of hospital care; she practiced at the first water birth center in the US, Andaluz Waterbirth Center. To educate and raise awareness for women’s health & birth options, Hope began the Artemis Healing Arts education program and has taught natural birth classes in Peru and Brazil as well as in the US.  
 Hope’s commitment to the Earth is also important to her; she currently serves on the board of directors of the non-profit Honor the Earth, whose mission is to protect and provide sustainable options for indigenous land & culture in North America.  She is also a co-founder of Tryon Life Community Farm, a non-profit education and demonstration center for sustainability in Oregon.  She began the education and events programs there which continue to feature permaculture farming, natural building, and community skills. 
 Hope is constantly creatively weaving her love of the earth with respect for women in her projects. She has just returned, in Sept 2016, from being presenter & teacher at the Healthy Birth, Healthy Earth conference at the renowned Findhorn Ecovillage in Scotland. 
 She is currently proud to be a co-founder of MAnafest 2016 & 2017, honoring the feminine on the Big Island of Hawaii. 
She has been basing on the Big Island for about 6 years now, and is proud to create this event for our Wahine and Ohana. 

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  MAnaFest Big Island 2017 Producer and Promoter
   Le`a Colter is a change agent who engages people with warmth, humor, intelligence,
  respect for cultural differences, and a reality-based approach that encourages
  personal growth in all aspects of relationship.
  Le`a has practiced PsychoTherapy on the Big Island of Hawai`i for 20 years.
  She earned her Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology from San Francisco’s California
  Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), and has continued to teach, heal, and inspire as a
  Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, and as Clinical Director and Supervisor in both
  Mental Health Agencies and in Private Practice.
  Le`a has 5 years of experience teaching at Argosy University Master’s Program in Marriage
  and Family Therapy as adjunct faculty member, and many more years of Coaching self-care for caregivers.
  MAnaFest Big Island grew out of her desire to offer a larger healing container for women
  to learn, express, do deep work & raise their voices in celebration of the sacred feminine
  together, integrating the men that celebrate this energy, as well.

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 MAnaFest Big Island 2017 Producer and Workshop/Ceremony Coordinator
 Melissa Honeybee Plotkin
Melissa is a visionary, web-weaver, cross-pollinator, event coordinator and commUnity organizer. She is passionate about supporting people to see their own talents and gifts and encouraging them to offer them to the world. 
 She has been sharing these skills since she can remember and has a long herstory of collaborating on awesome projects! To name a few, she was the manager and promoter of concerts for Green Music Network (San Francisco, CA), the Volunteer Coordinator for Urban Alliance for Sustainability (San Francisco, CA), has initiated and organized the Really Really Free Market, a monthly commUnity gathering representing the Gift Economy (Naples, FL & Pahoa, HI), & has been involved with commUnity shapeshifting projects such as the Village Building Convergence and City Repair
(Portland, OR).
 Melissa has called Hawaii hOMe for close to 5 years and is in Love with Living Life in Puna! Here she founded and co-facilitated an empowerment group for teenage girls called the Blossoming Lotuses. She was an organizer, part of the core visionary team, and food vendor coordinator for the Ho'ohana, "A SustAINAbility Talk Story" Festival in Kalapana. She is currently the manager of the Seaview Eco-Epicurian Waterfarm, an inspiring permaculture farm devoted to the earth-conscious pursuit of sensual pleasure, especially to the enjoyment of water, food & commUnity comfort. She regularly hosts various local commUnity events and special dinner clubs where she invites in local chefs and musical talent, and, every chance she has, she works with her friends at Pohaha I Ka Lani, a Hawaiian non-profit organization rooted in Waipio Valley that practices and perpetuates cultural knowledge and land stewardship. Melissa tends the honeybees of various Hives in Puna, deeply listens to their messages, and is focused on living life in Hive Consciousness. 
 For MAnaFest 2016, Melissa poured her MAna into organizing all the workshops and ceremonies, the Red Tent, the MAna MarketPlace (creative vendors), the Food Vendors and the Healing Grove. 
 She looks forward to co-creating the magic of MAnaFest 2017!! 

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 MAnaFest Big Island 2017 Producer, Documentarian and Volunteer Coordinator
 Suzenne “Zenne” Seradwyn is a video creatrix currently based on
 The Big Island of Hawaii.
 An independent filmmaker on over 100 short films and documentaries, she
 has worked professionally in academia and non-profits, as well as for a
 diverse group of artists, dancers and musicians.
 Her film, "Emergence: Sky City Cultural Center," was recently added to the
 Smithsonian's collection at the National Museum of the American Indian.
 "Emergence" and the multiple-award winning, "Aloha from Lavaland" are
 both currently active on the film festival circuit.
 You can view her work at puremotherlove.com
 Zenne is a regular Facilitator at Kalani Oceanside Retreat's long-running, legendary EDance and is presently engaged in the Volunteer Office.
 She has been an integral part of the production team for Kalani sponsored events including the Hawaii Yoga Festival,
 Puna Music Festival, Puna Culinary Festival and lluminato.

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 MAnaFest Big Island 2017 Producer, Promoter and Workshop Coordinator
 Val Colter
Val has lived 30 years in Puna on Big Island, Hawaii.  She holds degrees in Art and Psychology, and is a certified high school art teacher. She is currently self-employed as a planner and architectural drafter and designer. She has been drawing house plans and getting permits for Big Island projects for about 25 years.  Val has spent many years practicing organic farming, including raising poultry. She has also been involved in amateur theater, with experience designing sets and props, running lighting and sound, acting and producing.  She has studied herbal lore, played music, made art, experimented with magical practices and ritual, practiced and taught yoga. She loves dancing and swimming  in the sea.
MAnaFest 2016, Val volunteered and acted as goddess of Queen-Up helping keep the grounds clean during and after the festival. This year her involvement includes overall planning and pouring her energy into the Red Tent where she is visualizing and dreaming a loving tight container for some inspiring and powerful workshops.

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TERRA ANN PRACHT:
 
HAWAIIAN SANCTUARY PRIESTESS / PROPRIETRESS

 
Limited MAnaFest Wellness Packages
 
Bask in the glory of MAnaFest all weekend (or longer) for an extended
wellness retreat experience at Hawaiian Sanctuary. 

Limited lodging available.
Click on the link below to reserve your style of jungle stay,
custom cleansing packages and more!
 
http://hawaiiansanctuary.com/accommodations/

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     SHARON LEOPARDI
     ACCOUNTING GODDESS 

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   JOY HART
   MUSIC PRODUCTION ASSISTANT

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