 The president of Sisters Empowering Hawaii, Hawaii's foremost women's empowerment organization is dedicated to the motivation, advancement, education, and empowerment of all women. So today, Sister Power, we are celebrating the sisterhood, the power of sisterhood. That's what we're celebrating today. In the mission of Sisters Empowering Hawaii, we provide opportunities for women to change careers, continue education for graduate degrees, and introduce them to women of accomplishment who have achieved success in their chosen profession. And a couple of weeks ago, Sisters Empowering Hawaii hosted a fabulous luncheon. Your vibe attracts your tribe. It was a power luncheon for women and the ladies, my guests today, they were all, you know, you ladies showed up and showed out, I must say. So our special guests, they've been on the show before, Dr. Deborah Butler, welcome. She has on the shirt your vibe attracts your tribe, all right. And we have artist Kimberly Keyes and Kimberly Keyes Aloha Kimberly Aloha, thank you for having me. Absolutely. She, if you want the artwork of all of the fabulous phenomenal women, Kimberly Keyes is the lady that absolutely there it is, Harriet Trummage, Harriet Tubman, Michelle Obama, Justice Patanje Brown Jackson. And I just sent the pillow of the three queens that we had that you did. Kamala Harris. Tell me about this Kamala Harris, Justice Patanje Brown. Michelle Obama, Kamala Harris, and Kataji Brown. Get that pillow. Now, and then we have our attorney, our advocate, our legal head is here, Leslie Matthews. Welcome. Thank you so much, Queen. It's so great to be back with you lovely ladies. So glad to have you. You know, we had luncheon and our guest speaker for the luncheon was Judge Bowers from Maui and there's the ladies having a wonderful time celebrating women of character, commitment and courage. So let's jump right in and talk about the luncheon. I'm still full from it, very full from it. And I'm going to start off with you, Kimberly. I want to what was your takeaway from your vibe attract your tribe power luncheon for women. Thank you. Thanks again for having me again, Sharon. This particular luncheon was very powerful for me. Just the whole event. We had our guest speaker, Judge Bauer, who so eloquently spoke about her life and her truth as the first black female appointed judge. We were also surrounded by great women who helped build this community celebrating sisterhood with love and mutual respect. There was so much energy, so much power in this room. But it was, for me, it came to the climax. When you read the poem, I rise by my antelope. And for me, that is when the earth cracked, a light went through the room, and I felt such an overwhelming power from women from the past, the present, the future. And I just weeped. And it was a very powerful event for me. So just thank you so much for putting on this event. Yeah, there was a feeling in the room that was unlike any other that I felt, you know, in a very, very long time. And so, Deborah, you know, what was your takeaway from your vibe attract your tribe? First and foremost, Sharon, I want to thank you for taking the time and making this event possible. It was a powerful launch in celebrating women of character, commitment, and courage. And to be the presence of these beautiful, phenomenal women who are always moving forward was quite a treat. The theme, your vibe attract your tribe was right on point. And I love that's why I'm wearing it on my shirt. I really enjoyed the opportunity of meeting all the guests and individuals who attended the event. I just want to say thanks to you. I made several valuable contacts. It was a great experience, Tony, to Tiger say, great experience from the meal to our conversation, the creative dancing, the paintings and the networking. And I can go on and on and on. It was beautiful, magnificent. Thank you so much, Sharon. You know, thank you, Deborah. You were the host also, you were able to go to the airport and meet in Greek justice Bowers and Leslie Matthews, Leslie Matthews. We honored her several years ago at Women Making History. Leslie, give me your takeaway. I mean, just like you said, Dr. Butler was so gracious to pick Judge Bowers and I up from the airport as we flew in from Maui. And just whenever we got into the car, we already started this, your vibe attracts your tribe and just sharing about our lives and learning about each other. And that's what I really loved was coming together with all of these phenomenal women. Sharon, you never host a bad event. And as you can see here are some of the women there today. It was there that day was an amazing event. And what I love was seeing women from all different walks of life. We had young girls there up to older women. And it was just so wonderful to see just a diverse group of women come together and celebrate ourselves. And the venue was amazing. You know, there's so much that is being a woman as a whole or under attack and where we could be in a place where we could be celebrated in a beautiful place. You said dressed to the nine and we did. And it was just so beautiful to hear people's stories to be still connected to these women to join our tribe and let our vibe attract our tribe. And I can't wait. I must say it now here on your show, Sister Power, I can't wait. And so we host as host a sister's empowering Hawaii event on the island of Maui because it is so needed. And I have to say, when you read Still I Rise as Sequoia did interpretive dancing that was so moving because the words of Maya Angelou, they still speak past her death. They still speak and that was brought to life with your incredible reading and the dance the whole day was fabulous. It was. And, you know, I stepped out of my comfort zone, you know, Sequoia is a fabulous dancer. And she said, I want, you know, I want to do Still I Rise by Maya Angelou. I said, OK, well, who's going to read it? She said, you, that's me. And I'm just going to read a paragraph here, Still I Rise. You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lies. You may try me in the very dirt, but still like dust, I rise. There it is. I rise. Still I rise. So, Kimberly, how did you choose the artwork for this venue? We were at the Outriggers Canoe Club. The backdrop was the ocean. It was absolutely gorgeous. Tell us about your artwork. Well, when you told me about the event, the first thing that I thought about is I need to get some of the fiercest, most powerful women that are in my collection. I have many more, but I got just what I had on hand. And and I was just so happy to put this collection together. And I think it really fit perfectly, especially having the very large pieces of Harriet Tubman and Maya Angelou and Michelle Obama. I just think it really, for me, brought those portraits to life, this particular event. So that's how I chose them. It did powerful. Harriet Tubman seemed like she came out and grabbed me at one time. You know, it was just so powerful, this powerful, the strength in the room with powerful, phenomenal women in the room. And so I'm going to come to you, Deborah, what makes the group of women phenomenal? Well, they are strong, they're independent women who doesn't need to try to fit in into a certain mode that society has created for them. They're confident and they believe in their abilities. They don't rely on other people for their happiness. And they all have the freedom and intelligence to make their own decisions. And I believe that people who you spend time with has the biggest impact on our level of success. So the people in your life, they will either help to support your goals and dreams or they won't. And it's important to surround yourself with people who do. So the networking energy of this event was about dreaming bigger and going forward. And even if you are scared and you think that you might fail, you know, you have these women that that that support you. And this was important to associate yourself with OQP, OQP are only quality people. Remember that OQP, you need those people to pick you up if you fall down and to cheer you on when those voices are self-doubt creeping in. There's a quote that I love that says, you are the average of five people you spend the most time with. And if you're not inspired in your life, you need to check your tribe. If you're not growing, check your tribe. If you're not gifted and supported, check your tribe. If you're not loving your tribe, check your vibe. That's what you're putting out into the world. You need to check it out. Because what your body language says, you need to know what your body language is saying. Check your words, check your actions, because not only were the women at the luncheon phenomenal, there were also wonderful people. And I was just honored to have the opportunity to network with them. And I'm still excited about it. You know, send me that checklist there. We need that. Wonderful. So Leslie, what made the luncheon a great success? I mean, I want you to talk about it now because we're going to take it over to Maui. You heard it here first on Sister Power from Leslie. I think what made the luncheon powerful was the people that you had in the room. I mean, every detail from the flower to the place setting to the decor that you even had in the restroom that was there at the outrigger. I mean, look at this. Everything was so beautiful, the detail. And that's what I think that we have so many times. We're so in a rush, we're so in a rush, we're so in a rush that we forget about the details and so much can be done in the details of your life. The beautiful artwork that Kimberly had that was there that really just brought our ancestors into the room that we could invite our ancestors into the room because Judge Bowers and that we honored. Oh, thank you for showing that picture that we honored those that we've lost, the women, the pioneers, the trailblazers that have come before us. Every detail was so well thought out and that, you know, I heard something the other day and it said, you know, as Alexa and Siri, there are all these women voices where we are teaching a whole new generation that if you need something, a woman will be at your beck and call to give you an answer or to tell you something. And you can't really unthink that. So to be in a place where we could be waited on, where we could be served, where we could honor ourselves and our ancestors and the young children that were there, the young ladies that were there could see I can grow up and be anything I want to be. And what really stood out to me also sharing that you shared whenever you said sisters empowering Hawaii is a place where women can recreate themselves, they can come into new careers. We met women from all over the United States and they shared their stories. So it's hard for me to pick one thing, but the detail that you took to make that event fabulous, the details were not overlooked and they made us just feel special. And that's what we need every now and again. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You were talking about that we honored. These fabulous women, we honored Marsha Joyner and Marsha Joyner was one of the top hosts here at Think Tech of IE. I loved her. She was my mentor, Faye Kennedy, the author, advocate for civil rights and social justice. And my dear friend, Jerry Lange, she's an author from Oakland, but she moved here to to write all of her books here. She's the mother of Ted Lange from the Love Bowl. And then we honored Hanani K. Trask, Hawaiian activist, educator, author and poet. It just was so appropriate to give back the knowledge that they have bestowed upon us. So that, yes, you're right. And you know what I'd love to, when we did a toast to sisterhood. What did you think about that, Kimberly? We dare it is. We did the toast with Dr. Suzanne Hammer and there's Deborah, there's Nancy and Shirley and Holly and Louise. Let's talk about the toast. That toast really brought all of the power and the joy and the celebration together. For us to be able to toast and celebrate each other is not an event that we often have the opportunity to do. And it felt so good because not only were we toasting ourselves, we were toasting our ancestors. And like I said, we were toasting of future women of our community, of our world. And I really think that was a very, very special moment. And I really appreciate that moment so much. So just thank you for giving us that opportunity. Yeah, thank you, ladies, for showing us in Deborah. I noticed you are wearing the theme on your shirt. Your vibe attracts your tribe. What does it mean to you? Well, it means the energy that you put out in the world directly reflects on the energies you receive and that you're open to receiving is human nature to gravitate toward those who reflect the kind of qualities that we admire. And it's an unspoken and tangible law like the law of gravity. You can't see it, but you know it exists. What goes up always come down. What goes around comes around. What vides your spirit is putting out in the world is the deciding factor about who will come around you and who will click with you and jail with you and et cetera. You know, we have to remember that we're all spiritual souls at our core. God gave us bodies, but they're just the shell that surrounds the good stuff underneath our flesh and throughout our bodies lives our spirit. And it speaks before we even open our mouth. It's when we open our mouth that we tell the whole world who we are, for example, have you ever been at a party or any kind of a function and it was lighthearted and everybody was having fun and having a good time until a certain someone walks in the room and immediately the joy was just totally sucked out of the party and out of the room. They didn't have to say a word, not a thing, because their spirit said it all. It's good to know what your own spirit is saying. It's pretty much what it means to me. So well said, you know, celebrating women of character, commitment, and courage. And I want to take this time very quickly to think some of my thanks, some of my sponsors, you know, Kimberly Keys, the artist, Dr. Joanne Williams-Lazoya, Miss Susan Varice-Lum, major general retired major general USA, and she is the president of the East West Center and Sierra Moore from St. Louis, Virginia, St. Louis, Missouri, where Judge Bowers is from, as a matter of fact. Sequoia Brown, did she dance to Still I Rise? Did she dance Till I Rise? OK, thank you, thank you, thank you. Dr. Lori Tom, she's a diabetes specialist and attorney Daphne Barbie Wulton. I mean, these are powerful, powerful women. Oh, I cannot forget Charlie Latham. Oh, no, Media Services Bar, Latham Rowe. And I forget these fabulous pictures that we're seeing. They're from Charlie. So, all right, you know, ladies, we've been talking about sisters, celebrating sisterhood, the power of sisterhood, vibing and thriving. Let's change, you know, let's just change gears a bit. And we want to talk about the woman king. Now that, you know, the woman king. And, you know, at each of you, everyone should go see it. It's a historical epic inspired by true events that happened in the kingdom of Dohuni, one of the most powerful states of Africa in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. When I was coming up, we called Africa the motherland. You don't even hear about it now. People, they don't even say motherland right now. So Leslie, I'm going to start with you. And then it's Leslie, Kimberly, and then Deborah. Share your favorite scene. And by the way, happy birthday, Leslie. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So I, my mother, Miss Rainie Dock Matthews, who I'm sure is tuned in right now. She's 71 years old and she's been having some health challenges. And I said, Mom, do you want to go see the woman king? And she said, yes, I do. So she rested up and we went and saw it. I had a function that opening weekend, but it's always important for me to go see a movie, you know, to support it in the first week that it's out. So we went and saw it. That movie was phenomenal. And talk about your vibe attracts your tribe. They brought women women into the fold. They they trained women. They they live together. They train together. They fought together. And the part for me that really stood out was the young girl that play that. And I won't give anything away. No, no, no spoilers here. But the young girl, when she saw that somebody else was in trouble, Viola Davis, this character was in trouble. She didn't leave her to die. She went back and saved her and they said, why did you do that? And she said, I couldn't let you die. And I think that that really speaks to are we letting other women fall to the wayside because we're so ready to get to our next point or we don't want we want to be first or we want to do that. But that was within this young girl's DNA. Even when she was fighting and going through the trial that she had to become a warrior, she went back and got someone. And I think that especially now, we never know what women are going through other women, but can we go back and see about our sister? Can we go back and see about those in our tribe? That movie was so phenomenal. It took women from every walk of life, even women that weren't in the original tribe and said, if you want to fight for us, fight for us. If you want to leave, this may not be for you. But if you want to be here, we welcome you here, but you got to get to work. But it was a sisterhood and it was a beautiful sisterhood and talk about women, woman, king. Go see it if you haven't. And if you have, go see it again. All right, Kimberly. Miss Tharber. Okay, I had many favorite scenes throughout the movie was a favorite scene. I ended up taking notes throughout the movie. There were scenes, there were script, there were words that I just had to write down. So I'm down there on my phone writing, but I'm also crying at the same time because every scene just really moved me. And one of the scenes that stood out for me is when Viola said, your tears mean nothing. To be a warrior, you must kill your tears. And here I am crying and Viola is saying this, you know, and I thought this was very moving because it talks about how we as women are always told to repress our emotions. Are we feel like we need to repress our emotions? And Viola was a very strong warrior. And I don't want to give away the movie, but I think that part about crying and opening yourself up and being genuine, I think it's okay to be able to do that. You can still be a warrior, you can still be a strong woman, but you can also cry, you can also shed a tear. And I just think this movie was absolutely magnificent. And I will be going to see it again. Yeah, yeah. All right, Deborah, we've got a few minutes left. Take us out. Why don't I like to urge all moviegoers and everyone to check your movie tickets once you purchase them at the box office so that the movie you purchase will get the box office credit because the system is rigged where a lot of Tyler Perry movies and black movies like Woman King won't get the box office credit because like when I went to the movies yesterday to see it and I purchased mine online when I got there, they gave me a ticket for another movie and I had to show them on my phone which movies I purchased it for. And I've heard a lot of other people going through the same problem. So it's just rigged where the movie won't get the box office credit. So always check your ticket because if you see where it's not the one you purchased, give it back to them. And I told them, I was like, well, I want the ticket that I purchased. They said, no, it doesn't matter which ticket you have. You can go see whatever movie you want. I said, yes, it matters to me because I want this movie to get the box office credit. And then they gave me the correct ticket. So you have to go through that sometimes. But my favorite part of this was when Naniska tells Oba that she said, you will not forget me. She said, when Oba, the leader of the army, the Oya army first arrives in the homie early in the movie to demand tribute from the kingdom, Naniska recognizes him as one of the men who sexually assaulted her doing her captivity. And that recognition makes her desire to kill him. Not only political desire for her country's war against Oya, but an absolutely understandable person of Vandetta now. The two, when they started fighting and they come to blows a few times throughout the movie, all the battles ends up in a stalemate as you're trying to figure out who's gonna win because the fight between the two is so exciting and often fighting to watch as there's a real push and pull over who has to up a hand at any time. But in the final moments of the fight, Naniska is literally able to turn Oya's own knife towards him and stab him with it. And then she asked if he had forgotten her. And before she pushed the blade into a sternum, she stared him into the eyes and declared that you will not forget. And as he dies, it's another moment that someone's shocking in its brutality, but equally satisfying to me anyway. But I want to say that when I lived in Mobile about 25 years ago, I worked at a volunteer counselor as a volunteer counselor for a rape crisis center there back in 1997. And I'm saying this to say, if you're viewing this show or anyone you know, has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available, visit the rape and abuse and incest national network. The website is RAINN. It's the national helpline. And the number is 1-800-656-HOPE, H-O-P-E. That's 1-800-656-4673. Anyone you know. Thank you, thank you, thank you for that. Queen Kimberly Keyes, Leslie Matthews, Dr. Deborah Butler, thank you so much for your wisdom and for your expertise. And I want to leave our sister power viewers with a Maya Angelou quote. The thing to do, it seems to me is to prepare yourself so you can be a rainbow in somebody else's cloud. Somebody who may not look like you, may not call God the same name you call God if they call God at all. I may not dance your dances or speak your language, but be a blessing to somebody. That's what I think. I'm Sharon Thomas Yarbrough, aloha. Aloha. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.