Are you ready? Truly ready? I think you are…so let’s start the teasing!

aaduna is in the midst of preparing the summer 2017 issue, and you will be blown away by the diverse content, and how contributors have weaved words and images into enchanting arenas that will stretch your imagination and aspirations. 

Let’s get started with “About Taxis and Cats” and “Chronicles of Rapa Nui” by Uruguayan writer Jimena Antoniello. 

Jimena Antoniello, PhD  (photo provided)

With degrees in Philosophy, Sceenwriting, and her PhD in Ancient History, Dr. J (not to be confused with the former basketball player) is versed in exploring her fascination with humankind’s beliefs and heterogenic forms of communication while maintaining her ability to ‘chat’ with readers instead of just providing narration.  Here are two quotes from her stories that will appear in the summer issue.  You can figure out what quote goes with what title!

She is afraid to ride alone in case something happens, like being kidnapped or raped. All women have those fears secretly. It's funny because my mother is the strongest woman I know. I guess it's an inherited fear. I had it, too. To taxis and to cats, just like her.

******

King Ricardo Rodríguez Vargas had left his native Cuba for a woman. When the regime of Fidel urged him to consider his land was way too large and lonely for him, King Ricardo emigrated from it, to fall in love with a local woman on another very small island far away from Santiago de Chile and the world; and ended up settling down in Easter Island….There, he devoted himself to driving a taxi.

Jeffrey Paul-Horn, "open mic, word revisited program," June 2017  photo by Lisa Brennan

Jeffrey Paul-Horn, a recent Clare Song Birds Publishing House published poet, quietly entered aaduna’s world via an open mic reading a few months ago at “word, revisited," a joint presentation of featured speakers with an open mic component that is convened bi-weekly in partnership with the Cayuga Museum of History and Art, Olive Trees publication and aaduna, with each partner based in Auburn, NY.  Quite frankly and to the point, Jeffrey mesmerized the audience.  He had the ability and musician's chops to take participants on a thoughtful and intriguing ‘word’ ride that plummeted and looped the way the best roller coasters do.  Here is an excerpt from his poem “I am - parts 1 and 2”

"I am"

1 

I am

   a bombastic battalion

   of unified cells

A nair’ do well freak army

   a billion strong

I came

   from the cum

   of a comet crook

I walk

   wise to the ways

   of a different day

I am

******

B

y the time Ben arrived it was packed. D's Bar, a haven for Iowa sports fans, was teeming with black and yellow. Ben pushed through the crowd toward the tall, wooden table near the center of the room where his family sat. He waved hello to his aunt, uncle, cousins, parents, and sister, and they returned the greeting with momentary surprise before turning their attention back to the game televised above the bar.

        “How did you make it over here?” asked his father.

        “Rode my bike,” said Ben, stuffing his messenger bag beneath his seat.

        His father stopped short of a drink with the pint glass in hand. “No shit? How long did that take?”

        “About forty minutes,” said Ben, wiping the sweat from his brow.

        His father nodded in admiration, then took his delayed swig. 

 

Matt Smith (photo provided)

 
The above is an excerpt from “March” by Matt Smith; but that is not all.  Matt has two stories in the summer issue and here is the opening to his “Imaginary Creatures:”

“A

nd of course, it was dark because it was late,” said the nervous woman, three seats away. With the full attention of the circle she paused to tuck the loose strands of blonde hair behind her ear. “I noticed someone behind me. It was an African-American gentleman. He might have been a teenager but he could have been in his early twenties. He was very tall,” she assured them. “And he was moving toward me, so I sped up. Then so did he. I didn't even have time to think and my hands were so jittery. I couldn't find my keys at first and finally I dropped my purse on the ground and dug through it as fast as I possibly could. The whole time,” she paused as tear slid down her cheek. The woman next to her began rubbing circles on her back. “The whole time, I had these visions, of what could happen, y'know? Finally, I gave up looking for my keys and took out my phone and typed in 9-1-1 and held my thumb over the call button.” The woman paused as though short of breath.

******

Tracy S. Bailey, PhD (photo provided)

Tracy S. Bailey entrusted aaduna with two of her enchanting stories.  While we are tempted to share her life background with you, we decided that you will just have to wait for the summer issue.  However, we are not that mean; at least we don’t perceive ourselves as such…so here are brief opening excerpts from her stories coming at you in the summer issue:

Chapter One: The Flash and the Blade

W

hen the tree-bending storm of 1946 blew into the coastal town of Johnsonville, everything went dead and Mabeline shook with fear. It was a time before storms had names, when they were still interpreted by the descendants of enslaved Africans as the language of Almighty God. There were no weather reports to tell you what to expect, so no one knew if it was a hurricane or a tropical depression or a simple severe thunderstorm. All Mabeline knew was that it just rose up out of nowhere and shook everything up.  What frightened her most were the flashes of lightning that turned the black sky to day. Whole thing couldn’t have lasted more than an hour, but it would take the small town of Johnsonville months to rebuild and try to reclaim the things God had called back.

Bridges

J

ulia sat in the park across from the church wearing her long white dress, her long hair pulled back into a ponytail. She didn’t know how long she’d been there, only that it was beginning to get dark and Kwame had not shown up the way he said he would in his text. She scanned the crowd for him and rubbed her arms. She leaned forward on the park bench. He had to show.

*********************

More to come…tomorrow…and each day afterwards…that is our intent.

Watch for aaduna's Summer 2017 issue - LAUNCHING SOON!

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aaduna - a timeless exploration into words and images - is a globally read, multi-cultural, and diverse online literary and visual arts journal established in 2010.  Visit us at www.aaduna.org where we put measurable actions to our words.

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