ABOUT THE POET Lu Highsmith (photo provided) Lu Highsmith  has published extensively over the past 25 years and been featured in Western and Northern NYS newspapers. Highsmith, a Rochester, NY native is a poet, writer, publisher, promoter, spoken artist and designated Slam Master for Rochester’s first adult slam team, Roc Bottom Slam Poets. Lu has published two books of poetry, "Vicissitudes: The Ups and Downs of Life" in 2008 and "Ascension into Love" in 2010. No matter which genre she chooses to exhibit her creativity, each platform has been reflective of her passion for spirituality, sensuality, and social consciousness. She as performed at festivals, coffee houses, art galleries, and community events throughout Rochester, Syracuse, Buffalo, Albany, Atlanta, and Toronto. She co-hosted the successful "Flowetic Rhythms" Open Mic @ Gallery One for 10 years. In October 2012, Lu joined forces with her Grammy-nominated musician/composer husband, Jimmie High...

  "Demolition" photo (c) 2021 by bill berry, jr., CEO/Publisher/aaduna  As many of you already know, aaduna has never presented themed issues where we ask creatives to write or present visual art that conform to or represent a specific imagery that we declare in advance of any submission cycle. The spring 2021 issue does not break that tradition.   We continue to encourage writers and artists to explore their mindset and create captivating work for our readership and followers. “aaduna in exile” represents a physical state of mind where we have to site the issue on an alternative platform in a different and quite possibly, provocative, yet exciting manner. aaduna has always collaborated with “aadunanotes” to present excerpts from the issue along with a snippet of who the creative person is. And in past National Poetry Month celebrations, the journal presented the work and bios of four poets/week, as well as a poet/day for each day in April on the “aadunanotes” platform...