Vanessa Johnson  is  an  aaduna  artist. Moreso…she is an empowering force of humanistic spirit, continuously thrusting forward swirling wind gusts of positivity. Ms. Johnson is simply…    a griot and storyteller in the West African tradition. She is a writer, a playwright, actor, fiber artist, museum consultant, community activist, community researcher and documentarian, teaching, and performance artist all the while directing her storytelling band “Mate Masie” (ma-tee ma-say). {“Mate Masie” recently performed “One Soul at a Time”- Singing Harriet Tubman at the Cayuga Museum’s Carriage House in Auburn N.Y.}    Ms. Johnson served on the Juneteenth Committee and coordinated this pivotal annual festival at the Southwest Center in Syracuse, NY for three years where she created and directed the “Juneteenth Interactive Museum” for five years. Vanessa was the co-coordinator of the New York State Fair Pan African Village for nine years, founding and implementing the “Harambee Youth

  “…integrity.   It is, by far, the thing I'm most concerned about. I often explore intersection and how mine are linked to privilege through the textual use of italics (when using other languages) and through structure. It's normally seen as othering when languages other than English are italicized in text, but I use it as a method of separation. Who I am and how I was raised is not something that is visible to most, and there's a clear disconnect in how I'm perceived, which I think is most accurately reflected, in my case, with the use of italics. “Luisa Aparisi-França is a queer, non-binary Latinx writer from Miami, FL currently living in Georgia. Her pronouns are she/they. “I use she and they based on how distant or close I feel to something. I'll use they when referring to something I've cut ties with, or people/things that no longer serve me. It is linked to self-protection as it is to identity. In moments of intense joy or hurt, I tend to use she, si

  Advance Sale Tickets AVAILABLE NOW via EVENTBRIGHT until October 26th. CLICK TO PURCHASE aaduna 6th Annual " Gala" Fundraiser: "A Celebration of Words & Music" Tickets, Thu, Oct 27, 2022 at 6:00 PM | Eventbrite <><><> aaduna   -  an online adventure with words and images  - a globally read, multi-cultural, and diverse online literary and visual arts journal established in 2010.   Help us build community!   Share with your friends,  "like" our  Aaduna-Inc  facebook page and follow us on twitter  @ aadunaspeaks  !     aaduna-Inc   Visit regularly for updates !