Our hiatus is over!  We trust you had a wonderful and festive Holiday Season and are successfully transitioning yourself to a new year.  We hope you receive many unexpected opportunities to shine while making significant strives towards achieving all of your 2016 goals!  Raymond Nat Turner (photo Photo Credit: Debra St. John) If you are (or plan to be) in the New York City area or have friends and associates who are New Yorkers, tell them to check out Raymond Nat Turner whose work is in the current issue of aaduna . Here are the details: Honor MLK Arts for Arts presents JANUARY EVOLVING Not a Police State / Justice is COMPASSION on Friday January 15, 2016 featuring 7pm   Raymond Nat Turner JournalJazzPoet 8pm   John Hebert - bass 9pm   BLU Farmers Hamiet Bluiett - reeds William Parker - bass Gerald Cleaver - drums at Abrazo Gallery 107 Suffolk Street #...

Kathryn de Leon (photo provided)   Kathryn de Leon’s work nuanced with captivating and lasting images. Here is a teaser from her poem, “ACROSS THE BORDER (My uncle lived on a ranch in Northern Mexico) We called it simply... " across the border.” Another world, No plumbing Just a large porcelain bowl, A bar of Ivory soap Floating in warm water That clouded to thick white, My sister and I new princesses Bathing in milk. No electricity Just oil lanterns That made us evil, Painted us huge and black On the walls Of the cold bedroom. Janet Mason (photo provided) Janet Mason found her way to aaduna's pathway by weaving words and cascading them into an endearing story. Here is the opening from her story, "The Mother" as a snippet to tease you: (sometime early in the first century) I n the beginning was the Mother.             In the womb, Tamar took men...

You know the feeling...being riveted by the thump of the bass and that "blue note" that gets your feet to involuntary tap, tap the floor...and then your fingers and thumb start to drum the table....your body eventually gives up and succumbs... you enjoy the movement and do not want the feeling to stop. Raymond Nat Turner, Photo by Lisa Brennan 5/28/2015 Welcome to the world of this jazz poet...his world.  Raymond Nat Turner! Enjoy video clip #4, "Medicine Man," performed by aaduna featured guest poet and spoken word artist, Raymond Nat Turner at aaduna's annual spring fundraiser, "In the Spirit of the Harlem Renaissance...Revisited 2015"  held at Theater Mack,     Auburn, NY on May 28, 2015.   The event was supported by Poets & Writers and the New York State Council on the Arts.  https://youtu.be/luaob58zq8s * * * * * Raymond Nat Turner, NYC poet, is the artistic director...

Question: How do you surpass your Auburn, NY 2014 fundraiser affair with a 2015 event when both affairs shared the same theme and venue???!!! Answer: You kick it up several notches. "In the Spirit of the Harlem Renaissance...Revisted, 2015,"  was an event rarely seen, if ever seen in Auburn, NY.  Uptown met downtown.  Downstate met upstate.  Poets, writers and spoken word performers enhanced by the piano stylings of Andy Rudy created an evening that transported the audience back to the days of the Harlem Renaissance.  He re are some photos:   (Left to Right)  William E Berry, Jr, Raymond Nat Turner, Catherine C. Poku, Tearz, Kevin Jenkins, Heidi Nightengale, Cyd Charisse Fulton, Bobbie Dumas Panek, Howard Nelson, Lisa Brennan bill berry, opens the evening Cyd Charisse Fulton, aaduna contributing poet Howard Nelson, aaduna featured guest poet Dr. Kevin Jenki...