NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY FALL 2008

Voice&VisionLiterary Magazine

People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm

Northwestern University Fall 2008

Voice & VisionLiterary Magazine

View us online at www.nuformembersonly.org

Voice & Vision Editorial Board

Chief of Operations Executive Editor Tyler Yarbrough Tiarra Medley

Managing EditorsEvelyn Parks

Jo Ellyn Walker

Artistic EditorsAlicia Carroll

Kia Jones

2

Editor’s Note

3

It’s that time again. Fall quarter, the beginning of a new (academic) year. With the advent of autumn, we prepare for change, in our environment as well as within, howev-er we are also faced with the task of evaluating progress to this point.

The magazine has grown in leaps and bounds since its in-ception three years ago and now is the time to assess the direction of its future, with respect to its past. Voice & Vi-sion was founded with the intention that it would provide an unfettered outlet for people to express themselves creatively and this theme speaks directly to that goal.

The theme of this issue, borrowed from the title of the

the exploration of the human spirit and of the variouscreative routes people take to examine the world and examine themselves. In the coming pages, you will be offered the opportunity to experience these explorations through the eyes of your fellow man as he ventures down his individual path to rhythm, as expressedthrough his words and his art, and hopefully make prog-ress in your own journey as well.

Enjoy,

Tia rra J Medley

With expression and I’m guessin’

19 years is a youthful lesson

Falling skies babe

Open eyes babe

Can’t you see what lays inside,

babe?

Making mentions of this tension

Rhythmic lovin’, my profession...

Quest together, to lands of never

Sleet and snow and storms can’t

sever

--Tribe Called Quest

“Youthful Expression”

4

Table of Contents Issue 1, Volume 3

Featurecape coast, ghana. november, 2005 T.M. Stringfellow 16-17

PoetryGrowing Man of Fire Kellyn Lewis 6-7 Untitled Max Sutton 8 All Night Diner Nadyja von Ebers 9 Upon the Start of the Mastery of the Piano Jennifer Haderspeck 14-15 Bailadora Mylissa Veal 26 -27Global Warming Nadyja von Ebers 28 I Felt a Funeral in my Voice Cameron Bernard Jones 29

ArtMeditation, Things my mother gave me Cecil McDonald Jr. cover /back cover Frances Before Dinner (Make it Funky) Cecil McDonald 18After Soul to Soul Cecil McDonald Jr. 19 Untitled Stephanie Slack 24-25

ProseTchaikovsky John Tencer Mathis 10-13Dear Ethereal John Tencer Mathis 20-23

Rules for Submission 30

Acknowledgements 31

5

6

“A Tribe Called Quest began their album “People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm” with the sound byte of a baby crying. This evoked My idea to create hip-hop as a living person that this culture of people follow. Like fire, hip hop has spread rapidly

across America…that touches each person’s soul who follows and is a part of hip hop”--Kellyn Lewis

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

Music is a mountain turned upside down pushing downward on

me. That is why I am so weighed down by its enormity: a daunt-

less task, a quest, to some unknown end is my soul-feeling. Music

is both the prize and the punishment, both the life and the death.

Music is present at weddings and funerals. Music is also a Present

at weddings and funerals: something to ease the tension in both

cases. For some, a wedding is more about death than a funeral. Mu-

sic takes your place now, and it might forever be there. As time

progresses, I feel that some sort of Providence has made it thus:

without your absence I would not be focused on this tiniest needle

holding this mountain from completely crushing me beneath the

ignorance as long as it is light years away. Music is a meteor in my

backyard, so I either have to do something now or wake up to an-

other life that is black and white, a life before sound really mat-

tered in the movies; that’s what my life is: a movie.

The characters are all main characters of their own hit shows, and

somehow my Movie overlaps their lives and they either stay for

years or just barely one episode. Passing so it seems, I wonder how

many people I have forgotten, and how many of the people I have

remembered have forgotten me? I feign to have forgotten so many

people, but it is at the least mutual, and at the most I sometimes

hide behind my cell phone pretending to text someone who isn’t

out of it, because I look to you when there is a moon, that perfect

symbol of your light that I cannot forget, but then it reminds me,

as trees sway back and forth in the slight breeze, that I am a hope-

less romantic, with quite little hope anymore that you will actually

make it here in any form…….. but I have come to a startling con-

23

have been. That is why Music is of that certain twinkling starlight

and you are more lunar in your countenance. Even if you do show

up, I cannot discard music so lightly, and I don’t think that this

realization would have occurred had you shown up sooner. So

Providence has been providential here to some means, leading me

by the hand through this dark room to some other unknown place.

I’m waiting now to see if a lit doorway will appear with someone

light switch to show me that I’ve been “here” all along, but I was

blind, or all the light bulbs weren’t put in place, or someone forgot

to pay the electric bill.

There are no “Happily ever-after”s, because there is always an after

the “Happily ever-after” that resides in the realness that is life. But

that has never been you. If you do appear, it will be a “more pleas-

ant here on out”, than a happily ever after. But despite the ups and

the downs, smiles and frowns, the rain, the plain mornings and

snoring and a million dirty dishes, it will be a more pleasant here

on out.

I won’t wait for you.

But if you want to show up

I’m on that hill over there, looking at the clouds, humming a tune,

and trying desperately to hold up that mountain that’s held up by a

mere pin. If you want to be my Atlas, I won’t stop you.

With my all,

The Eternal Boy

Untitled

Stephanie Slack

25

26

27

28

29

Rules for Submissions

Submit up to three pieces of prose, poetry, artwork and photgraphy to voiceandvision37@gmail.com. Send them as attachments.

-BE SURE TO INCLUDE YOUR NAME, THE TITLE OF THE PIECE AND THE UNIVERSITY YOU ATTEND.

-For short stories, the length can be no more that 1500 words

-For artwork, send a digital image of the work to the email address.

The editorial board of Voice & Vision Literary Magazine would like to thank all of those artists who submit-ted their work and shared their creativity with us. Your dreams, hopes, aspirations bled through your pens, cameras and paintbrushes and !owed into the minds of readers. We would also like to extend our special appreciation to the following departments, organizations and individuals who made it possible for Voice & Vision to not only continue publication, but their support helped this magazine to become an o"cial satel-lite of For Members Only, Northwestern’s Black student alliance:

Student Activities Funding Board (SAFB)

Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences

Medill School of Journalism

Department of Art Theory and Practice

The Center for Writing Arts

The English Department

The Department of Performance Studies

The Black Graduate Student Association

African American Student A#airs

Department of African American Studies

For Members Only

Dr. Mary Pattillo

Dr. Darlene Clark Hine

Dr. Tracy Vaughn

Shawna Cooper-Gibson

E.J. Basa

Thank you for reading Voice &Vision Literary Magazine. For comments or questions, email us at voiceandvision37@gmail.com.

Acknowledgements

© 2007 Voice & Vision Literary Magazine reserves all rights to included works. Cover and contents may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the written permission from Voice & Vision Literary Magazine. Includ-ed works re!ect the opinions of their artists and not that of Voice & Vision Literary Magazine. Voice & Vision

Literary Magazine is a satellite of FMO. SAFB funded.

We are

Nikki’s potent poetry

Charlie’s melodic notes

Jacob’s skillful strokes

Malcolm’s thunderous roar

Amiri’s sharp tongue....

and pen

We are

Voice & Vision