THE LITERARY MAGAZINE OF LEHMAN COLLEGE
VOL 3
SPRING 2012
Editor-in-Chief
Shabana Yusuf
Fiction and Poetry Editors
Jennifer Angelo
Eliasel Deoleo
Samontha Forbes
Alexander Linde
Marisa Melendez
Brian Rivera
Photography and Artwork Editor
Jennifer Liu
Copy Editor
Denise Ramirez
Faculty Advisor
Terrence Cheng
Administrative Advisors
Michael Sullivan
Vincent Zucchetto
Cover Art
Eileen McNamee
Alejandra Bodden
Sean Engeldrum
Grecia Huesca
Glenn McKie
Giovanni Ortiz
Pablo Torres
Copyright © 2012 by Obscura, Lehman College-CUNY
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Table of Contents
POETRY
Juan A. Rodriguez
M&M
Christopher Mammano
Sean Engeldrum
Jasmine Miranda
Brian Morgan
Brian Rivera
Martin Altman
Jennifer Liu
Natalia Troubitch
Natalia Troubitch
Haiku
What Will You Do
¿Noble?
8 Bus
Wallflowers
The Carpenter’s Mirth
Prominent Dreams
Advice to My Friend Who Has
Fallen in Love
Lament for the Stars
Beautiful Eyes
Memory
46
49
62
69
FICTION
Patrick Trotti
Carmen Santiago
Alejandra Bodden
Kevin Vachna
Giovanni Ortiz
Sarah Shatan – Pardo
The Ties That Bind Us
My Braid of Heritage
Twisted
All Roads Lead to Here
Santa is Real
Less Than Ten Minutes
3
21
28
38
50
64
1
15
17
25
26
33
37
PHOTOGRAPHY & ARTWORK
Jennifer Liu
Jennifer Liu
Adam Clark
Hope
Judgment Day
Courtship
2
14
16
iii
Adam Clark
Rosa Ianuale
Jennifer Liu
Jennifer Liu
The Legend of El Quetzal
Eileen McNamee
Tracie Castaldo
Ashley Maria Lorenzo
Diana Brito
Eileen McNamee
Alejandra Bodden
Eileen McNamee
iv
Betinween
20
Summer In NYC
23
Carousel
24
Untitled
27
Karla Cabrera
30, 31, 32
Execution Rock
35
(Open) Door
36
The Valley of the Shadow of Death
45
Cherry Blossoms
47
Snow Wave
48
For Gio
59
Lightning Storm
60
Foreword
Dear Reader,
Writers are not just people who sit down and write.They hazard themselves.
Every time you compose a book your composition of yourself is at stake.
— E.L. Doctorow
It is true, as Doctorow notes, that writers “hazard themselves” for us.
Writers give us themselves and their visions of the world. And it is indeed
hazardous, for perhaps one of the most difficult tasks in life is to let oneself
be seen by another. And to write, and to write well, is to do just this. To
write is to scratch upon the open page the very essence of who one is at
a given moment in time. To write is to lay oneself open to criticism, to
review, to adoration, to being seen. To attempt to do it, and do it well,
can be a frightening task at any age. To attempt to do so as a young adult
is entirely admirable. It is all the more admirable as the Lehman students
and alumni whose works follow know and understand the task at hand.
Despite this, they have been brave enough to want to push beyond. For
this act alone I find myself exceedingly proud of them.
Each of these writers have worked at their craft. They have sought
to tease out the individual and idiosyncratic paths their of lives, how they
make sense of their own world, and what it is that they want to say to their
readers. For that is the essential task of the writer — to say something,
to discover and reveal their preoccupations, and to make an interpretive
claim about what they see, and to decide what they want the reader to understand. A writer points out to a reader not only the writer’s own world
view, but also important, and often unseen aspects of the reader’s life. As
Anaïs Nin so eloquently claimed, “The role of a writer is not to say what
we all can say, but what we are unable to say.”
And to say what others are unable to say is a linguistic move that
necessitates each writer to analyze, critique, illuminate, and interpret. It
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necessitates being a truth-teller of sorts. It necessitates understanding and
expressing the realities of the complex human condition. Such a worthwhile and intricate endeavor requires moving beyond the simple, the rote,
the easy. To tell emotional truth — to have your readers believe and follow and trust you — means writers must pick a new path, a new way of
seeing and interpreting. This is not to say the pieces that follow are the
“actual” truth of anyone’s life. They are carefully chosen words that reveal
to the reader something inside the reader himself. A writer need not have
actually once followed a weakly-marked trail across high, winter mountains
to reach a lover for us to understand what the writer wants to tell us of
passion and drive and the illogical nature of love.
Given this, writers must pick their language carefully. As Twain said,
“the difference between the right word and the almost right word is the
difference between lightning and a lightning bug.” And the only way to
find the right word, or the right brush stroke, is to go. These writers went
where they needed to go simply through the act of going. To say simply
though is a bit of an understatement. More than a bit. Writing is an exquisitely complicated process. And, like anything worth pursuing — from
love to passion to dying — it tends toward complexity. As such, there
are precious few quick fixes, no easy answers, no slapping down random
words, formulas, or outlines. Writers have to trust an unfamiliar process
of moving into a space most people do not want to venture into, they
must choose their words, they must understand where they are taking their
reader and for what purpose.
I say all of this in order to say that this book, now lying open in your
own open hands, is filled with poetry, prose, and art work that are works
in conversation — with the writer, with you the reader, and the world at
large. It is a gift — even more so that these writers have simultaneously
embraced both the complexity of the world as well as the complexity of
their own minds grappling with those complexities. It is daunting, this
undertaking…especially as writers accept this challenge simply out of a
love of writing. For there is no grade for polishing a piece for publication.
There is no class credit. There is only the writer and a genuine sense of
discovery and pleasure gained from a task freely undertaken. I applaud
their enthusiasm and efforts.
I hope you enjoy reading these as much as I have and that you see,
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upon each page, not only a critical mind at work, but also a dedicated and
enthusiastic writer letting him or herself be seen. Emerson said that “the
maker of a sentence launches out into the infinite and builds a road into
Chaos and old Night, and is followed by those who hear him with something of wild, creative delight.” Let us follow these writers then, into the
infinite.
—Salita S. Bryant
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viii
Juan A. Rodriguez
Haiku
Can You Imagine
All Those Beautiful Thoughts
Dying Never Expressed
1
Hope
Jennifer Liu
Photography
2011
2
Patrick Trotti
The Ties That Bind Us
3
PATRICK TROTTI
4
The Ties That Bind Us
PATRICK TROTTI
The Ties That Bind Us
5
PATRICK TROTTI
6
The Ties That Bind Us
The Ties That Bind Us
PATRICK TROTTI
***
7
PATRICK TROTTI
8
The Ties That Bind Us
The Ties That Bind Us
PATRICK TROTTI
***
9
The Ties That Bind Us
PATRICK TROTTI
***
10
PATRICK TROTTI
The Ties That Bind Us
11
The Ties That Bind Us
PATRICK TROTTI
***
12
PATRICK TROTTI
The Ties That Bind Us
13
Judgment Day
Jennifer Liu
Photography
2011
14
M&M
What Will You Do
When your curiosity finally dies,
and the curves of her body you’ve managed to memorize.
What will you do?
When you realize,
that those were my eyes that had you hypnotized.
If she discovers the truth behind your lies
that the stories were never “just rumors”.
What will you do,
when she ravenously asks why?
Will you explain how many times we tried to say our goodbyes?
Surely you’ll let the moon take the blame
for being our spotlight on Cedar Lane.
Her heart,
like mine –
will surely turn dark
when she is informed of the kisses we shared in the Park.
Our story was written, read by few.
But, she will admit she kind of already knew.
So, explain to me now, after all is said and done
did I fall in love alone, while you were just having fun?
When she hates you too,
what will you do?
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Courtship
Adam Clark
Digital Photography
Spring 2011
16
Christopher Mammano
¿Noble?
Así sea, soy maldito con intuición y un alma pura.
La marca oscura de Rousseau dicta este aliento
mi sonrisa demoníaca y esta calma inquietante
Antes que hables
Veo el pasado que escondes,
los fogonazos de tristeza, dolor, y felicidad
los gritos distintos que abruman mi alma,
una red torturada sin filtrar.
Tu vida, una mancha de tinta que crece en mi página,
oscurece todo, pero el proceso me fascina.
Tus ojos hablaron lo que tus labios nunca pudieron,
y mi alma abierta me ha traicionado otra vez.
Imagina las razones por las que navegaremos este río torcido
las razones por las que te querrá, las razones por las que te odiará
Imagina la hora en que nos diremos nuestros adioses,
conozco tu corazón, oigo cada latido
Con solamente esta mirada una conexión tan profunda y osada,
una conexión espontánea y reveladora que se revienta con realidad y
miedo.
Aire de trepidación
flecha de lujuria,
el último grano de arena suspendida en la columna,
Y sin una palabra,
nuestros ojos beben de los pozos raídos
y los huecos húmedos y fríos de nuestras almas.
Conozco el viaje de tu vida
y por eso
te quise,
te odié.
El tiempo espolea el habla y silencia el juicio.
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CHRISTOPHER MAMMANO
¿Qué sílaba banal puedo fruncir por estos labios de piedra?
¿Qué pensamiento puedo entretener en los fuegos de desmentido?
Te veo, Te conozco, Te quiero, Te odio¿Cuál verdad debo seguir?
¿Qué te diré?
Noble?
And so I am cursed with intuition and a pure soul.
Rousseau’s dark mark dictates this breath
my demon smile and this eerie calm
Before you speak
I see the past you hide,
flashes of sadness, pain, joy
disparate screams that burden my soul,
this tortured unfiltered net.
Your life, an increasing ink blot on my page
darkens everything, but the process fascinates me.
Your eyes spoke the story your lips would never,
and my open soul has betrayed me once more.
Imagine knowing why we will sail this twisted river.
Why, you will love me, hate me,
Imagine the hour we will say our goodbyesI know your heart, I hear its every beat
With only this glance a connection so deep and bold,
a spontaneous, revealing connection bursting with reality, fear.
Air of trepidation
arrow of lust,
the last grain of sand suspended in the column.
And without a word
our eyes drink from the shabby wells
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¿Noble?
CHRISTOPHER MAMMANO`
Noble?
and dank hollows of our souls.
I know the journey of your life
and for this
I’ve loved you,
I’ve hated you.
Time spurs speech and quiets judgment.
What mundane syllable can I purse through these stone lips?
What thought can I entertain in the fires of denial?
I see you, know you, love you, hate youWhich truth should I follow?
What will I say to you?
19
Betinween
Adam Clark
Digital Photography
Summer 2011
20
Carmen Santiago
My Braid of Heritage
21
CARMEN SANTIAGO
22
My Braid of Heritage
Summer in NYC
Rosa Ianuale
Black and White Silver Gelatin
July 2009
23
Sean Engeldrum
8 Bus
25
Carousel
Jennifer Liu
Watercolor
2010
24
Jasmine Miranda
Wallflowers
26
Untitled
Jennifer Liu
Photography
2011
27
Alejandra Bodden
Twisted
***
28
Twisted
ALEJANDRA BODDEN
***
29
The Legend of El Quetzal
Karla Cabrera
Printmaking
April 2011
30
The Legend of El Quetzal
Karla Cabrera
Printmaking
April 2011
31
The Legend of El Quetzal
Karla Cabrera
Printmaking
April 2011
32
Brian Morgan
The Carpenter’s Mirth
33
BRIAN MORGAN
34
The Carpenter’s Mirth
Execution Rock
Eileen McNamee
Photography
2009
35
Brian Rivera
Prominent Dreams
36
(Open) Door
Tracie Castaldo
Black and White 35mm
Film
August 2010
36
Kevin Vachna
All Roads Lead to Here
38
KEVIN VACHNA
All Roads Lead to Here
39
KEVIN VACHNA
40
All Roads Lead to Here
KEVIN VACHNA
All Roads Lead to Here
41
KEVIN VACHNA
42
All Roads Lead to Here
KEVIN VACHNA
All Roads Lead to Here
43
KEVIN VACHNA
44
All Roads Lead to Here
The Valley of the Shadow of Death
Ashley Maria Lorenzo
Silver Gelatin Print, `May 2010
Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil. -Psalm 23:4
45
Martin Altman
Advice to My Friend Who Has Fallen in Love
46
Cherry Blossoms
Diana Brito
Woodcut
June 2011
47
Jennifer Liu
Lament for the Stars
49
Snow Wave
Eileen McNamee
Photography
2010
48
Giovanni Ortiz
Santa is Real
***
50
GIOVANNI ORTIZ
Santa is Real
51
GIOVANNI ORTIZ
52
Santa is Real
Santa is Real
GIOVANNI ORTIZ
***
53
GIOVANNI ORTIZ
54
Santa is Real
GIOVANNI ORTIZ
Santa is Real
55
GIOVANNI ORTIZ
56
Santa is Real
Santa is Real
GIOVANNI ORTIZ
***
57
GIOVANNI ORTIZ
58
Santa is Real
For Gio
Alejandra Bodden
Drawing
2012
59
Lightning Storm
Eileen McNamee
Photography
2010
60
Lehman College and the New York City Lab School
for Collaborative Studies
We are happy to feature the work of two outstanding writers from the New York City
Lab School of Collaborative Studies. Their work appears here as the result of a growing
relationship between our institutions. These students and the creative works they have
produced are first steps in an important bridge between the high school and college
experience.
We hope you find the voices and craft found in these pieces to be as beautiful and
engaging as we do. Congratulations to Sarah Shatan-Pardo and Natalia Troubitch for
sharing their work with the Lehman Community. For more information, visit www.
lehman.edu.
[email protected]
www.facebook.com/ObscuraLiteraryAndArtsMagazine
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Natalia Troubitch
Beautiful Eyes
62
NATALIA TROUBITCH
Beautiful Eyes
63
Sarah Shatan – Pardo
Less Than Ten Minutes
64
SARAH SHATAN – PARDO
Less Than Ten Minutes
65
SARAH SHATAN – PARDO
66
Less Than Ten Minutes
SARAH SHATAN – PARDO
Less Than Ten Minutes
67
SARAH SHATAN – PARDO
68
Less Than Ten Minutes
Natalia Troubitch
Memory
69
NATALIA TROUBITCH
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Memory
Contributors
Martin Altman was born and raised in the Bronx, graduated from Lehman College in
1972 with a B.A. in English, and worked in credit/collections and accounts receivable in
New York City’s Garment District for 40 years. Since April 2010 he and his wife Joyce
have lived in Chicago. He was Featured Reader at The Café and at TallGrass Writers
Guild in Chicago. His poem, “City Island,” was published in A Bird in the Hand: Risk
and Flight (2011, Outrider Press). Two early poems have been published in Footnotes
(Lehman’s previous literary magazine). Being a stutterer from childhood, his poetry is
mainly concerned with speaking and hearing, breathing and cessation, connection and
isolation, and silence.
Alejandra Bodden is a senior at Lehman College majoring in English Creating Writing.
Her passion is writing, and she is very proud to be part of OBSCURA Literary Magazine.
Diana Brito is a student at Lehman College, and loves Art. She has been an Artist
from an early age, and recently discovered Woodcutting, and has found her passion.
Woodcutting is a medium that brings a classy look into Art, and being able to work in
this medium is a great feeling. She believes being an Artist is her destiny.
Karla Cabrera is from Guatemala. She is majoring in Health Services Administration,
and minoring in Psychology. Her favorite pastime is art, because she has a creative mind.
Tracie Castaldo is currently pursuing a graduate degree in English Education at Lehman
College. She is on her way to becoming a teacher-writer-photographer- world traveler
extraordinaire.
Adam Clark has been a student at Lehman for the past three years, lives in New
Rochelle, is 5’7”, likes long talks about cartoons and the vulgar messages and metaphors
the animator and story board developer create that the innocent child mind cannot yet
process, and he finds that playing with cameras keeps his mind, eyes and hands focused
on a more promising view.
Sean Engeldrum is an aspiring author living in the Bronx, and currently attending
CUNY Lehman as a creative writing major. Barely literate, Sean must rely on the gnomes
that reside in his beard for inspiration. Sean’s non-writing related hobbies include fraternizing with anyone willing, and skipping rocks at dark, which is the only time he knows
how.
Rosa Ianuale is a freshmen member of the Lehman Scholars Program. She moved to
the U.S. from Italy nine years ago. In high school, in order to build up her resume she
joined various extracurricular activities including photography. Summer of junior year
she joined a program at ICP at the Point, where teenagers learned about all the terms
and how to print film in a dark room. She would like to major in biology and become a
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neurosurgeon in the future. Eventually, she has decided to travel the world and use her
knowledge of photography to capture all the moments.
Jennifer Liu is a sophomore at Lehman College double majoring in Studio Art: Painting,
and Marketing and minoring in Creative Writing. Her childhood dream was to become a
novelist. However, since then, she has expanded this dream to include ‘traditional artist’.
She believes that writing and art are special forms of communication; they allow the
creator to express themselves fully yet abstractly, while simultaneously encouraging the
audience to analyze the creator’s motives as well as their own.
Ashley Maria Lorenzo was born and raised in New York City. She was always exposed
to different cultures, people, places, and went through a lot at a very young age. She feels
like her work should inspire a story from the viewer, because no one looks at the world
the exact same way as the next person.
Christopher Mammano has been writing poetry in both Spanish and English for sometime now, and while he is still learning, poetry has always helped him acquire new vocabulary words in any language he has studied. By assigning emotion to foreign words he has
always been able to remember them and utilize them in a constructive manner. Poetry and
literature introduced him to the intricate and beautiful world that is Russian Language. He
is a Russian Major, a Spanish Minor, studies German, and is currently working on his own
bilingual (Spanish, English) poetry book. He is also a member of the Lehman Swimming
Team, and the Outdoor Track team.
Eileen McNamee is an alumnus of Lehman College, class of ‘87. She’s currently
attending photography and graphic design courses at Lehman College. She has exhibited
at the Lehman Art Gallery on several occasions, the most recent being “Photographing
Woodlawn.” She is looking forward to a second career as a professional photographer.
Jasmine Miranda is a freshman at Lehman College pursuing a degree in English. She
enjoys reading and hopes to have a novel published in the future.
Brian Morgan is an alumnus of both Lehman College (BA, Summa Cum Laude, 2011)
and Obscura (Editor In Chief, vols. 1 & 2). In addition to writing poetry, fiction, and the
occasional lyric, he enjoys writing and performing music, as well as working in a wide
variety of visual arts.
M & M (a pseudonym) is twenty years old and currently a second semester sophomore.
She is very involved in school, and passionate about sports. She has also made the Dean’s
List twice. Her poem was inspired by a love triangle; as are most of her pieces, she usually
writes about unrequited love.
Giovanni Ortiz, senior, graduate of Fall 2012, English in Creative Writing – minor in
Psychology. He dedicates this story to Prof. GD Peters for the push to write this fictional
story for his class and to all the kids in everyone. He plans to work in the field of Social
Work and continue his writing in fitness, fiction, memoir, and non-fiction.
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Brian Rivera is an English Literature Honors major with a minor in Middle and High
School Education, who hopes to bring the pleasures of reading and writing to the young
minds of the future.
Juan A. Rodriguez is a prospective Political Science major who was born and raised in
the South Bronx. He is charming, intelligent, handsome, well-socialized, and modest to a
fault. He swears he didn’t write this himself.
Carmen Santiago studied English Literature at Lehman and graduated with honors this
past fall 2011 semester. She is currently enrolled in the English Literature MA program
at City College. She spends a lot of time reading and writing and her plan is to continue
doing so, while she teaches ELA in a NYC high school.
Sarah Shatan – Pardo is a Junior at the NYC Lab School for Collaborative Studies in
Chelsea. She is in the instrumental, art, and literary magazine clubs in school. She lives
with her family in upper Manhattan and has always loved writing, creatively or otherwise. She has participated in National Novel Writing Month for two years, and hopes to
one day publish a novel.
Patrick Trotti is a writer, editor, and student. On good days it’s in that order. He works
as an Editorial Assistant for Tiny Hardcore Press, Book Reviewer for jmww, interns at
Specter Magazine, and is the Founder and Editor of the online literary journal (Short)
Fiction Collective. You can check out more of his writing at www.patricktrotti.com.
Natalia Troubitch is sixteen years old. She lives in Manhattan in New York City, and
is currently a junior in high school. She attends the NYC Lab School for Collaborative
Studies. She also lives with her parents as well as an older and younger sibling.
Kevin Vachna is currently finishing his Masters in English Lit and works full time as an
English teacher at DeWitt Clinton High School. He self-published a novel, Summer of the
Fall, in the Spring of 2009. When asked about his writing, Kevin says “On some level,
I find myself living in a fictionalized construct of the past I have experienced: a world
created by the fictional stories I have written throughout my life with fact and fiction
blurred”.
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Guidelines for all Submissions
(Deadline: Late November 2012)
Obscura is currently published annually. Obscura accepts work from currently enrolled
students (both undergraduates and graduates) and alumni of Lehman College ONLY. We
accept poetry, short stories, short plays, essays, and other creative writing. We also accept
photography, prints, drawing, and photographic representation of other art work, such as
paintings or sculptures. However, we do not accept op-ed pieces, current news stories, or
other journalistic work.
General:
Send a cover letter pasted in the body of the email to [email protected] in
proper business letter format addressed to:
Editors, Obscura
Lehman College-CUNY
Department of English
250 Bedford Park Blvd. West
Bronx, NY 10468
Must include a brief description of the work
Cover letter must include a short biographical statement (one to two sentences)
written in the third person about the author or artist
Contact information: full name, preferred email address, and phone number
Each submission must be attached in a separate file saved as .doc or .docx (no PDFs).
Files should be saved [Title]_[Last Name]_[Category i.e Fiction/Poetry/Art].doc(x)
For each manuscript submitted, author name, address, and contact information
should be on the first page in the upper left corner, followed by the title.
All pages must be numbered.
Should follow MLA format
Fiction:
Format: Typed; double-spaced; 1-inch margins; 12-point Times New Roman or
Arial font
Length: maximum 5,000 words
Content: open; must be original and unpublished
Limit: 3 manuscripts per submission
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Poetry:
Format: Typed; single-spaced; 1-inch margins; 12-point Times New Roman or
Arial font
Length: maximum 5 poems per submission
Content: open, must be original and unpublished
Art:
All graphic material must be black and white or grayscale
Should be scanned or saved at a resolution of 300 dpi.
If artwork does not belong to you it is your responsibility to obtain permission from
the rightful owner(s).
All work must be original and unpublished.
By submitting, you are granting Obscura permission to publish your work. All submissions
must be original and may not be previously published. By submitting your work, you are
agreeing to these terms and are legally responsible for any misrepresentation on your part.
[email protected]
www.facebook.com/ObscuraLiteraryAndArtsMagazine
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