ANGEL'S DESTINY: A Novel Story of Poems & Illustrations by April Martin Chartrand: 'Angel's Destiny . . . Reviewed in the Midwest Book Review by 'Susan Bethany,

‘ANGEL'S DESTINY: A Novel Story of Poems & Illustrations’ by April Martin Chartrand

‘ANGEL'S DESTINY: A Novel Story of Poems & Illustrations’ by new writer/artist April Martin Chartrand.

Similar to novel style chapters, each advances you from one stage of life’s emotions to another. This collection of poems & illustrations mimics a novel in an unexpected way – similarly, it tells an emotional plot of a character which interweaves the four emotion elements Illusions, Anger, Awareness, Love - progressing forward towards a healing resolve. Each emotional character takes the reader through a progressive journey of a multi-cultural woman’s self-discovery . . . far away from adversity.

Availalable: http://www.Amazon.com and https://www.createspace.com/3400758

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Tuesday, September 21, 2010

'Angel's Destiny . . . Reviewed in the Midwest Book Review by 'Susan Bethany,

Review:

Angel's Destiny: A Novel Story of Poems & Illustrations
April Martin Chartrand
Privately Published
9780615302515, $13.00

Emotion doesn't know just words alone. "Angel's Destiny: A Novel Story of Poems & Illustrations" is a collection of art and poetry from April Martin Chartrand as she brings readers into her own emotion and passion, transmitting these messages well through her chosen mediums. "Angel's Destiny" is an enticing collection, highly recommended. "Taking It Back": In our silence you had power/ to lie, cheat, beat, and steal.//A scene that later/became surreal.//Taking back the power of my birthright/reveals the sins of you.//Taking back my power,/I reveal to those who never knew.

Susan Bethany, Reviewer of "Bethany's Bookshelf " Midwest Book Review

http://midwestbookreview.com/rbw/sep_10.htm#bethany

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

APRIL MARTIN CHARTRAND'S articles and poems have been published in the Bay Area Reporter, Oakland Tribune, Whazzup! Magazine, and Family Violence Prevention Fund’s - Think How Your Life Would Have Been Different If Someone Had Helped You. She is the author/illustrator of Angel's Destiny: A Novel Story of Poems & Illustrations which was reviewed in the "Midwest Book Review" in 2010.

She has been featured on KQED Radio’s Forum, KPOO Radio, KTVU TV 10:00 p.m. News, KRON Bay Area Back Roads and KTVU TV Bay Area People.

Chartrand is a national award-winning fiberalchemist. Her art work is displayed in the Atlanta Life Insurance Company’s private collection. July 1, 1997 was April Martin Chartrand Day an honorary Proclamation issued by former San Francisco Mayor Willie Lewis Brown Jr.

The City and County Commission on the Status of Women awarded Chartrand with the 1998 Isabelle Cerna Award, San Francisco Board of Supervisors Certificate of Honor (two presented 1998/2001), and a San Francisco Public Library Unsung Hero Award presented by Supervisor Sophie Maxwell in 2001.

Chartrand holds a B.A. in Creative Arts (Center for the Experimental Interdisciplinary Arts) from San Francisco State University.

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Mailing: PO Box 14752 SF CA 94114-0752

*E-Mail: angelsdestiny2009@gmail.com

Other Web Links that feature my work:
*You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/user/AprilMartinChartrand
*Red Room: http://www.redroom.com/member/aprilmartinchartrand
*Word Press: http://aprilmartinchartrand.wordpress.com

CONTENTS N THIS BLOG IS COPYRIGHT by APRIL MARTIN CHARTRAND. All Rights Reserved 2009.
No content can be copied and pasted into other mediums without permissions from the Author.

INTRODUCTION by IMANI HARRINGTON (ANGEL'S DESTINY)

One main factor that binds one in an abusive relationship is relative to how one views herself and it is through self awareness that we are able to break through our silence. Here in ‘Angel’s Destiny’, we find the inner working thoughts as a meditation on love and hate. A yin and yang of human behavior caught between mysticism, metaphysics and the principles of what the Gods, Goddesses, Angels and the Saints of Our Muse offers us when one uses their voice and pen as a weapon against violence. In its illustrations we find signs and symbols of transformative powers of the cosmos.

Ensconced in April Martin Chartrand’s destiny we find a rare gem of a novel story of poetry that digs deep into the inner core of the soul, manifesting a deep reflection on the nature of violence. She calls on the greatest sages of our times: Thich Nhat Hanh, Dalai Lama, and even contemporaries as Louise Hay, Ruth King, Eckhart Tollie and Iyanla Vanzant all of whose philosophical underpinnings are sprinkled throughout this book and tells the tale of tension and conflict as an arc of violence and creates a spectacle with a cast of characters as told through emotions. What’s key to unlocking this compendium of poetry is when the door opens on the prisoners of violence, we witness the heroic act of breaking free from ones executioner. This spiritual consciousness is verisimilitude at its best, and it offers us psychological medicine.

The poems are richly crafted in rhyme and meter and some told in the style of epigrams and others in longer stanzas that demonstrate through irony, sarcasm and wit, the illusions of anger, the attention of awareness and the offering of love where we find the archetype role each of us plays out in our own drama. Deception that hides behind violence unveils the lie of the mind and the maddening silence that traps the soul of its victims as prey. But Chartrand awakens the souls of the dead and shows us how parts of ones self lost and is now found in the arms of an Angel.

Through poems like ‘Angel’s Destiny’ we find sheer power and in My River Iguazu there is a self-crafted identity Goddess Siddhu that illuminates and offers inner strength and the value and strength of finding the goddess in ourselves. Chartrand tells her readers that To Be a Poetess is akin to being a priestess and after having been at war she comes out of battle brandishing her shield of honor and courage as redemption. This act of poetry is an allegorical spin of moral lessons for all of us. In the last section, the most visual and reflective, she say’s “I’ve been sent here to tell you my overdue story of redemption and salvation in a world of symbolism syntax and pretext.” This is a great read and metaphor reflecting historical and contemporary slavery that will reach a wide audience where we hear the cries of cultural violence and its echoes for which we have all experienced. I commend and congratulate Ms. Chartrand on her courage and character that speaks the truth about the unwavering human condition.

~Imani Harrington, writer and playwright - October 7, 2009