MASTERFUL STORY TELLER, POET AND AWARD WINNING AUTHOR MS. EBELE CHIZEA OFFERS POWERFUL LIFE LESSONS IN RIVETING DEBUT NOVEL "AQUARIAN DAWN"

           Words have tremendous power.   In African society, words are the instrument employed  by Griots – storytellers –  to unmask the past, inform the present,  and speak to the future.  Griots instill cultural values, perpetuate legacies, resurrect abandoned visions, issue warnings,  and move souls to embrace their destiny.  With their instrument – words – they can change the trajectory of the lives of the souls who come within their orbit.   Heralded as one of the Millennium’s impactful griots and rising literary stars,   award-winning author, poet, and Global Citizen Ms. Ebele Chizea gifts us with  a masterfully crafted debut novel --  Aquarian Dawn, published by Three Rooms Press (http://threeroomspress.com).     

               Our Griot,  Ms. Chizea, transports us to a turbulent period in American, African, and world history and introduces us to fifteen year old Ada Ekene.  The year is 1966.  Aquarian Dawn paints a vivid collage of the turbulent cultural, political, and social turmoil occurring in the United States, Nabuka --  a fictional West African nation and birthplace of Ada Ekene and her mother, and the world.   After centuries of colonial rule, the fictional West African nation of Nabuka gains its independence, but is thrust into a horrific civil war.  In the United States, African Americans and their allies through the Civil Rights Movement endeavor to dismantle centuries of economic, educational, social, and political apartheid.  At the same time, the United States is engaged in a military conflict in Southeast Asia – Vietnam.  Sentiment  in the form of street demonstrations in cities around the globe, including the United States,  against American military involvement in the Vietnam gains momentum.    

            Ada Ekene’s  tumultuous journey from adolescence to adulthood mirrors the tumult that envelopes the world throughout the 1960s and into the early to mid-1970s.       Her spontaneous decision to drop out of college and return to Nabuka is a path that greatly differs from the path Ada’s mother expected her to navigate.  Her return to Nabuka  forces Ada to embrace her destiny when a whirlwind  of events unfold that  shake her to her core and dramatically changes the trajectory of her life. 

            Aquarian Dawn is a breathtaking, soulful, and timeless literary masterpiece that will engulf readers in a tsunami  of emotions. It will be difficult for us not to see  reflections of  ourselves in Ada Ekene.   Haven’t we all witnessed a dramatic change in the trajectory of our lives at some point?  Haven’t we all stumbled upon truths that shook us to our core or attempted to run away from our destiny?    Through her debut novel, Aquarian Dawn,  Ms. Ebele Chizea –our Griot – presents each of us with a beautiful and powerful story.  At the same, Ms. Chizea,  in the tradition of Griots from times past, employs words as her instrument – through Aquarian Dawn – to offer us profound life lessons about listening to our soul’s voice, the transcendency of love, embracing our destiny, and the wisdom in unmasking the past.