MARIA ADUKE ALABI

I am a native of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic where I had the happiness of being born on August 22, 1977. I studied accounting, business administration, Graphic Design, photography, English among other courses. I am the founder and owner of the company Rentaino srl ( www.rentaino.com ) and Quisqueyana Press ( www.quisqueyanapress.com ).

I have been recognized as the winner of several literary competitions. I am a member of various boards of non-profit organizations in San Diego and Nigeria. I am a member of the "Alliance of Independent Authors" and "The National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures" in the USA, where I reside.

Regardless of my professional and family life, my artistic life is battled between writing and photography. I am passionate about capturing images in photographs and creating graphic arts, but writing poetry is my number one passion. By writing poetry I direct my artistic feelings from the inside out; Photography does the opposite, it helps me attract art from the outside in.

My personal motto is "Know yourself and all that you represent" this ancient Greek aphorism "Gnothi seauton" (Know yourself) is one of the most profound and meaningful phrases in the mental, spiritual and physical development of being human. Knowing everything that we represent in a certain way involves knowing your roots, your culture, your ancestors, your history and everything that makes a person what they are.

In me lies a great interest in safeguarding the cultural treasures of my homeland, moved by a special appreciation of its traditions, but also by fear that these traditions will disappear or remain stagnant as something of the past, without surviving modernism, with which competes with great disadvantages. That is why he works on a collection of traditional Dominican children's songs that bears the same name.