Creative Living, Creative Works - Angela M. Counts

Download copy of video   01:10, Digital Video, Sound Recording (Vocal performance by Angela Counts).  Part of the fall 2010 Post-Baccalaureate group show, 27 Days, at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The waves so restless now, Tossing us about, confused This same ocean I knew Since youth, and his eyes too And now, I can’t look. His eyes, the same as mine. Panic, they look away. The same, Dark, ocean we belong. Only now, terror: the smells That we did not know. So Close together. The shame I never knew; his leg Crossed with mine, and hers too. Somebody’s arm bloodied. She fell, We smell, each other, Our humanity. Who are these Devils, the ones with greedy teeth? What did we do, and Now can it be undone?

Poem "Tribute to Mary Lou" by Angela Counts © 2010 Commissioned for Jazz at Union's Women in Jazz - "A Tribute to Mary Lou Williams's Jazz Mass for Peace" ~ United Methodist Church - South End, Boston - February 7, 2010  The men loom so large in jazz Sometimes we forget the women And sometimes we never knew But there she was, all along Started playing at 2 Her mother practiced piano Beating around that old-fashioned organ That Mama used to play Mama told her, sitting there on her lap One day, Mary Lou’s baby fingers Beat her to it Must’ve been so good Mary Lou recalled, that Mama Ran out the door to get the neighbors Wasn’t long ‘fore folks Asked if she could play it Play that piano, play it for ‘em Mama knew she had something Was able to recognize the gift Soon she had the professional musicians Coming by the house daily, on shifts To teach little Mary Lou how to play