Describing Black folks’ hair, writer and philosopher bell hooks once said, “our hair feels like flower petals.” She was discussing language and its power to liberate — its power to generate narratives around Black identity that communicate beauty within a society where minstrel images and racial stereotypes run rampant. When Steph Davis heard her say “our hair feels like flower petals,”  they reached up to touch their own hair. Running their fingers through their 4C coils, they smiled when they agreed with her; our hair feels like flower petals. Internalizing this powerful description helped to shift how they view themself.

like flower petals... aims to shift how some people view the marimba. Though the marimba has a rich history rooted on the African continent, much of the marimba repertoire in the West emphasizes white Euro-American contributions while simultaneously ignoring the music of African-descended people and cultures. Combining arrangements of 1) traditional and contemporary West African gyil music, 2) African American spirituals and the Hush Arbor tradition, and 3) contemporary classical works by Black composers, this program engages Africanity as a lens through which to conceptualize and listen to the marimba.

Photo by Lauren Miller

Friday, May 17 at 7:00 PM (Doors 6:30 PM), approximately 60 minutes

Tickets are available for $15 in advance, $18 at the door, and $22 for preferred seating (pay-what-you-can available)

Please join Steph Davis and Mayo Street Arts for the FREE Portraits of Spirituals workshop on Saturday, May 18 at 11:00 AM. The community workshop explores the music/culture of African American spirituals as arranged for marimba. Participants will have the opportunity to engage with traditional music, the Hush Arbor tradition, and African American quilt making. Learn more and register here.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Steph Davis is a marimbist, composer, Africana studies scholar, and cultural activist. Their music engages traditions, epistemologies, and aesthetics from the African diaspora as means for uncovering truthful historiographies, finding creative self-actualization, and reaching for collective liberation. 

Hailed by The Washington Post as a "captivating" performer who brings “bright humanity and expressive depth” to contemporary music, Steph is marimba soloist, chamber musician, and collaborator. Integrating African American, West African, and Western classical musical traditions, their performances explore the historiography of African American culture and freedom movements from an Africana womanist, Afrofuturist, and decolonial perspective. Through their arrangements and commissions, Steph has contributed over 20 works by Black composers to the marimba's repertoire. Steph is a Marimba One Premier Artist. 

Steph has been awarded residencies at Avaloch Farm Music Institute and Boston Center for the Arts and artist fellowships with the Antenna Cloud Farm Experimental Institute and Music for Food. They were semifinalist in the Southern California Marimba International Artist Competition and a finalist in the Boston Conservatory Concerto Competition. 

In addition to their performance career, Steph is a teaching artist with Castle of our Skins, a Black arts institution, and instructor of music theory at the Boston Conservatory. They are a co-founder of Modern Marimba and chair of the board of directors at Castle of our Skins. 

Steph received their Master of Music in marimba performance and Bachelor of Music in percussion performance from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, where they studied with Nancy Zeltsman. 

Steph resides on unceded land of the Neponset band of the Massachusett tribe, bordertown Boston, MA.

PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN POLICY

No one will be turned away for lack of funds; contact MSA at 207-879-4629 or info@mayostreetarts.org for information on our pay-what-you-can admission policy.

COVID-19 POLICY

Mayo Street Arts no longer requires audience members attending public events to wear masks. Audience members who feel sick—whether due to COVID or any other illness—should stay home out of respect for others.

CANCELLATION POLICY

Mayo Street Arts has a no refund policy for all reservations. In the event that MSA is forced to cancel an event due to weather, illness, etc., refunds will be offered via the Ticket Tailor platform.

Funded in part by the New England States Touring program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts Regional Touring Program and the six New England state arts agencies.