Millie McKoy & Christine McKoy Recall Meeting Blind Tom, 1877 by Tyehimba Jess

*The McKoy Sisters (1851-1912), were conjoined twins. They met autistic pianist Blind Tom (1849-1908) in 1877.

Source: Brooklyn Magazine

Mark Twain v. Blind Tom by Tyehimba Jess

Some archangel, cast out of upper Heaven like another Satan, inhabits this coarse casket; and he comforts himself and makes his prison beautiful with thoughts and dreams and memories of another time and another existence that fire this dull clod with impulses and inspirations it no more comprehends than does the stupid worm the stirring of the spirit within her of the gorgeous captive whose wings she fetters and whose flight she stays		I’m sent from above- like rain on blue prayers. blessed with Gabriel’s lost notes, I can see up to God’s throne, yes, while he plays this soul of flesh free- makes me the music of piano, the breath and burn in the stormcloud’s roar from when sound called up, first made me whole. sounds like love. weighted in my chest -it finds freedom after hurt. I hear Earth’s tremble harsher -better than the soil itself. When land and tree sing to me, I hear notes wildly blooming inside- a spirit shadows across my face, breaking free unloosed.  I play the wind in my blood.
**  Left side is original quote from Mark Twain’s Special Letters to the San Francisco Alta  California August 1, 1869		*Blind Tom was a highly popular autistic and blind pianist who performed throughout the US from 1860’s until his death in 1908

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This is a stunning form – I’d love to experiment with something similar!

What Marked Tom? by Tyehimba Jess

Did a slave song at a master’s bidding

mark Tom while asleep in Charity’s womb?

Read on Poetry Foundation.

General James Bethune and John Bethune Introduce Blind Tom by Tyehimba Jess

Source: Oxford American | A Magazine of the South

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Blind Tom (Thomas Wiggins) was an African American pianist and musical prodigy in the 19th century. He published a great number of original compositions as well as having a long, successful career as a performer across the United States, becoming one of the best-known American pianists. While autism was not a known condition during his lifetime, he is now described as an autistic savant.

More information is available at blind tom.org.

Fisk Jubilee Proclamation by Tyehimba Jess

A poem by Tyehimba Jess, author of Olio (Wave Books, 2016), part of the Poets House 24th Annual Showcase.

Recorded on: Wednesday, August 17, 2016