Illinois Entertainer January 2015 | Page 16

BLUES POET
"

www.fitzgeraldsnightclub.com
F R I D AY, J A N U A RY 2

Old Salt Union
plus In The SideBar - Acoustic show

Kevin Gordon & Matthew Francis Andersen
S AT U R D AY, J A N U A RY 3

Funkadesi

I

got the blues so bad/it hurts my feet
to walk/I got the blues so bad/it hurts
my tongue to talk." Marian Hayes
slowly chants the words in a slight
Mississippi drawl. It sounds like a classic
blues song but it's actually the opening
verses for her award-winning blues poem
"The Blues," which reflects her close connection and love for the genre. "I am the
blues," like Willie Dixon said," said
Marian, summing up her life-long relationship with blues culture that now
includes featuring blues artists on her
radio show, Café Yeye, on WCSU, a websteamed radio station.

By Rosalind Cummings-Yeates

In 1994, Marian wrote the blues performance piece that would define her work as
a poet. She entered the Second Annual
Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Contest at
Guild Literary Complex and won the $500
first prize for "The Blues." "I won by the
people's choice, I was able to pay my mortgage with the blues," she said. "I performed all around the city. Sometimes
Billy would back me up. Shirley King
invited me to perform the