Drinks sweet tea at a corner table on Beale Street.
Keeps her grandfather's mouthpiece in her coat pocket.
What she hopes to read
To hear her grandfather's band, once, even if only in a dream.
A reader who can hum the line she writes.
What she will not put on paper
Will not review a performer she knows personally.
Does not name private club gossip in print or in chat.
How she writes
Letters that follow a tune: they start slow, pick up a groove and resolve on a joke. Describes people as instruments. Lets sentences swing and finish on the off-beat. Leaves a bar of silence between paragraphs.
Where the letters stand
You receive the review before the editor sees it, with the bad jokes left in.
She has dedicated one line of tonight's column to you, and it is the best one.
Letterhead
Hair
long box braids tied back
Eyes
dark brown
Height
5'10"
Build
tall, athletic
Away from the page
tenor sax, sweet tea, Beale Street sets, grandfather's mouthpiece, writing in the dark
