Marsha Music recites her poem Just Say Hi and has plenty to share about her words ... it was the first time I had met Marsha. I attended my first Detroit Urban Consulate Parlor Talk in June 2016 to hear Marsha Music. I was going to be giving a Parlor Talk the following week and felt this would be an opportunity for me to meet Marsha Music as I have enjoyed seeing and hearing her virtually . I also wanted to get a feel for the setting at the Urban Consulate in preparing for my own Parlor Talk the next week.

I was overcome with a sense of joy, melancholy, gratitude, optimism, reality, and so many emotions all wrapped up in my response to what Marsha shared ... perhaps most of all the unexpected warm and heartfelt welcome she gave me when she saw I was there to hear her speak. I did not know Marsha personally and had no idea she knew me. I knew that night when Marsha spoke to me from her heart I was home. I was at the right place at the right time with the right person coming into my life.

Marsha's words when talking story, her message in her poems she read, her personality, her brutal yet graceful honesty about so many issues that do linger in my subconscious, her warmth for all that were in attendance, her generosity in acknowledging others made it a very special evening.

I did not record all of the talk but here is some of what I got and I hope you find listening as worthwhile as I did and do each time I listen when sharing it with others.

I have since read so much more of Marsha 's work. I've had a long conversation by phone the day after her talk that I treasure as she has so much wisdom to share. I was so pleased Marsha attended my parlor talk and shared her heart and so grateful to know Marsha. I was certain Marsha should be reciting her poem at Detroit Homecoming and told her I was going to make that a goal of mine. It was a blessing that when I was able to introduce Colleen Robar, who produces Detroit Homecoming at an event I created at Detroit Foundation Hotel an instant friendship and mutual respect between the two evolved and Marsha did in fact present her poem at the closing of Detroit Homecoming in 2017 and so many meaninfgful friendships have evolved from bringing us all together.

We have spent a lot of time together in person and on the phone and in spirit. I have loved how we have weaved our support for one another and others too into some wonderful thoughtful friendships with new friends and people from our past. Can't begin to express how much I have learned about the Detroit I thought I knew from what Marsha shares.