This week’s Deep Water poem, by Maya Williams, takes us onto a film set and into the thoughts of an actor portraying Mary Bowser, a Black spy for the Union. I’m struck by how much is going on in Williams’s few lines: one actor’s interior experience, a cast and crew telling Bowser’s story, and deep complexities of history, lived perspective and representation. I also love how Williams keeps the poem grounded in “breath”– a word that evokes both larger ongoing histories of Black life and death, and the visceral, present-tense life of this one human dressed in a corset.
Maya Williams (pronouns they/she) is a Black and mixed-race suicide survivor who lives in Portland. Williams has published poems with glitterMOB, Black Table Arts, Occulum, Littoral Books, Homology Lit and more. They are a Best of the Net nominee and a winner of the 2019 PortFringe Audience Choice Award for their spoken word showcase “Speaking With An Extraterrestrial.” They are also the recipient of residencies with Hewnoaks, Sundress Academy for the Arts, and the Voices of Our Nation Arts (VONA) Foundation. You can find Maya hosting open mics on most Tuesday nights with Port Veritas and facilitating writing workshops on Sunday mornings via Zoom. Follow Maya’s work via mayawilliamspoet.com.
On a Film Set Playing Mary Bowser
By Maya Williams
with the producers’ expectations
with the actors’ collaborations
with my ancestors’ questions
To breathe is an entanglement
be called a “lady” in this corset
hear slave jokes in this corset
sit in a prison scene in this corset
to finally take off this corset
Megan Grumbling is a poet and writer who lives in Portland. Deep Water: Maine Poems is produced in collaboration with the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. ”On a Film Set Playing Mary Bowser,’” copyright @ 2021 by Maya Williams. Reprinted from Facebook, 2021, by permission of the author.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
-
Sports
Sports Digest: Morikawa leads Workday Open despite late stumble
-
Biddeford-Saco-OOB Courier
Center provides free tablets to Maine residents
-
Nation & World
FDA authorizes Johnson & Johnson’s one-dose vaccine
-
Nation & World
‘Blame Trump’ defense in Capitol riot looks like a long shot
-
Nation & World
Ten death row inmates in Oklahoma could get new trials
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi {SUB NAME}, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have one? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login to participate in the conversation. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.