Tillery along with Becca Stevens, Gretchen Parlato, Rebecca Martin, Aaron Parks, Kate McGarry, Taylor Eigsti, Harish Raghavan, Larry Grenadier and others contributed to the newly released album “My Life is Bold” an Arts for Life Project.
A release date will be scheduled soon, and all proceeds from the CD will be donated to ‘Arts for Life’.
“Music is an integral part of the vital support services the Arts for Life team offers to young patients and families. Arts for Life Music Fellow Colin Allured describes his job as “growing happy cell” where cancer cells used to be. In 2009, Becca Stevens sang at an AFL fundraiser and she and her father, William Stevens, had the idea to set some of the children’s poetry to music for the event. The response to those two songs was so strong that discussions of a CD began, including Becca’s brother Bill who is a composer and recording studio engineer.
Producer William Stevens says, “We were overwhelmed by how many composers and musicians were willing to give so much time and creative energy to this project. But it didn’t stop there. The CD was made possible by the generosity of patrons, by free time provided by recording studios in North Carolina and New York, with the encouragement and support of the AFL staff and board, and most of all by the children in Arts for Life and their families who showed us the power of art to inspire, to change, and to heal.”
Arts for Life is a 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting people facing serious illnesses. By providing educational art programs, they enrich patients’ lives, nurture their minds and spirits, and encourage positive health care experiences for children and their families. Arts for Life helps children every day in four cities across North Carolina.
Poem by Luis, Age 11. Music by William Stevens
Performed by: Tillery (Rebecca Martin, Gretchen Parlato, Becca Stevens)
Acoustic Guitar: Becca Stevens
Weakness is a snail in your brain
Trying to control you
It smells like nasty sweat
It feels tingly, like ants in your pants.
It wants to eat my brain and control me
But I don’t’ want it to
I will fight
It’s like a rusty old car and a secret detective
Mysterious.
One day me and him had a war.
He said, “You’re going to stay this way.”
But I knew his weakness
Hope.
I told him that I have hope and in less than a second
He vanished.