POSTPONED Remember Me: Celebrating Mary Lou Williams in Poetry and Music

EVENT UPDATE: There has been a lineup change for this event. The Madison Jazz Festival performance of Remember Me: Celebrating Mary Lou Williams in Poetry and Music will feature poet Fabu Phillis Carter with pianist Chris Rottmayer and bassist Laurie Lang.

A 2025 Madison Jazz Festival Event

Madison Jazz Festival 2025 and Arts + Literature Laboratory present Remember Me: Celebrating Mary Lou Williams in Poetry and Music, a celebration of the first lady of jazz, with poet Fabu Phillis Carter, pianist Chris Rottmayer, and bassist Laurie Lang on Tuesday, June 10, 2025 at 7:00pm.

Mary Lou Williams became one of the most influential pianists and composers in jazz history, whose work encompassed all eras and styles of jazz. Poet Fabu Phillis Carter and pianist Jane Reynolds presented the Remember Me program at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. on May 10, 2025 as part of the Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival. This performance is dedicated in appreciation to Jane Reynolds and the Mary Lou Williams Centennial Committee (2010).

Poet Fabu

Fabu Phillis Carter is an artist professionally known as Poet Fabu in Madison, Wisconsin. She is a poet, columnist, storyteller, and teaching artist who writes to encourage, inspire and remind. Selected as the first African American to become a Madison Poet Laureate (2008-2012), she continues to share the Black experience living in the South, the Midwest and in Africa. She served as poetry editor for Umoja Magazine and Madison Magazine. In 2019, she was poetry editor for the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets annual edition. She currently serves as poetry editor for the Capitol City Hues and is a culture columnist for the Cap Times newspaper. Dr. Fabu Carter has a PhD from the University of Nairobi, the African Women’s Center. She was recently selected as a Commissioner for the Madison Arts Commission. Also in 2021, she co-hosted Poetry for Life, a telephone poetry session every Thursday with Poet Gary Glazner. In 2022 that became the in-person... Read More

Chris Rottmayer

Chris Rottmayer is a jazz pianist, composer, and jazz vibraphonist living in Madison, Wisconsin. Chris has been a freelance jazz pianist since 1990, was a pianist for Walt Disney World from 1999 to 2020, and has released three albums as a leader: Reactive Synthesis (2013), Sunday at Pilars (2019), and So In Love (2020). Chris is currently the Instructor of Jazz Piano at the University of South Florida, where he has taught since 2007, and is pursuing a DMA in Piano Performance at the University of Wisconsin- Madison where he holds a Teaching Assistantship in the Theory department. (Source: chrisrottmayer.com)

Laurie Lang

Laurie Lang is a jazz bass violinist, composer, arranger, educator and producer. Her creative approach allows her sound to reach its musical depths, as her instrument becomes her voice. Laurie loves performing all kinds of jazz; from traditional New Orleans, to Basie big band, to hard bop, avant-garde/free jazz and also blending a variety of styles ideas while progressing the music forward.

Laurie enjoys taking on musical projects that build community. As a bass violinist, she regularly rehearses and performs with John Becker & Sally de Broux; Jim Erickson & Jan Wheaton Groups, Joan Wildman , Becca May Grant & the Rivers of Madison, Stan Godfriaux and Betsy Ezell. Over the past two decades, Laurie has been involved in Madison’s creative music scene cultivating creativity through founding and directing the Improvisational Music Workshop, an experimental environment, bringing together jazz enthusiasts and jazz musicians at... Read More

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Arts + Literature Laboratory is located at 111 S. Livingston Street #100, Madison, Wisconsin, 53703.

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