About this Artist

Pronouns: she/her

Happiest on stage and in the classroom, Mary strives to bring high quality arts education access to all students, despite race or socioeconomic background. Mary is currently working as a music Teaching Artist and the creator of Write Now Music and Movement. Write Now Music & Movement arts programming is designed to give students opportunities for personal enrichment and catharsis, using original songwriting, choreography, and performance coaching. WNMM further empowers students to be world changers through courses in artistic activism. Mary Fields has substantial performance experience as a Soprano Chorister and soloist. She has performed internationally, including in Africa, Prague, and China. Mary currently serves as mentor/admin with The Urban Choral Arts Society, based in Baltimore, MD, and continues to perform independently and as a member of The Carter Legacy Singers.

Creating and performing music has saved lives. I should know, because it’s difficult to imagine where I would be without them. It built esteem and gave me a means of communicating with the entire world about my thoughts, feelings, and the trials of my youth. But this gift is anyone’s gift. It belongs to all those who have something to say are willing to work hard for the opportunities to say it. This made it simple to choose a career path. I knew I had to be an artist, and felt especially compelled to empower as many youths to express themselves through songwriting as possible. Utilizing rhyme, simile, metaphor, and a host of other literary devices and techniques, my work provides simple, yet powerful observation and analysis of the world, and the world that is possible. My programming seeks to empower students to do the same thing. With an emphasis on Hip Hop and R&B original songwriting in the classroom, I am able to provide an exciting way to build understanding of concepts while also sharing with students how to make their written voices powerful. Hip Hop is my main vehicle because of how powerful and genius the genre truly is when analyzed. I am an artist and an advocate, and I work to also shift the central dialogue around this music and its creators. It should not be hard for listeners to hear literary genius when they hear good quality Hip Hop, but sadly, a lot of people don’t even know what exactly that entails. My personal work and my classroom work uplifts the genre on its own, putting rap and rhyming on full display for listeners and people who don’t listen, as a modern example of the art geniuses of our time. It displays the natural creative genius of Black Americans and I seek to create conversations around my art and programming that highlight this even further.