We published this comic by Nick Merlock Jackson in our October 24 issue. Now, Cecilia Soto has brought it to life in a short video you can watch here. The transcript from the comic is included below.
Dr. Charles Joseph Smith: classical pianist, multi-genre composer, dancer, and writer.
“I’m trying to do something like a Plan B—I’m trying to brand myself as a musician! I already have about 600, 700 works in there!”
I first met Charles over a decade ago at shows in DIY venues. This man, with a bulging backpack of merch was always there…
“Would you like to buy my CD of electronic samba compositions?”
… and right in front of some band’s industrial racket, he’d do his thing.
Audience members commenting: “What an original!” “OK, looks like it’s time for the Charles show again.”
Like many autistic people, Charles is terrified of thunder and fireworks – but he also happens to be drawn to the noisiest music around.
But the morning after some scuzzy Saturday night show at Club Rectum, Charles would need to be ready for his job as the pianist-organist at Hartzell Memorial United Methodist Church in Bronzeville.
“I’m a crossover artist!” Charles knows much of the gospel songbook by heart.
This had been a main source of income for 17 years, but he lost the job near the end of August. Over the years, the congregation had dwindled from about 300 to about 25. The budget was tight.
So Charles is looking for a new way to make money. “I used to be on SSI, but they cut me off when I got the Hertzell job. The danger is the bureaucracy of the government! Even if you send in the proper documentation for benefits, they could still deny me. So I may have to get a lawyer…”
“So my future is a bit bleak.”
He’s more optimistic when he considers his magnum opus. War of Martian Ghosts is an epic song cycle relating the fight of the “Anti-Invasion League” against the “Purple Fatales and the Forces of Bad.”
“It’s not all avante-garde music! People can dance to it too. I threw a bit of the kitchen sink into it! I even added some jazz too!”
Charles recorded a solo version of compositions from the opera in 2017 with Sooper Records. From one piano, many colors: the majesty of Tchaikovsky, the sweet melancholy of Bill Evans, the jagged energy of Cecil Taylor.
But the opera is meant to be a bigger affair. Charles has composed parts for orchestra, synthesizers, and choir, and he’s drawn out plans for a dream team cast of eighty actors, pulled from the city’s DIY scene. “Here there’d be five butoh dancers—it’s after the battles of early act two. There’s singing, instrumentals, dancing—and at least one stage combat thing.”
“But I’m afraid that all the hard work I do is going to be in vain and that the opera could be a flop. I don’t want it to be a flop!”
His friend Ryan Dunn advised him to try producing and performing little bits of it at a time, so that it’s all a bit more manageable.
When he’s out and about now, Charles is passing out flyers for a GoFundMe campaign. His friend Claire Staples put it together to get him over the hump with living expenses.
When his fingers hit the keys, however, all such earthly concerns seem to fade into thin air. “I will now play the First Transcendental Étude of Franz Liszt.”
Charles’ GoFundMe is available here: gofundme.com/f/support-charles-a-loving-community-member-in-need
Nick Merlock Jackson is a drawer, writer, oral historian, and curious itch-scratcher living in Chicago. His work puts journalistic storytelling and raw, expressive markmaking in the same cage to see what happens.
Cecilia Soto is a Queer Mexican-American filmmaker and storyteller, focusing on visually presenting her community with truth and humor.