Aaron L. Myers
"Don’t Ask Me To Smile"
"Don't Ask" is a song that was inspired in part by "The Mask" by Maya Angelou and "Over the Rainbow," presented as an assertive yet pulled back jazz standard. We (the marginalized) have used smiles as masks, to mask fear, pain, disappointment, hurt, exhaustion, bewilderment...etc. But we are at a point where the oppressors are requesting us to smile as they are aware of the pain they are inflicting. It must stop.