Abbeville

April 19, 2022
Population: 12,167

We headed to nearby Abbeville, another cute small city of 13,000. I had eyed their Christian Service Center - a nonprofit with raving Google reviews offering assistance to those in crisis situations. I would learn throughout tour that Google reviews of social services do not lie - negative or positive. I walked in to the office and explained myself. I was getting the hang of my pitch by now: “Hi! My name is Miki, I’m a pianist, I have kind of a weird question. I’m traveling across the country with a piano in a van, I’m stopping in towns like yours and looking for places to play for folks, and making a film about the trip. Are you interested in having me play?”

They put me on the phone with their director - I thought he was going to interrogate me, but he just wanted to tell me about homeless population in nearby cities who might also want to hear me play. I was led to their back patio where people were eating lunch from the soup kitchen. Multiple people helped to unload the piano, and I began to play.

The soup kitchen is staffed by volunteers from different churches in town, who rotate on different days. They asked, “Which ministry are you from!?” which is a distinctly Southern thing to be asked (and I’d never heard before). “Umm…ministry of me?” I replied. Everyone was very kind and even offered us each a plate of home cooked food, something I don’t take for granted when I’m on the road.

I’d play for a couple minutes at a time, chat with folks around me who had gathered quietly but inquisitively, go back to playing, and then chat some more, until eventually it became more about the conversations than the music. That was the role of my music throughout tour - to ignite the initial pathway of connection and intimacy among strangers (really, folks who had so little in common with me on the surface) - which would then lead to meaningful conversation. It was never “just about the music.”

Each person had their painful stories, and the overwhelming feeling they expressed was that they were stuck - stuck in Abbeville, stuck in their position in society. One man with a missing leg told me that because of the type of government assistance he is receiving ($600/month), if he got a job, 50% of compensation would be withheld the government. It’s impossible for him to find a job that would pay enough for him to take home substantially more than he does now. He also said he was in a car accident as a child and suffered brain damage - his family won $100,000 in court but his mother has custody of the money and he hasn't seen any of it. He said he doesn’t think about that money. “Really!?” I exclaimed. “Yeah really; I forgot about it until I told you about it just now.”