Jasmine Cephas Jones reminded the attendees at TheWrap’s Changemakers dinner that stories can also be told via song with her stirring medley of John Lennon’s “Imagine” and her original song “Little Bird.”
“There’s a lot of courage and resilience in this room and I’m very, very honored to be here,” the actor/singer said as she took the stage at the Maybourne Hotel in Beverly Hills on Monday night ahead of the Power Women Summit.
“The first song, every since I was a little girl, I always thought it sounded like a prayer to me,” Cephas Jones explained. “The second song I wrote, it’s called ‘Little Bird,’ and the inspiration behind it was my future self writing a letter to my younger self.”
During the performance, Lennon’s classic medley and lyrics transitioned to Cephas Jones’ own:
Little lady sittin’ there
Hold out her fingers while she combs her hair
Lookin’ through the mirror lost world behind her
Uncomfortable in her skin
Pick a color, to box her in
Too scared, to let the fire
So I say, oh, don’t
Just a minute
It won’t be long
Just a minute ’til you fly
Before the show, Cephas Jones elaborated on “Little Bird’s” meaning.
“‘Little Bird’ is really appropriate for tonight. It’s a letter to myself as a little girl, [saying] it’s OK, hold on, you’re going to spread your wings. You’re gonna fly. With all these incredible women here tonight that have done fantastic, amazing things, it’s like, look how far you’ve come,” she told TheWrap.
You can catch Cephas Jones’ performance above and see her on screen in “Origin,” which opens in limited release this week and wide next January.
“It’s such an important film,” Cephas Jones’ said of Ava Duvernay’s latest. “Talk about change and using your platform and teaching people through film a whole history lesson.”
“Ava I love so so much. What a fierce woman,” Cephas Jones continued. “It’s so rare to be directed by a woman, let alone a Black woman. I was changed as an artist after I left ‘Origin.’”
For all of TheWrap’s Power Women Summit 2023 coverage, click here.
