February 2025
Mary Elizabeth Jo Dixen Pelenaise Kapi’olani Lawson is a woman of care and beauty. She is of the sun and the black earth. She comes from a Woman of Faith, so she too is a woman of faith. Mary began humming before she put words to melody. She would hum to her father when she was a toddler. He would come home from work, lay his head in her lap and she would hum primary songs or what she heard at home, in the car, in the world. On Sunday’s Mary’s mother would sing the harmony part of the hymns that were selected, shaping her ear and perhaps, forming an understanding of what to listen for.
Mary studied classical voice under esteemed soloist Ariel Bybee during her junior and senior years of highschool. (2006 / 2007) Mary went on to study voice under Hannah Jo Smith, and choral music with Kurt Runestad at Doane University (Crete, Nebraska) in 2007 and 2008. In 2009 Mary moved to Chicago, Illinois and continued studying music and performance at Columbia College Chicago. After a semester at Columbia, Mary changed her major to Cultural Studies. This shift in her academic career introduced her to, and expanded her toward more critical thought, theory, and Black Feminist Visioning. After connecting with an eclectic jazz group called, EveryPeople later that year, Mary began performing in their group EP song and grew with those musicians over the course of four years. EveryPeople was instrumental in bringing Mary into the worlds and voicings of jazz. In 2014 Mary officially moved back to Lincoln, Nebraska and began writing and performing under the moniker Mesonjixx. Mesonjixx in all its iterations has had success in sharing a caliber of musicianship that will be celebrated long after she has passed on from this lifetime.
Not only does Mary find purpose in song, music and performance she also finds purpose and continues developing an artistic and cultural practice in organizing and curation. Mary has worked in arts administration for six years, within organizations across the Midwest as full-time staff, independent contractor, and community partner.
She has always been interested in deeper meanings and layers of life and living. Mary is magnetized to questions that are shaped with the intent to empower. It is here where she thrives and conjures her creative expression and inspiration of worlding – somewhere in between the question and the knowing, her erotic and her sacred. There is shimmering in the darkness.
Mary is the daughter of Paulinga Tuakoi Lawson, who is native to Hawai’i and of South Pasifika roots – Samoan and Tongan. Mary is the daughter of Lawyer Thomas Lawson Jr. who was born and raised in Ozark, Alabama. He is Black, and his mother’s blood runs Cherokee Indian. Mary is the middle child of five and an auntie to many nieces and nephews.