Two Girls. One Piano. And a whole lotta paint.

2 years ago, 88 pianos were dotted across the five boroughs of New York City in a public project—Pop Up Pianos—created by nonprofit organization Sing for Hope. For two weeks, everything from Chopsticks to Chopin was played across the streets of NY by everyone ranging from inexperienced passerby to Juilliard students, five year olds with a week’s worth of experience to hidden talents buried in hands that look like they’ve never touched a piano.

2 years ago, I was the girl who quit piano in fifth grade after six years of intensive lessons, refused to touch the damn thing obstructing living room space for three years, and slowly tried to reteach herself everything she had lost in those lost years. By July 2010, I had retaught myself enough to manage a rendition of Chopsticks and Fur Elise (but not Chopin) on a piano covered in peacocks and peonies in the middle of Times Square, NYC.

This year, Sing For Hope (with help from Chobani) are bringing back the Pop-up Pianos, and with it another fresh round of amazing artwork to be displayed and performed in the streets of New York. Thanks to the wonders of social media, I found their artist application via Facebook and convinced my friend to join me in this crazy whim of applying to design a piano.

AND WE WERE ACCEPTED.

I’ll spare you the recap of my screaming and jumping up and down—it was like getting into college all over again—but in the upcoming weeks, Esette Negussie and I will be embarking on a journey to paint a freaking piano. And in the first two weeks of June, our piano will join one of 88 across the city, a painted message of universal connections, a display of the culmination of our years of art lessons, a testament to the amazing opportunities entrenched in the artistic visions of two crazy college girls, one piano, and a whole lot of paint.

2011 Pop up Piano -- Times Square

PS. This summer, I will finally be playing Chopin.