mental-note-taking

This Friday, I attended an event celebrating Black History Month (or as I recently discovered it could alternately be called, "African Heritage Month"... : ) through Spoken Word.

There were two men who came to speak to us in a way that, put simply, blew my mind (and I am sure I was not the only one). I think one of the guys' URL was http://www.whenthesewordsspeak.com and I suppose it's worth checking out to hear some of the bombs he drops. Speaking in tight rhyme - to me - is one of the most impressive and powervul ways to express oneself. There is something about the unique organization of sounds that hits you in waves of bam-bam-bam and you struggle to keep up (though you miss nothing).

Here are a few brilliant ideas that I recollect from their presentations:
- music can only take part of the blame for how we act (specifically in terms of violence and so forth) - no more, no less - because it does give you ideas but you still have control over yourself
killa line: "it brings out no more than what was already inside of you"
- when two slave-drivers walked together and one spied his property afar, he exclaimed, "Yo, that's my nigger." when a black youth walks with his friends and spies another (black) acquaintance afar he says, "Yo! That's ma nigga!"

The second fellow had a peice called, "The Sum of Her Parts," and boy! could it ever instigate a resurgence of chivalry if he who had ears would listen. The man took responsibility (finally!) for what women are doing to themselves (ourselves?). He said that men created the image too lofty to attain and women, falling short, are judged by each part and driven to change them with money, pain and general artificiality. The worst part? The man still does not see the whole of her. Dude said, she presents you with her whole - prizing her soul - and all the man takes her for is her hole. Imagine.. presenting the whole out of desperation - even emphasizing the soul -, being accepted/exploited for which pieces make the cut and yet still not being worth holding onto. [Here I write my own summary, not all directy quotations.] I thought, if this man could just tell it to his peers, how this world would change. How amazing to see a man take responsibility. As with the "Murder Music" song, mentioned above, we note of course that women take part of the blame because no one forces them to listen to what the world says. However, I'd argue it is easy to be influence/brain-washed when you have no alternative in-coming messages.