Vintage NEO SOUL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQLoKQJxjAc&NR=1 Vintage Neo Soul 

Sonia Sanchez 

Sonia begins talking 2:17 minutes

When she says what does it mean to be human?  A major impact is her expression.  Raising her eye brows and turning her head to the side, her hand going up as if to say stop, wait think about that, her hand reminded me of a question marker and it was a question.  Therefore she is using her body to show the text of her words (at least that was what I saw).  “What does it mean to be human after we were enslaved in the place called America”, she shows this with her hands, the gesture of where we are now / where we are know. 

 

From 3:04 minutes

“We didn’t have, the tools to survive” hands turn in, as if trying to find a way of showing the words she is saying.  This is something most people naturally to, express with hands. When doing or reciting poetry it is a naturally thing to express with your hands (certainly for me it is).  She turns and says, “look at us” a very firm tough, expression held on her face as she uses the mayor as an example.  Which shows that giving a talk is similar to free styling / improvising a rap or poem, the difference being you do not have to follow a specific rhythm or be conscious of the way you use your gesture to express yourself, but to come across flamboyant and assured your delivery must be consistent.  

“I don’t mean that in a chauvinistic way” her arms go up, hands turn out and flick in to she herself and us as in her race.  Throwing her arms up and down to express the struggle and building of schools, but when saying “Atlanta most especially” her hands stop moving briefly a to emphasis that she is talking about the city that she is in.  When talking of colors she says it in a rhythmical way, which ‘probably’ came naturally, but that is another reason why a speech can be impacting as if the speaker is relaxed, natural, articulate and expressive in what they are saying, the same with a reciting of poetry even when being read from the page.  She does not only address one side of the audience she swivels and talks to the whole audience, and when she pause her body movements stop, which emphasis the pause as her entire self has paused for that moment. 

 From 4:27minutes

She stumbles slightly when talking and trying to remember the curator’s name.  Whether it was to help her remember or express a thought she put her fingertips to her to her temple, then once said the name released her fingers as if now I have released what was in my head.  Then she corrects herself, as if in a conversation with someone and you naturally re-hear a comment and go back to correct this.  Her hands and her nodding of her head shows the stumbling, and points to \her to express ‘I’.  she closes her eyes (maybe to help clarity of thought), and in trying to remember the occasion she stutters.  She puts her hand out when saying “I had samples of my writing”, as a showing of those samples.  She shows the telegram with her hands as if a title / or heading.  And with report to work, she pauses and her facial expression and hand movement speaks.  The picking up of the glasses case to show her father and express the words “see see see” but she doesn’t do this once or stay in one position, she turns and keeps saying the same thing using the same gesture.  The humorous part is in her voice rather than her words. 

Her hands shows the different components of the outfit she is talks of, and her voice and delivery makes it sound specially.  Saying “I didn’t get there their time” it is her vocal expression and body language that makes her seem proud of herself for being early, and shows herself sitting (like a patient child at a school desk) arms folded on the table.  She shows her case as an example of the telegram and then a hand gesture to show the receptionist telling her to sit down.  Then she scratches her head and throws up her hands in a gesture of I don’t know, and frowns to show her confusion, and shows the heads peeking.  Then she doesn’t just say ‘no, telegram’ but she gives the words character and life, and gestures the telegram and changes her posture to show this. 

 Last Poets, Abiodun Oyewole. 

From 18:01minutes

“Poets now using words for the sake of the sound and the beat.  Not using words for the sake of substance and message, their not taking the word and feeding it life, letting the dead word continue to be dead”

This is an important point, and has to be handled from the point of view why does and is the writer producing this work.  To give the word life when performing you have to have a connection with words and feel the expression and life that you (as the person performing) give the word.  But if the words you are expressing is not written in that light it means when reciting the