Speak Your Mind
On 28 May, 2008, I attended an activity which was called “Speak Your Mind” with my friend Dohee at the Art Gallery of York University. This activity was a spoken word performance, and it was organized by Nancy Kamalanathan, who is a trainee at York, and hopes to pursue social work or psychology at York.
This activity actually started at 6:30 pm. However, I could not find the place; when I arrived there, it was almost 7:30 pm. It was not a very spacious room, but it had a high ceiling. There were around 30 people in the room. Dohee and I sat in the front row. The first performer we saw was a guy who was a high school student and also wrote a journalist about fashion. He was not very tall, wore a pair of glasses, and looked like a hardworking and serious person. However, when I listened to his speech, I felt that he was very funny. Even though he spoke quite fast, so that I could not completely understand his speech, I enjoyed in his performance. The second artist, whom I really liked and appreciated, was a black man. (I’m sorry that I have forgotten his name.) He had very short hair, wore casual clothes, and carried a drum. He drummed and sang during his speech, and he swayed his hips in time with the steady rhythmic beating of the drums that made us excited. I took pictures of him.
This activity actually started at 6:30 pm. However, I could not find the place; when I arrived there, it was almost 7:30 pm. It was not a very spacious room, but it had a high ceiling. There were around 30 people in the room. Dohee and I sat in the front row. The first performer we saw was a guy who was a high school student and also wrote a journalist about fashion. He was not very tall, wore a pair of glasses, and looked like a hardworking and serious person. However, when I listened to his speech, I felt that he was very funny. Even though he spoke quite fast, so that I could not completely understand his speech, I enjoyed in his performance. The second artist, whom I really liked and appreciated, was a black man. (I’m sorry that I have forgotten his name.) He had very short hair, wore casual clothes, and carried a drum. He drummed and sang during his speech, and he swayed his hips in time with the steady rhythmic beating of the drums that made us excited. I took pictures of him.
There also were many other new and experienced spoken word artists, such as York English student Adebe D.A, who is assistant editor of York’s Existere, a journal of Arts and Literature; Blakka Ellis who is a Jamaican writer, performer and educator; Jamaican-born d’bi young who is a dub poet, playwright and actor now living in Toronto, and Michael St. George, who is an Canadian dub poet and Asian UK Hip Hop producer etc. Here is a website about Michael St. George. http://www.canadianreggaeworld.com/michaelstgeorge.htm. I regretted that I was late and missed Michael St. George’s performance because I heard that he was also good at singing, and he sang that evening before I came there.
Anyway, I think this is a fantastic activity; I really enjoyed it. Actually, that was the first time I took part in a York event outside of class, and that was an unforgettable experience for me. I hope I can attend more fantastic activities like this in the future.
( Here I have some other people’s pictures; they also performed in this activity.)
Anyway, I think this is a fantastic activity; I really enjoyed it. Actually, that was the first time I took part in a York event outside of class, and that was an unforgettable experience for me. I hope I can attend more fantastic activities like this in the future.
( Here I have some other people’s pictures; they also performed in this activity.)
1 条评论:
I think the guy you saw first is named Blakka Ellis, and he was quite funny.
I thought it was fun, too, and kind of inspiring. I always notice at events like that how small a country Canada really is -- I mean, some of the performers were high school students, but some were fairly famous at doing what they do, like "Truth is" or "Motion." It's like it is easy to meet everyone here, and easy to get a chance to do things like that for real. At the same time, high schools kids here do so much community stuff, volunteer work and internships and things like that . . . we didn't do nearly so much stuff like that when I was a kid in the U.S.
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