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| Sarah Kay |
This inspiring TED Talk, If I should have a daughter, by Sarah Kay is a moving video. She starts off her talk with spoken word poetry. This introduces us to what she has a passion for right at the beginning and sets the mood for the rest of the talk. She comes off as knowledgeable by sharing her success and failures. She doesn't claim to know everything there is about poetry, but shares with us her personal knowledge. Her intention is to inform the audience of her path to spoken word poetry, and to tell the audience that anyone can do it too if they put some effort into it. Due to this, the audience could be anyone from young to old.
In her talk she discusses story telling, and that all stories have a beginning, middle, and end, but they don't have to be in that order. Also that everyone has a story, and it can start by making a simple list. She is able to explain how to find your story without making it seem complicated. She appeals to the audience because she portrays herself as an ordinary person which makes her very connectable. She doesn't say that she is better than everyone else, or that only a few can preform spoken word poetry. Her story first starts in the middle when she dives right off the back into a poem. It is not until later on that she tells her story of how she came to be. Talking in this pattern kept the audience interested in every word that Kay had to say. This was her intention, as well as to inspired and she is very successful. Although I didn't want to write spoken word poetry myself, it inspired me to be more and do more.
Her strongest argument is when she uses ethos to credit one of her toughest students. She tells the story that one of her students thought she wasn't interesting, and therefore, had nothing to write about. As a teacher Kay gave her topics to write about and finally one clicked. She tells this story in a way that makes the audience laugh. Telling this story credits her as a good teacher and that she knows what she is talking about, but also shows the audience that everyone has a story to tell.
I watched this video on a recommendation, and now recommend everyone else to watch it to if need some motivation and inspiration.
I love how you explored who the audience for her TED Talk would be. This is something I did not think of doing. I like how, along with analyzing her whole Talk, you specifically analyzed her strongest argument. I think this strengthened your overall analysis a great deal. This blog has made me want to go watch her Ted Talk. Very good job!!!
ReplyDeleteEven though I'm not familiar with spoken word poetry, I found your post to be very interesting. I liked how you elaborated on her ability to grab the audineces attention by throwing them straight in the middle of things, and then easing back out with an introduction on herself. I believe many great stories are able to do just that. I feel like I got a really good idea of what the talk is about based on your analysis of the main argument and overall premise. But um what exactly do you want to be more/ do more of??
ReplyDeleteI happen to love spoken word poetry and I appreciate if solely for the fact that it is so difficult! Continuing, I really like your analysis on the spoken word and I agree that ethos is present in this Ted talk when crediting Kay. However, I also think that there is an emotional appeal because Kay felt a connection with an uninspired student, who she then tried to help. Spoken word poetry is a very emotional way of expressing feelings, so I think emotion is also there. I liked your analysis and I am glad that you chose to explore spoken word!
ReplyDeleteLOVE this talk- great choice, great post
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