The Magic of Spoken Word


Nine years ago I stood up in front of 50 Chilean and realized that I had something to say. For the first time I felt like myself in front of a group, without shaky knees, and realized that I could make a connection with people, make them laugh (at my own expense, maybe), feel and learn.

“Everyone can communicate in some way and everyone has stories that the rest of us can learn from.” – Sarah Kay

Since then I’ve had more opportunities to face my fears and speak in front of people, but I’ve also had been able to see others take that first step of standing up with something to say. There’s something I love about seeing someone speak for the first time, (or even start a blog) which is maybe why I connected Sarah Kay’s TED talk so much.

“Spoken word is the art of performance poetry. It involves creating poetry that doesn’t just want to sit on paper; that something about it demands to be heard out loud or witnessed in person.”

Sarah Kay is a spoken word poet. If you watch just the first few minutes of the video below, you’ll hear her spoken word poem “B” (which was also released in hardcover today). She goes on tell tell about the magic of spoken word poetry as a medium for telling stories and providing immediate connection with other people. Kay is an engaging communicator whose entire 18-minute talk itself comes across as a warm, funny, engaging poem, and reminds us of the magic of human connection through storytelling and the spoken word.


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.