The exercise:
I've decided to make Friday's Def Poetry Jam Day for the next little while (if you don't know what Def Poetry Jam is, hit the links to the right). Every Friday I'll post a link to a spoken word performance and the exercise will simply be to discuss it. So let's begin with a piece by Taylor Mali called Like You Know.
Mine:
I wish it weren't true but I am sooo guilty of doing this. I am by no means the worst offender around but I turn my statements into questions far too often. It's as though I'm afraid to stand behind my opinions and beliefs, worried that if someone should question them my facade of intelligence will come crumbling to the ground.
I hate confrontation but I need to learn that I can stand behind what I'm saying without being argumentative about it; that if someone aggressively questions my words then the least I can possibly say, with the utmost respect, is "You may not agree with me but you don't need to be an asshole about it." Discussions instead of arguments, talking calmly rather than yelling.
The scary thing is that it has somehow become cool to talk this way. I hear kids talking and all they ever seem to be saying is "I won't believe what I'm saying until you say you do too." You can't pin anyone down because they're always leaving room to wiggle away from what they think.
So I'm challenging myself to go for a day without uptalking. If that works out I'll try for another day, then another. If it doesn't, I'll just start over. I'll let you know how it goes.
One last thing: wouldn't it have been wild to have Taylor Mali as a teacher?
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