#public address

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Margaret Sanger, Director of the Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau, gave the opening address before the Conference on Contraceptive Research and Clinical Practice on December 29, 1936. To her right is Leon J. Cole of the Department of Genetics, University of Wisconsin, the chairman of the meeting.

Photo: Joe Caneva for the AP via HJNews

[madewithonerib]

I will lend an ear to anyone who has anything interesting to say.. "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears" Mark Antony in the play Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare

This famous quote from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar is a masterful ex of persuasion and crowd psychology. Mark Antony uses it at Caesar's funeral to win over a hostile mob, shift public blame onto the conspirators, and ultimately trigger a civil war. [1, 2, 3]

Grabbing Attention: "Lend me your ears" is a polite request for attention, but the strong rhythm helps Mark Antony cut through the noisy crowd. [1, 2]

Building Trust: By calling mob "Friends," Antony creates a warm connection. [1, 2]

Feigning Innocence: Antony claims, "I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him." This makes him seem harmless & fair to the men who murdered Caesar. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Once he has the audience listening, Antony cleverly uses irony and emotion to slowly convince the crowd that Caesar was a hero who was unfairly murdered. [1, 2, 3] Would you like to explore the specific rhetorical tricks Antony uses to turn the crowd, or compare this speech to Brutus's earlier justification for the assassination?

Q2: What inspired Shakespeare to write such things

Shakespeare’s inspiration for writing Julius Caesar came from a mix of ancient historical books, his childhood education, and a massive dose of political anxiety happening in England at the time. [1, 2] When he wrote the play in 1599, several specific influences drove his creativity:

1. His Primary Source: Plutarch's Lives - Shakespeare did not invent the story of Caesar. He based almost the entire play on a specific book: Sir Thomas North’s 1579 English translation of Parallel Lives by the ancient Greek writer Plutarch. Plutarch wrote detailed biographies of famous Greeks and Romans. Shakespeare loved this book because Plutarch didn't just list historical dates; he focused on the psychology and moral flaws of great men, which was perfect for drama. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

2. Anxieties Over Queen Elizabeth I: In 1599, Queen Elizabeth I was 66 years old, unmarried, and childless. She stubbornly refused to name an heir to the English throne. The English public was absolutely terrified the moment she died, the country would collapse into a violent civil war over who should rule. Because British law strictly censored writers from openly criticizing or talking about the Queen, Shakespeare used Roman history as a safe "mirror" to warn his audience about the dangers of a leader dying without a clear successor. [1, 2, 3]

3. His Schoolboy Training in Rhetoric: The reason Mark Antony’s speech sounds so incredibly persuasive is Shakespeare was trained to write that way. As a boy at King's New School in Stratford, Shakespeare underwent a rigorous classical education centered on Latin and rhetoric (the art of persuasion). Elizabethan schoolboys were routinely forced to write speeches defending historical villains or arguing from a perspective they didn't personally believe. When writing Antony’s speech, Shakespeare was simply flexing his lifelong training in how to manipulate an audience using words.

4. A Brand New Theatre to Fill: In 1599, Shakespeare’s acting company was opening the Globe Theatre, a massive new venue. They needed a massive, blockbuster hit to draw in crowds & secure their financial future. Roman history was "pop culture" of the Renaissance; the public was already fascinated by debates over whether Caesar was a tyrant or a hero. Shakespeare knew that putting these larger-than-life historical figures on stage would guarantee a packed house. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Would you like to know more about how Shakespeare changed the actual history from Plutarch's book to make the play more dramatic, or look at how the Elizabethan audience reacted to the play?

[psychosomaticscrapbook]

you otw bossman? sam and i could still use some help lul @smokingcraters

Oh! Yep, yep, yep, sorry! I'm, uh, on my way!

[mejcinta]

For real. A year ago media would be screaming endlessly if a president said the n-word, for months! Now, nothing is being said. Not a single thing.

[speechsource-blog]

3 Ways to Memorize a Speech

It would be nice if you could memorize a speech by sleeping with it under your pillow overnight. Memorizing a speech is often a painful, boring process. But hey, unlike washing the dishes or mowing the lawn, once you are done, you are done. And memorization is the necessary first step to having a truly polished performance. Luckily, it also gets significantly easier once you do it once. So if you are memorizing a speech for the first time, have no fear. Just rip off the memorization band-aid with these three techniques!

Wait. Before you use any of the following 3 methods to memorize your speech, memorize this sentence: I am more much capable than I think I am. You might think you cannot possibly memorize 1,000+ words. Your memory is much better than you think it is. That sentence is good to file away for speech in general, too.

Alright, got that memorized? Go on:

Method 1: Speed Racer

Speed Racer is also known as “Rote Memorization”, but that has a bad rap. It can be a little more exciting! In “Speed Racer”, the end goal is to memorize your speech so that you can recite it from beginning to end without making a mistake as quickly as possible. I call it “Speed Racer” because your process is structured like a racetrack: you keep returning to the starting point, lap after lap, until the race is done - a race in which you are only in competition with yourself.

AlsoyouhavetospeakreallyfastlikethecharactersinSpeedRacer???

The Speed Racer technique has 5 steps:

Get Prepared: Print your entire script, organized into distinct sections.

Speed Through Your First Section. Say the first section aloud over and over again, as quickly as possible 10 times. Now try to repeat it out loud without stumbling, and without looking at your script. Once you succeed, move on to memorizing the next section in the same manner.

Combine Your Sections. Once you have succeeded at memorizing the next section, say both section 1 and 2 out loud 5 times. If you make a mistake, repeat that line over and over until you have corrected it in your memory - then go back to the beginning of section one, the “starting” line, and try again.

Repeat, Repeat, Repeat this process over and over again with each new section until you have said every section consecutively without making a mistake.  

Off to the Races! Now that you have laid out the racetrack, time for the final sprint! Say the speech in ½ the time in which you will actually deliver it. So, if you are memorizing a 10-minute speech, you want to be able to say it in 5 minutes without any mistakes: cut your time in ½.

Advantages:

Memorize Quickly: Speed Racer helps you to memorize long speeches under a significant time crunch.

Improve Articulation: Speed Racer helps you with more difficult words, because if you can say “sesquipedalian loquaciousness” 10 times fast, you can say it once at a normal pace like a snap.

Disadvantages:

Tedium: This technique requires tenacity because it becomes boring quickly.

Vocal Strain: Speaking rapidly for hours at a time can take a toll on your voice. Exercise caution.

Method 2: Play by Play

In the Play by Play technique, you will memorize your speech line by line, thinking about the most effective line reading as you memorize. This technique works best if you have a patient friend, coach, or teammate working with you.

Play by Play technique has 4 steps:

Prepare Your Script & Supplies. Print out your script and have several colored highlighters. Assign basic emotions to each color. Some great ones to start with are “joy”, “sadness”, “anger”, “disgust”, and “fear”. Not only are these the main characters of Inside Out, but they are also the Atlas of Emotions identified by Paul Ekman. These are a good starting point for identifying the emotional content of your script. 

Color Code. Read the speech line by line, thinking about which emotions are at play in the content of your speech. Ask yourself: what do I want the audience to feel in this section? What emotion logically makes sense based on the events occurring here? Color the line of the script using the highlighter of the corresponding emotion.

Take it Line by Line. Read aloud each individual line over and over, taking the colors of the highlighter into consideration during your delivery. Once you are satisfied with that line reading, move on to the next line.

Persist & Prosper. Repeat this process until you have finished a section, a page, and then the entire script.

Advantages:

Internalize Emotion. Thinking about the emotions involved in your script from the beginning gets your more intimate knowledge of the piece.

Multitask: With Speed Racer, you get memorized first and later, you practice until you identify the best line reading. Play By Play completes these tasks at the same time.

Disadvantages:

Time-Consuming Process: Only attempt this method if you have a long time to get your speech memorized.

Memorizing Bad Habits: If the line reading you prepare from the beginning is ineffective, it can be really hard to get it “out of your system” later.

Method 3: Mind Palace / Method of Loci

You may have heard of the Mind Palace technique if you are a fan of Sherlock Holmes. But the Mind Palace is much older than Sherlock - even the Conan Doyle version. It was popular with Greek orators and instructed by Cicero. This technique, unlike Speed Racer, requires a lot of imagination but is faster than Play by Play.

Get Prepared: Print out your script, separated into manageable sections.

Create Your Palace: If you are able, go to a familiar location; if you are not, imagine a familiar location. Designate a familiar pathway through this space and destinations based on how many sections are in your speech. For example, say you chose your house, and say you wrote a speech with an introduction, three main points, and a conclusion. You might decide to start in the basement for the introduction, move up to the kitchen for the first point, to the living room for the second point, and upstairs to the bedroom for point 3, and up one more floor to the attic for your conclusion.

Fill the Palace with Objects: Notice the core ideas in your speech. Think about how you could represent them with objects, colors, textures. For example, if one of your core concepts of your introduction is freedom, what does that mean to you? Maybe a civil rights leader. Or a bald eagle. Or George Michael. Whatever it may be, picture that specific object in the basement in as much vivid detail as you can. Continue to establish the objects which belong in each “room” of your familiar location.

Move Through Your Palace: Read your speech, section by section, and move through this familiar space (whether figuratively or literally). “See” the objects you have designated for each space.

Take the Journey Again: As you read the script again and again, or listen to a recording of it, imagine yourself moving through the space and encountering these objects. When you perform the speech, similarly move through your mind palace.

Advantages:

Stay Extemporaneous: This technique works well with speeches that do not need to be memorized word-for-word, but those that just need to convey key points.

History is On Your Side: The ghosts of great orators past will greet you! (But really, this is a proven technique with a long history of being effective.)

Disadvantages:

Use of Creative Energy: Although this technique is fun, it is more time-consuming than Speed Racer.

Visual Learning: For some people, visual learning just does not stick as well.

Refresh Your Memory

Once you tackle one of these 3 techniques, you should be fully memorized! Keep refreshing yourself with one of these techniques to reinforce the script in your memory over time.

Write it Down: Write it out line by line, over and over, by hand. This works best for short pieces, like an introduction in an oral interpretation piece.

Headphones In: Record yourself saying the speech and listen to it while reading your script, before you go to sleep, or while doing chores.

Talk to Yourself: Say your speech in your head during dead time during the day: waiting for the bus, walking the dog, washing your dishes, etc.

These ideas are just a place to start. How do you memorize your speeches? What would you recommend to someone memorizing a speech for the first time? Let me know!

[darthbenn]

Check out this article and interview I did with Jeff K, Public Address Announcer for the Dallas Stars

[confession-of-a-queer-blog]

A Public Address

Dear public, This is an announcement

Dear public, This is an announcement

I'm here to announce that our children are suffering,

I'm here to tell you that our students are afraid to go to class,

They are risking their health to avoid ridicule, and why you might asked,

Because they were born just a little bit different,

See they were born transgender,

And it's of no fault of their own,

But unfortunately they will suffer anyways,

They will fear for their lives while walking down the street,

They will sweat at the thought of introducing themselves to new teachers,

And their health will suffer because they will avoid their schools gendered bathrooms every day for At least eight hours,

To someone on the outside this may not seem like a big deal,

But it has great effects

See according to the book Transgender people, by Tamara Thompson

41% of transgender individuals have attempted to commit suicide, That's almost half,

To put that in perspective only 1.6% of the general population attempts suicide,

Trans youth do not feel safe in schools,

Maybe it's because 78% of us, grades k through 12, have reported harassment,

Or because 35% of that harassment is physical and 12% is sexeal,

There’s your logic or logos for the day, but if that's not enough

Let's try some emotion, some pathos

So I employ you, Please tell me how we are supposed to learn when we're so distracted by the glares and discrimination around us we can barely catch our breath, Tell me how am I meant to receive good grades when the my syllabus looks more like a death certificate ensuring my unwelcome in this binary setting of black and white, Good and bad, Boy and girl,

Here I quote a wise women by the name of Denise Fromam, As she said in her poem, “Dear Straight People” “Dear Straight Bullies, You’re right. We don’t have the same values. You kill everything that’s different, I preserve it. Tell me, what happened to Jorge Mercado? Sakia Gunn? Lawrence King? What happened to the souls alienated in between too many high school walls, who planned the angels of their deaths in math class, who imagined their funerals as ticker-tape parades, who thought the afterlife was more like an after party. Did you notice that hate is alive and well in too many lunchrooms, taught in the silence of too many teachers, passed down like second hand clothing from too many parents?”

End quote

It's been written time and time again,

The levels of hatred and non acceptance in schools is just too damn high,

and the only way to combat this issue is to lead by example,

We need teachers and staff to speak up,

We you to show your support for human rights,

We need you to do what you do best,

To teach us how to be functioning citizens,

To show us how to be productive adults,

And to protect us so we are capable of receiving the best education possible,

I am one of the lucky ones,

My school has gender neutral bathrooms,

My teachers and family do support me,

I am so lucky in fact that I had my first shot of testosterone this past monday on april 17th 2017,

And for these things I am forever grateful,

But there is still much work to be done,

And therefore I  repeat