Saturday, October 24

Sound to Beat to Bass to Bone to Flesh

So i just officially spent 20 hours on a project on Bassey Ikpi's "Sometimes Silence Is The Loudest Kind of Noise" (I was originally doing Mayda Del Valle's "A Faith Like Yours" but i wasn't sure how that would translate with an audience). It's a really beautiful spoke word piece so i figured- given that I've spent SO much time on it, I'd leave you the poem as well as the video of Ipki performing it at Def Poetry Jam:


"Sometimes Silence is the Loudest Kind of Noise"


Sometimes silence is the loudest kind of noise

Like sometimes it was best when girls were girls and boys were boys.

Like back when freeze tag was a mating dance.

Like back when "Do Over" meant you got another chance.

Like back when anxiety was worrying if Wonder Woman would make it out alive.

Like back when freedom was sliding backwards on a slide.

Like back when success was jumping off a swing and

Landing on your feet, then

Doing it over again.

Like new shoes made you run faster.

Like getting Ms. Gross again for math was a disaster.

Like failure was a word we hadn't even learned to spell yet.

Like promises were sealed and kept with pinky bets.

Like a challenge was a double dare.

Like ugly was a cock-eyed stare.


& you liked it...

Like when you flipped your eyelids inside out

To impress that boy across the room,

'Cause that's all it took.

& there was no such thing as too soon,

As long as you checked the right box in that note from across the room,

The one that he...passed her.

Back when, "I don't know, maybe" was a legitimate answer.

Back when, "I need space" meant he needed more elbow room to draw,

So he got on the floor and he colored outside the lines.

Like the lines of color were on the floor,


So we just existed in sandboxes and playgrounds.

& we hop-scotched and dodgeballed

& everything I needed to know, I learned in a shopping mall.

Like don't wander off on your own,

Like know who you are,

Like know where you came from,

Like never let go of your mother's hand no matter what you do,

Like if you get lost, just stand there until someone finds you,

& someone will always look for you

Because someone will always miss you

& someone will always find you

& when you cry, someone will always remind you

In that quiet, quiet lullaby voice,

That sometimes silence is the loudest kind of noise.


also check out "A Faith Like Yours"


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