Public Speaking

I have mentioned in the past that reading and writing go hand in hand and that is largely true. Speaking is another way of communicating. I can be poetry, a speech, an opinion, or just communication between two friends.

One thing the speaker wishes to convey is what he/she wants for us to understand. I have spoken out in public a few times in my life. I always find necessary to write down what I want to say. I used to write down a speech then read from it when I was in high school. However, it stunted my ability to communicate in a natural tone to the audience. Instead I wrote down an outline of the high points I wanted to cover. I still do research and have a written speech or commentary. I find that speaking from my heart with the outline as a guide is more to my liking.

Speaking in public actually invigorates me. I get the butterflies in my stomach but I use it to my advantage. I think of my audience to be knowledgeable and intelligent. Trying to pull one over on them is insulting. That's why I spend time researching and making sure my facts are straight. I enjoy speaking in public because they see a live person who has something to say. I pray that the words will encourage, stir, and spark them to go beyond what they think they cannot do. The words can be firy or subtle, simple or compelling. Either way it is communicating to the masses.

Welcome to the MIC

FRIDAY NITE MARCH 6, 2009 @ 7pm
@ Sista's Place

Black Power, Word Power,
Self Determining Power!

Welcome to the MIC

SPIT FIRE!

The best political and cultural spoken word event in NYC!

Sign up @ 6:30PM

Sista's Place
456 Nostrand Ave @ Jefferson Avenue
Brooklyn

Free December 12th Movement Culture Committee (718) 398-1766

Subway: A/C to Nostrand Avenue

Thursday, February 26 2009 7:00pm

McNally Jackson Books

Sharon Dolin, Anne Marie Macari

McNally Jackson Books
52 Prince Street (Lafayette/Mulberry)In the Teahouse
Free www.mcnallyjackson.com events@mcnallyjackson.com

212-274-1160

Subway: 6 to Spring, R to Prince, or B/D/F/V to Broadway/Lafayette

TODAY'S WORD

PROTEAN

Readily assuming different forms or characters.

Tuesday, February 24 2009 6:00pm

Boog City Presents

d.a. levy lives: celebrating the renegade press

Atelos Publishing Project (Berkeley, Calif.)

Featuring readings from Ted Greenwald, Jennifer Scappettone,

Lytle Shaw, Edwin Torres, Rodrigo Toscano,

with music from Lisle Ellis and Larry Ochs

Hosted by Atelos Publishing Project

directors and editors Lyn Hejinian and Travis Ortiz Curated

and with an introduction by Boog City editor David Kirschenbaum


ACA Galleries
529 West 20th Street,
5th Floor (10th/11th Avenues)
Free, incl. wine & cheese

www.welcometoboogcity.com www.atelos.org

212-842-2664

Subway: C/E to 23rd Street, 1/9 to 18th Street

WORDS OF WISDOM

Never be afraid to sit awhile, and think.

~Lorraine Hansberry, African American author (1930-1965)

Words

Monday, February 16 2009 6:00pm

New York Quarterly Reading Series

Joel Allegretti, Rynn Williams, Peter V. Arcese

Hosted by Ted Jonathan

The Cornelia Street Cafe

29 Cornelia Street (West 4th/Bleecker Street)

$7 gets you a free drink
www.corneliastreetcafe.com
tjonathan@nyquarterly.org 212-989-9319

Subway: A/C/E/B/D/F/V to West 4th or 1/9 to Christopher/Sheridan Square

Fear

There are elements consistenly found in mstery and horror stories. The unknown, suspense, fear, sudden changes in storytelling, long dormant thoughts coming back full force.

Fear is one thing that fascinates me in horror and suspense stories. I once wrote a story about a career woman who met people who reminded her of people in her past long deceased. When she met a man she thought had died fiteen years earlier, she realized that destiny was catching up to her. Fear can freeze people dead in their tracks. They feel powerless. They want to escape sensing that some horrible fate awaits them.

I like writing stories where a person comes face to face with their past misdeeds. Add supernatural events like ghosts and then you have the making of a good horror story. I like to believe that people will change when they see that thier evil deeds will come back to haunt them. In horror and suspense the story would compromised but I don't think so necessarily. That's what our imagination is for. We can twist and shape the story anyway we see fit.

Sound the same but spelled differently

DOUGH; DOE

SEW, SOW

PRINCIPAL; PRINCIPAL

COURSE; COARSE

HORSE; HOARSE

WOOD; WOULD

METAL; METTLE

WIDTH; WITH

TODAY'S WORD

PREDILECTION

A partiality; preference

Southern Writers Reading Series

Wednesday, February 11 2009 8:00pm

Southern Writers Reading Series

Two featured Southern authors (TBA)

+ open mike

(sign up begins at 7:30PM -bring poetry or fiction to share and a mind ready to experience the mythic South without ever leaving Manhattan)

Hosted by Ekoko Omadeke

Happy Ending Lounge

302 Broome Street (Forsyth/Eldridge)

Free southernwritersny@gmail.com

Subway: B/D to Grand Street, or J/M/Z to Bowery

Words of Wisdom

The more I write the more my spirit is freed from tension and fear.