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ALLI 2017
L to R: LIO, Mirabai Kukathas, Zora Seboulisa, Monica Elenes, and Daniel Pak. Photo Credit: Amy Piñon
Written by Mirabai Jyothi Kukathas
The first week of July 2017 was one of the best weeks of my life. Totem Star, Youth Speaks, and our awesome mutual sponsor Arts Corps put on the Arts Leadership Liberation Institute (ALLI) for the second year running. ALLI is a weeklong art intensive for poets, musicians, and visual artists. We spent the week building community, partaking in social justice-related workshops, and creating pieces of art to share at the end of the week.
When I applied to ALLI, I didn’t think I would actually get in. I knew some of the people involved and didn’t think I was accomplished enough to spend a week with such talented artists. When I did get in, I was both excited and incredibly nervous. However, my nerves melted away almost as soon as I walked into Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, where ALLI was held. One thing that cannot be said enough about the Youthspeaks/Totem Star family is how kind and welcoming it is.
We spent the majority of the first day getting to know one another. We began with everyone putting an object of emotional value in the center of the circle we sat in, summing up the object’s significance in one or two words. We went back around the circle and everyone took an object that symbolized something they needed more of in their lives. I put in a statue of the goddess Saraswati, symbolizing ancestry and inspiration, and took a picture which represented resiliance. At the end we gave the items back to their owners, thanking them for the characteristics they embodied. It was so nice to fill up the room with love and strength, and doing so really set the tone for the supportive environment of ALLI.
LIO wows the crowd with her poetry. Photo credit: Amy Piñon.
For the rest of the week we’d spend the mornings together, still getting to know each other, learning about outreach and organization, and even taking a workshop led by Anakbayan. In the afternoon we would divide into our three pathways (spoken-word poetry, music, and visual art) and get working on our pieces. I loved catching glimpses of half-finished paintings and hearing snippets of poems when I popped out into the hall. The whole place seemed alive with art and excitement.
During the course of the week, my friend Zora and I wrote a song. It started off as just a baseline and a short poem of hers, but together we expanded the lyrics and wrote a melody. For the most part she did the lyrics and I did the melody, but worked together for the entire process, bouncing ideas off each other and getting excited after our eureka moments. At the end of the week we had created something I was really proud of, something I never thought I’d be able to to do. For me, that was the best part about ALLI: doing something I never thought I could. Proving myself wrong. Gaining some confidence.
The song-writing process. L to R: Zora and Mirabai. Photo credit: Amy Piñon.
At the end of the week we put on a block party, open mic, and showcase. A bunch of people from the community showed up (some even brought food!), got to know each other, performed at the open mic, and partook in the general awesomeness. The showcase itself was electric; I could not believe everyone created what they did in just five days. It’d been a long time since I’d performed in front of people, but when I was singing up there everything felt right. I owe a lot to ALLI for getting me into the Youth Speaks/Totem Star community, building my confidence and skills, and for a truly amazing week I will never forget.
To see more ALLI stories, click here.
To see all performances from the ALLI showcase, click here
How To Memorize Your Song Lyrics
Jewelz Cypher Performing Live. Photo Credit: Amber Zbitnoff
Written by kidLIO
Have you ever seen Beyonce, The Queen Bee, herself reading song lyrics from a paper in her hands? From her phone? I haven’t either. It only displays her perfectionism in physical and mental memorization of her song and dance lyrics. As artists, and as entertainers, that plan to move around their stages, there needs to be a sense of urgency and desire to memorize the lyrics to our own songs. This is crucial towards our overall performance, in focusing on the song, the number of people we connect with in the crowd, and our art, itself.
Here are some tips and techniques to memorize your song lyrics
The overall performance depends on how much the artist has paid attention to the song and on performing it rather than just remembering the lyrics. There are tons of different ways to focus on the song you are performing by simply remembering the words based on what kind of learner you are.
If you are a Visual learner, you may find that remembering the outline of which you wrote your song on paper may help you further remember exactly how each verse flows, the words and the intensity of which the words should be stricken with.
If you be more of an Auditory learner, you may find that memorizing the song by the instrumental solo crossing into the bridge helps more because you remember what specific instrumentals are cueing a special set of lyrics in the coming moments. Try practicing with accompaniment and memorize your cues, sounds, scats and runs.
Lastly, being a Kinesthetic learner means that you react best to memorizing lyrics through movement-- like dance moves. I don’t doubt that this helps Beyonce remember her lyrics if she is focused on the dancing and not the words. Practice using hand gestures, body sways or even full on dance-moves (shall you be comfortable) if you find that it helps you remember what comes next.
Finding a mental or physical technique can help your overall performance in total.
Learn more about whether you are a Visual, Auditory or Kinaesthetic learner http://www.vocalist.org.uk/learning_lyrics.html
Connecting with your crowd and getting them as involved with you as you may be with them is crucial to how much entertainment your crowd will be coming back for, how they’ll decide whether or not to support you, and if they think you are the real deal. Standing completely still on a stage may not get you to Madison Square Garden as quick as someone with more confidence in their movements. Learning to be confident with every step you take may begin with your appearance, how you present yourself on stage. Take the time find your individual artist style. Take quizzes to find the accuracy of your artist’s fashion style and do your best to attain it.
Artists speak on the do's and don'ts in front of a crowd to engage with the crowd and have the crowd engage with you. Follow the link below.
http://upcominghiphop.net/2016/01/31/how-to-impress-a-crowd-who-doesnt-know-you/
A recap of the most important do’s and don’ts:
DO NOT show the crowd that you are unprepared
DO address the crowd. Easy hooks, call and responses, etc.
DO NOT turn your back to the crowd
DO know your audience
Memorizing your words by following the technique of knowing who you are on stage, making songs easy to follow, and simply having fun will make this all the more effortless.
Finally, the outcome of your specific artist is sometimes mostly defined by what you show you are prepared and not prepared for. Being able to memorize your lyrics comes along with knowing what you, as a human being and an artist, want the world to hear and see and know of you. Any song that you perform shall be one from the heart, that way it’ll be easier to locate your soul and spirit when performing. Another big strategy to take along with you as an artist and a human is to never compare yourself to other people. If you take care of yourself, you’ll take care of your music. You’ll take better care of the lyrics, perfect the amount of emotion that comes with it, and the vibe that you share with your audience. What you share and your message is all a part of your artist but to relate to the message at any given time, even if it may not be on stage, should be something you are easily prepared for. Which means memorization is key. If you know your story, you don’t have to recall it, you can just be it.
For more info on how to find that inner being that channeled your lyrics at first, click the following link: http://www.vocalist.org.uk/tone_emotion.html
The point here, is there are several elements that are all branched together that explain exactly what it is that you need to do in order to strengthen your memorization; sometimes it begins with knowing your performance goes on to knowing your crowd, and may end with you always knowing YOU. Don’t compare yourself to Beyonce; compare yourself to your artist. What do they have in common? How does that define your lyrics? If you know you, you know your lyrics.
For more tips on memorization, check out the links below
https://www.musicindustryhowto.com/how-to-remember-lyrics-to-a-song-in-4-steps/