Lyrics For Literacy
A written transcript of Ep.4 of When Women Were Drummers
When Women Were Drummers Ep. 4
Presenting at TEDxWOMEN Session 3: REBIRTH
Paley Center For Media, New York
December 1, 2011
Cast:
One woman on drum:
Iyeoka Ivie Okoawo
Stage set:
One boom microphone
Multimedia flash drive displaying 107
photo series of WWWD
ACT I:
Iyeoka approaches a centered microphone and sings accapella:
My mother
and my father
Don’t own me.
So I’ll try to make
Heaven
My home…
Iyeoka begins a healing drum polyrhythm and sings
Talking about a child
That do love freedom
Here is one…
In 2005, I was working as a full time pharmacist wondering
if this is what I would be doing my entire life…
Iyeoka continues rhythm and addresses the audience:
i wanna believe that everything happens 4 a reason
i wanna believe that God has a plan for me and
that i am on a path 2 fulfill a destiny involving
miracles, and sunsets with amazing revelations
but i know now, that for every event
we claim 2 justify makes sense
always comes 1 that finds a way
to crush your faith in belief systems
but we all wanna to find new ways
to rationalize our dilemmas
trivializing these major life transformations
forgetting that in a blink of an eye
all of what we think we know can change
just once i need someone to show me
all the things that i cant see
show me the ripples that can encourage
even the greatest skeptics amongst us to believe
acknowledge the power of what was meant to be
because all of what you think you know
can at any point end abruptly
because what remains the same
are lifes little downpours of
magnificent pain
and after the storm is over
somehow life and death manages a balance
to make room for one more
and yes, there is a whole lot of hurt in this world
and more nonsense than any of us can list in 3 minutes
experiences out there that would cause the
most saved christian to run to atheism
because at the end of the day
there has got 2 be more 2 all of this
then the rationalizations that lie between the
legitimate that everything happens 4 a reason
so find it
find it and let that be a daily testament
that every person you meet at any point
can play a role in your life
that can change the dynamics of everything
and every day you breathe
is another days opportunity left to dream
So dream
dream of thunder and lightening
and coincidences that saved your life
and strangers that helped you get by
and failures that pushed you to fly
and moments that could change you
in the blink of an eye
End.
Click here to hear an Audio sample and multimedia video of this poem:
http://www.maliwoods.com/2011/05/blink-of-an-eye/
