ID 227 Raise Your Voice, Understand Your Voice, Express Your Voice

VOICE is a 5 letter word that starts with V. The voice is one of the most powerful mediums that we possess as people. Why and how? Current studies indicate that despite the technological changes occurring in workplaces, skills in oral communication, written communication, public speaking, motivating and managing others, and effective group leadership are most crucial for effective career improvement and advancement. Public speaking and oration are still considered very important and valued skills that a person can possess. As such, public speaking and oration skills can be used for almost anything. Many great speakers have a natural ability to display those skills and effectiveness in a way that can engage and move an audience for any purpose. Through engagement with narratives and various media, students will engage in creative expression using written expression and their voices to explore the power of oration, in addition to its historical and contemporary social impact. Language and rhetoric use are among two of the most imperative aspects of public speaking and interpersonal communication. Having knowledge and understanding of the use and purpose of oral communication will engage students to become more effective speakers as well as gain more innovative ways to communicate their messages as scholars and citizens.

This seminar explores the physical characteristics of the voice as well as historical orations from: Frederick Douglass, Shirley Chisholm, Adolph Hitler, Sukarno, Joseph Lowery, Jr., Thurgood Marshall,  Dick Gregory, Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey, Mary McLeod Bethune, Dick Gregory, Ronald Regan, President Barack Obama, and other contemporary figures such as Lady Gaga. The course also explores and juxtaposes poetry, such as sonnets from Shakespeare, and students listen to recordings from the Last Poets and Nikki Giovanni to examine their voices. Students have an opportunity to research writings, create a work for oration, as well as visit a professional recording studio to make an individual and culminating group recording. These recordings are collaborated as a class CD  project called “RUE,” which can be metaphorically referred to as a “voice stew project.”