Saul Williams Keynote Performance

By

Published 1-25-2008

Wednesday night’s Days of Dialogue feature event, Saul Williams, was an inspiring dialogue with students.

Seats were already half full at 6:30 p.m. and by 7 p.m., attendees started to occupy the floor. Young and old, people from all walks of life attended the event.

From the get go, Williams made himself equal with the audience by bringing the microphone off the stage and onto the floor when he walked into the room. 

He said, “I want to talk about essentially what it means to create art in this time,” which began the night of dialogue.

Williams referenced Nigerian novelist and poet Ben Okri’s latest work “Starbook.” He recited part of chapter one with a rhythmic and direct approach identical to that of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It was an inspiring and entrancing reading as Williams then lead into one of his own works inspired by Kali, a Hindu goddess.

He influenced minds with such lines as “a country in puberty, a country at war,” with the next few minutes offering a continuous explosion of words.

Following the poem, and continuing until 9 p.m., the dynamics of interaction amongst audience members took root. He opened up the floor for dialogue and hands were stiff in the air for the remainder of the night with opinions, ideas and questions.

Williams discussed topics regarding the influx of technology in American society and musical hierarchy. He tried to help audience members understand the aspect of “cutting out the middle man,” and what caused him to choose to make his newest album free on the Internet.

He touched on his own realizations of America, and he explained an idea that “hybrids” make people of every race equal. “We need to start thinking about species,” Williams said, not race.

Throughout the evening, Williams worked to relate to the audience.

He left audience members with something to think about when he said, “If everyone in this room majored in what they were passionate about rather than what made them the most money…society would be different.”

Williams is an artist, a comedian, a poet and an inspiration.

Maybe we are all “free at last” like King hoped, or as Williams assertively said, “We are at our freest right now.”