Spoken/Written/Sung – Poetry, Lyrics and the Joy of Truth Speaking

Everyone has a song they belt out at the top of their lungs whenever they hear it, and yet often we’re only vaguely aware of exactly what it is that we’re singing. Other times words set to music can evoke deep meaning, making us cry or laugh…even making us angry. They can invoke a spiritual sense of peace or they can start a revolution.

From intricately poetic lyrics by musicians like Hozier to the rhythmic cadence of jazz inspired poetry of Langston Hughes, with this presentation I will take a broad look at the differing ways that words and rhythm flow together to create something larger than the whole.

Lynn Brown is a journalist, fiction writer and academic with a passion for history, culture, travel and the places where those topics intersect. Her work has been published in AARP, GQ, Broadly and Ebony Magazine, among others. She’s an adjunct professor of writing and literature at the Juilliard School and an adjunct assistant professor of journalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism.