Argus News Editor
Saul Williams challenged students to think out of the box with his thought- provoking spoken word on Feb. 20 at 7 pm. in K. R. Williams Auditorium. “We need to start thinking for ourselves,” he stated. Williams’ ideas about life in general motivated the audience to think differently about circumstances of life. The young, expressive, clearly creative individual encouraged students to start asking a question when something was misunderstood in the classroom and in life. Asking questions made him who he is. “I went to Morehouse College and started to ask questions and found that asking questions was okay.” His points were interesting. Although I did not fully agree with some of what he said, I was still very much inclined to listen to his point of view. Williams gave an atypical view about hip-hop lyrics and music. He stated, “We listen to our music according to our philosophy.” He elaborated by stating, “We nod our heads ‘yes’ to beats; but without consent are actually agreeing with the words regardless of what they are, not just feelin’ the beat.” When asked about hip-hop lyrics dwelling on the harsh realities of the street he replied, “The problem with that is everything in the present is pre-sent, we call the present into existence. The danger is if we speak only of what happens we will perpetuate the nonsense, [the nonsense] will start to be glorified, and there will be whites and blacks of suburbia that will copycat the nonsense…We are persons-‘per’ meaning beings and ‘son’ meaning of sound, in other words what we say matters and will eventually become matter.” People should watch what they say it is definitely important and there is a lot of power in the tongue. Williams’s articulated his views very well. He answered the questions that were on the minds of people, young and old, in the audience by his poetry and elaborated even more on his point of view once finished reciting his poems. His educated responses to statements made in the dialogue between the audience and himself illustrated that his views had substance and that he was not speaking out in ignorance. Williams has spoken to all different kinds of audiences. He gave the reason for this and stated, “My purpose of connecting with all different audiences is to experience and express the unity of humanity. Everybody is included…There are no famous philosophers today. The desire to want to reach and connect before it is too late keeps me inspired. Every white school I go to is packed. I come here and I know that I still have work to do.” His concepts were not those of closed-minded individual, but can be the reason why that individual changes. Not all of what he said was something that I believed to be true, but at least he had given a point of view that made individuals think of more than what is apparent.