This video awakened something in me two years ago. There is something about her body movements, not so much the words of the song as the expression of it that is so raw and human. To be sure, Ani speaks about social criticism but she does this in a way that is so un-self-conscious. that is to say, she does not address the critics of her criticisms. she speaks of one story. yeah, she is a story more than she is an academic paper. This reminds me of the Suheir Hammad poem ‘Breaking Poem’ where she speaks in the voices of people in different struggles in different cities and gives them a kind of unity in this poem. But there is one active omission: Tel Aviv, which in the mainstream media is portrayed to be a party in ‘the conflict’. ‘Write Your Own Damn Poem’ Tel Aviv.
In Academia (and actually in Policy), at least that is what we are told here, you are supposed to anticipate criticism and address it. In Actorivism you ignore it. Powers that be do not deserve a voice in the movement for Social Justice. They already are everywhere. They dominate the airwaves. So they must be opposed with full force, full voice. Only Actors get things done.
