hervoicealoud - Tumblr blog

[hervoicealoud]

“I was arrested a number of times. I never thought in terms of fear. I thought in terms of justice. - Emma Beatrice Tenayuca 

To celebrate #HispanicHeritageMonth, we’re spotlighting Emma Beatrice Tenayuca! 

Who She Was: She gained a reputation at 16 as “the little girl who confronts men” for leading strikes. In 1938, she helped lead 12,000 workers through the San Antonio Pecan Shellers Strike.

A Great Speech: Tenayuca was nicknamed “La Pasionara de Texas” for her fiery oratorical style.

Take Notes: Channel her fearless delivery while you speak by projecting your voice, engaging your whole body, and letting anger underscore your arguments. 

[hervoicealoud]

"Pa'lante, pa'lante, pa'tras ni pa' coger impulso"

To celebrate #HispanicHeritageMonth, we’re spotlighting Cristina Saralegui!

Who She Is: Sometimes called “the Cuban Oprah,” she is a 12-time Emmy winning journalist. Her show, El Show de Cristina, was one of the first Spanish-language talk shows broadcast in the US.

A Great Speech: “Don’t Boo, Vote” was her message to voters in 2012, broadcast by PBS NewsHour.

Take Notes: In her speech, she told the audience, “America was the place that said it doesn't matter where you come from, it doesn't matter what your last name is, it doesn't matter if you drink cortaditos, or lattes, or coffee with milk.” Using the drink choice is a grounded illustration of the abstract idea of diversity. How can you bring ideals down to earth for your audience?

[hervoicealoud]

"I love telling stories that allow people to be less afraid of theirs."

To celebrate #HispanicHeritageMonth, we’re featuring Gina Rodriguez! 

Who She Is: She’s an actor and activist best known for her role as Jane in the CW’s Jane the Virgin. 

A Great Speech: She moved many to tears with her Golden Globe acceptance speech in 2015 and has continued to give great speeches since, including her Variety Young Humanitarian Award Speech, where she asked Hollywood to imagine a new future: “I love what-ifs. What if I book a show? What if I win a Golden Globe? Or what if we lived in a world where booking a show and getting a Golden Globe was just an excuse to do good for others?” 

Take Notes: Rodriguez successfully uses future language, a powerful persuasive technique. She describes potential powerful outcomes, like sending students to college or ending homelessness. Paint a vision of the future and ask your audience to help you make it real. 

[hervoicealoud]

“Every moment is an organizing opportunity, every person a potential activist, every minute a chance to change the world.” - Dolores Huerta

Who She Is: Dolores Huerta is Presidential Medal of Freedom Award-winning civil rights leader who co-founded the National Farmworkers Association with Cesar Chavez, which later became the United Farm Workers. 

A Great Speech: At the end of the Delano Grape Strike March, Huerta gave this stirring speech. Find a transcript here.

Take Notes: Her speech may have begun at the end of the march, but her speech invites the audience to continue on her path. Her calls to action are complemented by action-oriented phrases like  “we would not turn back” and “planning the steps that lie ahead on the road to our liberation.” How can action words keep your audience moving?  

[hervoicealoud]

In every choice, ask yourself: Is this a soul-making or a soul-selling choice? - Julia Alvarez

Who She Is: This multi-award winning author of “How the García Girls Lost Their Accents” and “Afterlife,” is one of the most successful Latina writers of her time.

A Great Speech: Julia Alvarez’s 2015 Middlebury College Commencement Address, “A Few Supplies for Your Life’s Knapsack,” remains inspiring.

Take Notes: Leave it to a poet and writer to teach a masterclass in storytelling! Alvarez’s speech includes dozens of stories, anecdotes, and quotes to illustrate her core message about enriching your soul. She accomplishes this by drawing the metaphor of her speech being a knapsack, and each story being a care package item like cookies. A central metaphor can tie together different elements of a speech.

[hervoicealoud]

“It is through art that we will prevail and we will endure. It lives on after us and defines us as people.” - Rita Moreno

Who She Is: Her career as a Triple-Crown actress, dancer, and singer has spanned over 70 years, from West Side Story to One Day at a Time. 

A Great Speech: Moreno has come a long way since she walked off the stage after saying, "I can't believe it. Good Lord! I leave you with that." to accept her first Oscar. When she became a PEGOT after winning a Peabody, she gave a touching speech dedicated to her mother, who designed her costumes since childhood. 

Take Notes: Metanoia is the term for correcting yourself in a speech, as Moreno does when she says, “My mommy, the sweatshop seamstress. No, no. My mommy, the artist. It gave her joy. It made her proud. My mommy, costume designer to a star.” Moreno effectively strengthens the idea she makes throughout her speech: that her own honor as an artist really belongs to her mother. See how metanoia can help clarify the argument of your own speech. 

#HispanicAmericanHeritageMonth 

[hervoicealoud]

“At the back of progress and success, the ladies take a leading hand.”

To kick off #HispanicAmericanHeritageMonth, we are featuring Alicia Dickerson Montemayor.

Who She Was: She was the first woman elected to a national office not specifically designated for a woman. As the vice president (among other roles) on the local and national League of United Latin American Citizens, Dickerson-Montemayor pressed for Latina women and youth to have a stronger public role in the organization.

A Great Speech: In an address to LULAC members in 1939, she asked, “How many of you could get up right now and discuss intelligently the most important topics and problems of our present day history? The outstanding questions which are bearing on our daily life, which are now being brought before our congress and our state legislators? How many of us are able to participate intelligently in any discussion of our present evolution bearing on our American institutions and government?

Take Notes: Dickerson Montemayor effectively uses rhetorical questions, to invite her audience confront their capabilities as a civics organization. Try a rhetorical question (or three) to take your audience from passive to active.

[hervoicealoud]

On this day in 2016, Dr. Carla Hayden was sworn in by Chief Justice John G. Roberts as the 14th Librarian of Congress, becoming the first woman and African American to ever hold the position.

Who She Is: Dr. Hayden began her career at the Chicago Public Library, was named the executive director of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and became ALA president. She is known for her active stand against the Patriot Act and advocated for the role libraries hold for freedom of speech.

A Great Speech: In 2017, Dr. Hayden gave remarks at the Rutgers-Camden commencement. She argued for the importance of information literacy, recounted her own experiences as an “accidental librarian”, and reminded students to be adaptable.

Take Notes: Dr. Hayden used her role as a librarian to inform both the content and the craft of her speech. She referenced historical advocates for literacy, including Frederick Douglass, and used wordplay in the crux of her advice to students: “I also am here to tell you that as you close this chapter, there is still more to be written in your own book of life.” See how word choice can illuminate your theme. 

[hervoicealoud]

“Moral cowardice that keeps us from speaking our minds is as dangerous to this country as irresponsible talk.”

On this day in history, Margaret Chase Smith (R-Me) was elected senator. 

Who She Was: Margaret Chase Smith was the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress. 

A Great Speech: Her Declaration of Conscience, which denounced McCarthyism, was ranked as #41 on the list of Top 100 Speeches of the 20th Century. See it performed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Bz_c5OfLmA

Take Notes: In a memorable line, Chase Smith argues that the Constitution speaks of “a trial by jury instead of trial by accusation.” This use of antithesis, or contrasting ideas in a parallel structure, effectively argued that the status quo was unconstitutional. Bring attention to your arguments with this method.

[hervoicealoud]

“I’m 'a new woman' if that term means that I believe I can do anything that any man can do." 

Who She Was: Annie Kopchovsky (AKA Londonderry) was a mother of six who undertook a 15 month bicycle trip around the world, challenging the claim that a woman couldn’t match the 32-month record set by a man. 

A Great Speech: After successfully completing her journey, Londonderry went on international public speaking tours promoting a newfangled cycling costume with no skirt. 

Take Notes: Don’t underestimate the value of a good visual aid. Londonderry created intrigue by wearing her cycling costume and bringing her famed bicycle to public speaking engagements. 

[hervoicealoud]

“You may not be able to change the world, but at least you can embarrass the guilty.”

Jessica Mitford, the lone leftist and most outspoken of the famous Mitford sisters, was born this day in history. 

Who She Was: Mitford was an English-born public intellectual whose trademark wit skewered American society. 

A Great Speech: Her famous expose of the American funeral industry, “The American Way of Death,” began as a popular lecture. She converted it to book form and it was an instant bestseller, leading to Congressional hearings on the funeral industry. 

Take Notes: Mitford mined biting satirical humor from the taboo topic of grief and mourning - not for shock factor, but because she saw the funeral industry as exploitative. Don’t be afraid to take a risk on a tough topic for the right reasons.

[hervoicealoud]

On this day in history, Empress Elisabeth “Sisi” of Austria was assassinated. 

Who She Was: The longest-serving Empress of Austria, she was a diplomat who eventually unified Austria and Hungary. 

A Great Speech: She was often nervous when speaking publicly, needing to keep a script at hand. But Hungarians were impressed that Empress Elisabeth learned their language so well she spoke without any accent. After she mastered the language, she studied their storybooks, folklore, and culture. 

Take Notes: Empress Elisabeth studied her audience closely and went the extra level to understand them. When speaking, consider what stories are in your audience’s “commonplace”, and see how they can be woven into your speech. 

[hervoicealoud]

On this day in 2015, Elizabeth II became the longest-reigning monarch of the United Kingdom. 

Who She Is: Queen Elizabeth II became queen of Great Britain at age 27 in 1952.  

A Great Speech: Her public address on the coronavirus, delivered in April 2020, was only the 5th time she gave a special televised speech to the public. She compared it to the time that, as a 14 year old, she encouraged separated families during the Luftwaffe bombings. 

Take Notes: Elizabeth II extended her reference to WWII by quoting the Vera Lynn WWII song, “We’ll Meet Again.” See how a historical allusion can underscore history being made in the present. 

[hervoicealoud]

“Turn your wounds into wisdom.”

On this day in 1986, "The Oprah Winfrey Show" was first broadcast nationally.

Who She Is: North America’s first black billionaire, Oprah Winfrey built her brand as a media personality around sharing in vulnerability and overcoming adversity.

A Great Speech: Winfrey is one of the world’s most respected public speakers, with a plethora of great speeches in her CV - but her speech on #MeToo at the 2018 Golden Globes remains inspiring. Watch it on Youtube.

Take Notes: Her speech uses many classical stylistic devices, including the tricolon as she thanks the people “who have inspired me, who challenged me, who sustained me”. Try using the magic number 3 in your structure.

[hervoicealoud]

“Be bold. If you're going to make an error, make a doozy.”

On this day in 1974, Billie Jean King won her 4th and final US singles title.

Who She Is: She’s a former world #1 tennis player, well known for her Battle of the Sexes Match against Bobby Riggs. She was outspoken about advocating for equal women’s pay in athletics and is now an LGBTQIA+ advocate. 

A Great Speech: Billie Jean King frequently speaks out about the state of women’s sports and how athletics intersects with social justice. Her TED Talk interview is a sample of her freewheeling style. 

Take Notes: Billie ends the answer to her first question with a powerful, decisive line: “I respected him, so I beat him” - immediately hooking her audience. Try a bold statement to open like Billie. 

[hervoicealoud]

“Nothing can be worse than the fear that one had given up too soon and and left one unexpended effort which might have saved the world.”

Happy birthday to Jane Addams! 

Who She Was: She was a Nobel Prize-winning Mother of Social Work, pacifist, and dedicated feminist, perhaps best known for helping found the field of Sociology and creating the Hull House with her partner, Ellen Gates Starr. 

A Great Speech: Jane Addams was the first woman “public philosopher” in the United States. As such, she made many speeches - but her “Why Women Should Vote” speech is a great example of her painterly approach to scene-building in speeches. 

Take Notes: Addams uses sensory imagery, like recounting “the vegetables piled high upon the wagons standing in the open markets of Chicago becoming covered with dust and soot” when arguing for women’s role in improving sanitation. Use imagery to bring arguments from the conceptual to the concrete.

[hervoicealoud]

“Human rights are women's rights and women's rights are human rights”

On this day in history, Hillary Clinton gave her famous 4th World Conference for Women speech in front of the United Nations. 

A Great Speech: The speech has been ranked as #35 on the list of the Top 100 American Speeches. Watch the speech on Youtube or read it at American Rhetoric. 

Take Notes: Hillary Clinton’s speech is a masterclass in anaphora, or repeating the word or phrase at the beginning of several sentences. “I have met…” “It is a violation of human rights…” and “we must…”, repeated, begin her most crucial arguments. See how anaphora can help build emotion at the most critical points of your speech.