As a bonus to this week's entry into the issues of race and the media and as we finish watching Spike Lee's Bamboozled here is a segment from this week's Studio 360, a radio program on WNYC/NPR. The piece is centered around Sarah Jones and her reflections on the cultural characteristics of 'voice' and 'accent'. As The New Yorker wrote of Jones, "she is ... a sort of multicultural mynah bird, lays our mongrel nation before us with gorgeous, pitch-perfect impersonations of the rarely heard or dramatized." You can also download the mp3 of the segment here.
Sarah Jones is also well known for a couple of spoken word/rap pieces from some years back. Her performance of Blood was one of the highlights of Lyricist Lounge, Vol. 1, a seminal hip-hop anthology from 1998 which featured The Roots, De La Soul, Q-Tip, Mos Def and Talib Kweli among others (the more obviously identity based/political anti-bling fringe of the hip-hop movement). Her Your Revolution is a more specifically feminist inflected invective backed by Russian turntablist DJ Vadim. Find both linked below.
Sarah Jones - Blood (from Lyricist Lounge Vol. 1 on Rawkus Records, 1998)
DJ Vadim featuring Sarah Jones - Your Revolution (from DJ Vadim, USSR - Life From The Other Side on Ninja Tune, 1999)
Finally, since we're on the topic here's a great Sarah Jones performance where you can appreciate what she does with voice, language and accent. This was part of the TED Talks and recorded in February 2009. One thing to reflect on is the way in which voice and accent signify and what can be said of the use of accents as a source of comedy and/or as a source for critique.
Finally here's a video of Jones performing Your Revolution live on stage for Def Poetry Jam.
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