How many more people could you inspire if you could master the spoken word and learn how to tell your story effectively?
How would your performance as a storyteller, poet or public speaker change if you could truly embody your story and bring it to life?
We begin to live our lives when we start to share our stories
My name is Vangile Makwakwakwa and I want to welcome you to the Speak 2B Free website.
My decision to be a spoken word poet and pursue a career as a writer, was the scariest decision of my life.
I was halfway through my MBA and had just finished an interview with an investment bank when I decided to follow my heart.
The minute I made my decision my whole being went into fear mode: I got writers block, developed stage fright, started suffering from chronic acid reflux and eczema.
I had no clue how to launch my career and was too terrified and scared of rejection to reach out to other storytellers and poets.
I was looking for a resource that I could use to help me launch my career as a spoken word poet.
But I was lost and my lack of knowledge just fed into my fear of being a starving artist and living on air.
I would stay awake at night and think of all the corporate jobs I was giving up for this dream. Some nights I would just sit at my desk and cry because I had tons of student loans and an MBA I was not using.
My fear paralyzed me and I became a blocked writer, started getting stage fright and learned that being a starving artist was not as romantic as it sounded.
On days when I could function normally I spent hours interviewing professional poets and storytellers about their careers, researching oral traditions and reading up on performance techniques. Before I knew it Speak 2B Free was born.
Speak 2B Free is a comprehensive resource for poets and storytellers interested in taking their career to the next level and/ or speaking for profit.
…Beyond self help is self expression
I first discovered the power of spoken word when I was 14 years old, sitting in English class and reading a poem I had just written, out loud to all my friends.
I remember going to a sad broken place in my head to tell my teenage audience a story about dancing on an empty stage for an audience that would never appreciate me.
I remember crying as I read the poem and not understanding why all my friends were sitting in awed silence.
That was the beginning of my love of storytelling.
Over the years I learned that telling my story to an audience could stop me from taking the scalpel to my hand when life over powered me.
I learned that listening to others tell their stories could inspire me and will my soul to keep dancing to a beat only I can hear.
Sometimes I feel like poetry saved my life because it gave me a way to share my story and dissipate my pain.
Your story is more powerful than you know
Understanding the perfect way to tell your story can help you inspire others.
The right story can influence people, change corporate cultures and inspire cultural revolutions.
Who can down play the power of Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech and his story of a peaceful multiracial world?
Muriel Rukeyser said it best, “The world is made of stories, not atoms.”
The stories we tell ourselves all serve a purpose because they give us an identity and help us construct our lives and make sense of our realities.
Every day we communicate our desires and our stories through the spoken word and the written word.
Every day we take on a storytelling role, documenting our lives and sharing our experiences with others through stories.
These stories we tell have the ability to build us or destroy us.
The power of our stories lies in our intentions
Knowing what stories to tell, how to tell them and when to tell them is what makes a storyteller influential and inspirational.
Some stories are told to inspire, some to entertain, whilst others are told to evoke change
Whether you are a professional storyteller, performing for an audience or a business executive, talking to employees, understanding the basics and complexities of the spoken word can change the way your story is received.
Choose to master the art of the spoken word
Speak 2B Free is a resource for anyone that aspires to master the art of storytelling; here you will find:
- The history of oral traditions across cultures: learn new techniques and discover all the various ways that people communicate their stories
Winston Churchill said: “Study history, study history. In history lies all the secrets of statecraft.”
- Storytelling techniques to help you develop your own unique style as a storyteller, spoken word poet or professional speaker
- The A to Z on writing and performing spoken word poetry
- Speaking for profit: build a speaking business and market yourself as a speaker, spoken word poet or storyteller
- Famous poets and famous poems
- Famous speeches and inspirational quotes
Please leave us feedback and share your story with others on our website by leaving us comments on the site and emailing us as you go on your journey to find your voice and share your life through story.
