Once Upon A Fun, Fierce and Fantastical Time!

STORYTELLING! 

The TED Talk I decided to watch was, "Fun, Fierce and Fantastical African Art."

I decided to watch this because it seemed intriguing just by the cover. I think that African Art is amazing and being able to watch this TED Talk did some enlighting for me!The author knows about African Art and the impacts that it has on everyone as a whole. She makes art that is about things that aren't incredibly important, they are just, "Fun, Fierce and Frivious." In her terms, she calls this, "AfroBubbleGum." Wanuri claim is, "It's vital and important art, but it cannot be the only art that comes out of the continent. We have to tell more stories that are vibrant. The danger of the single story is still being realized." She is saying that the world of art shouldn't be based on if it is catastrophically important but more on something that tells a story. Whether that be fiction or nonfiction or even a fairytale. Wanuri uses the environment she is surrounded by which is Africa to influence her beliefs and perpetuate beliefs that Africa is more than just a statistic, more so, they have a story that needs to be told. She wants everyone to know that there are different views of the world we live in, but her world is a happy world and that is what she wants to share with the world.  How intrigued she was about what she was talking about really allows you to hear the passion she has for giving Africa a better name than it has now. She emphasizes words like futuristic, happy, creating, especially AfricanBubbleArt and some others. The relationship between the speaker and the audience is that because Wanuri is so excited about sharing a positive word, it gets the audience to want to listen and learn more. This brings in a different perspective that can arise from the conversation. Sometimes it is hard to talk on matters of Africa or places that have high poverty rates or high disease rates. But in order for change, someone has to be comfortable and start the conversation. This is exactly what Wanuri does and she is definitely persuading the audience. This can be seen when she makes them laugh or you can see the expression on their faces as the camera goes through the audience. There were some very ignorant people making ignorant faces which made me upset, but not everyone has to believe in the same thing, but you can't change something without giving it a chance or the time of day. To be knowledgeable you first have to be understanding and capable of learning. She uses a lot of Ethos and Pathos in order to get her point across. Sometimes just using numbers and hardcore facts aren't engaging and you don't want to hear any more. And in some cases, it's best to use personal knowledge to get your point across. Referring back to her talking about combined science with her overactive imagination and her mother called this high blood pressure. This reels in another perspective of how art has impacted her life. In conclusion, I think this was the most powerful piece of storytelling because I enjoy when personal knowledge is used and applied to the world on a larger scale. I like listening to stories that get a point across without actually stating that and Wanuri was capable of doing that for me. This relates to me because I agree that Africa isn't seen as the positive things there and there are many other places that have a bad name based on data. I also agree that Art is something that doesn't necessarily have to have a story, rather it can come from your persnonal engagnements with things, people, events in general.