CWW for 9/12

Alicia Keys (Alicia Augello Cook)

I know this is a little early, but I wanted to make sure everyone got a chance to see this before class on Wednesday! The woman I chose for my contemporary woman writer presentation is Alicia Keys. As many of you probably know, she is a world renowned vocalist. However, not only does she sing and play piano, but she writes her own lyrics. Some of her more popular songs include "Fallin'," "If I Ain't Got You," and "No One." She is known for writing songs about love, love lost and female empowerment.

One of the reasons I chose her is because she is a good example of how much influence a person in the media spotlight can have on young girls. One of her songs, entitled "Superwoman" (embedded below) has a great message of empowerment. The lyrics tell the struggle of her and other women in general, but also represents her unwillingness to give in and the power women can have. A few of my favorite lyrics from this song include:

       "For all the mothers fighting/ For better days to come/ And all my women, all my women/ sitting here trying/ To come home before the sun/ And all my sisters/ Coming together/ Say yes I will/ Yes I can." 

      "Cause I am a Superwoman/ Yes I am/ Yes she is/ Even when I'm a mess/ I still put on a vest/ With an S on my chest/ Oh yes/ I'm a Superwoman."

Another reason I chose Alicia Keys is because of her connection to motherhood. A song on her album The Element of Freedom entitled "Speechless" was dedicated to her son. I absolutely love that she can express her undying love for her son through her work. Not only is she an amazingly successful artist, but she is also a mother who others can relate to. On top of her writing, she is also dedicated to the cause of spreading awareness on women issues. she is set to be featured in an upcoming campaign entitled "30 Songs/30 Days" which is being used to promote Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. This is a multi-media campaign, deriving from a book of the same name by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, which aims to shine light on women's issues and their severity including sex trafficking, maternal mortality, sexual violence, etc. 

Even though we haven't delved into our text too far yet, I believe that Alicia Keys songs do have much relation to the topics we will be discussing. For example, the very first reading we had by Virginia Woolf was all about woman finding not a place in writing, but a voice. Even though Alicia does not write novels, she tells her stories through songs, which are poems set to music, more or less. When it comes to female empowerment, spreading the message is one of the most important aspects. I think Alicia has done a great job in showing what a woman is capable of achieving in today's society.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alicia_Keys

http://aliciakeys.com/