full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Deb Willis and Hank Willis Thomas: A mother and son united by love and art

Unscramble the Blue Letters


HWT: So I think I was my mother's first student. unlglnwliiy and unwittingly — ppuept strings — I decided to pick up a camera, and thought that I should make my own pictures about the then and now and the now and then. I thought about how I could use photography to talk about how what's going on outside of the frame of the camera can affect what we see inside. The truth is always in the hands of the actual image maker and it's up to us to really consider what's being cut out. I thought I could use her research as a jumping-off point of things that I was seeing in society and I wtenad to start to think about how I could use historical images to talk about the past being present and think about ways that we can speak to the pienenarl sgtgrlue for human rights and equal rights through my appropriation of photographs in the form of sculpture, vedio, installation and pninigtas. But through it all, one peice has affected me the most. It cnoiutnes to nourish me. It's based off of this photograph by Ernest Withers, who took this pcutrie in 1968 at the Memphis sinaotaitn Workers March of men and women standing collectively to affrim their humanity. They were holding signs that said "I am a man," and I found that astounding, because the phrase I grew up with wasn't "I am a man," it was "I am the man," and I was amazed at how it went from this collective statement during segregation to this seemingly ssflieh statement after integration. And I wanted to pdoenr that, so I decided to remix that text in as many ways as I could think of, and I like to think of the top line as a timeline of American history, and the last line as a poem, and it says, "I am the man. Who's the man. You the man. What a man. I am man. I am many. I am, am I. I am, I am. I am, Amen.

Open Cloze


HWT: So I think I was my mother's first student. ___________ and unwittingly — ______ strings — I decided to pick up a camera, and thought that I should make my own pictures about the then and now and the now and then. I thought about how I could use photography to talk about how what's going on outside of the frame of the camera can affect what we see inside. The truth is always in the hands of the actual image maker and it's up to us to really consider what's being cut out. I thought I could use her research as a jumping-off point of things that I was seeing in society and I ______ to start to think about how I could use historical images to talk about the past being present and think about ways that we can speak to the _________ ________ for human rights and equal rights through my appropriation of photographs in the form of sculpture, _____, installation and _________. But through it all, one _____ has affected me the most. It _________ to nourish me. It's based off of this photograph by Ernest Withers, who took this _______ in 1968 at the Memphis __________ Workers March of men and women standing collectively to ______ their humanity. They were holding signs that said "I am a man," and I found that astounding, because the phrase I grew up with wasn't "I am a man," it was "I am the man," and I was amazed at how it went from this collective statement during segregation to this seemingly _______ statement after integration. And I wanted to ______ that, so I decided to remix that text in as many ways as I could think of, and I like to think of the top line as a timeline of American history, and the last line as a poem, and it says, "I am the man. Who's the man. You the man. What a man. I am man. I am many. I am, am I. I am, I am. I am, Amen.

Solution


  1. unwillingly
  2. picture
  3. continues
  4. piece
  5. paintings
  6. puppet
  7. selfish
  8. ponder
  9. struggle
  10. wanted
  11. video
  12. affirm
  13. sanitation
  14. perennial

Original Text


HWT: So I think I was my mother's first student. Unwillingly and unwittingly — puppet strings — I decided to pick up a camera, and thought that I should make my own pictures about the then and now and the now and then. I thought about how I could use photography to talk about how what's going on outside of the frame of the camera can affect what we see inside. The truth is always in the hands of the actual image maker and it's up to us to really consider what's being cut out. I thought I could use her research as a jumping-off point of things that I was seeing in society and I wanted to start to think about how I could use historical images to talk about the past being present and think about ways that we can speak to the perennial struggle for human rights and equal rights through my appropriation of photographs in the form of sculpture, video, installation and paintings. But through it all, one piece has affected me the most. It continues to nourish me. It's based off of this photograph by Ernest Withers, who took this picture in 1968 at the Memphis Sanitation Workers March of men and women standing collectively to affirm their humanity. They were holding signs that said "I am a man," and I found that astounding, because the phrase I grew up with wasn't "I am a man," it was "I am the man," and I was amazed at how it went from this collective statement during segregation to this seemingly selfish statement after integration. And I wanted to ponder that, so I decided to remix that text in as many ways as I could think of, and I like to think of the top line as a timeline of American history, and the last line as a poem, and it says, "I am the man. Who's the man. You the man. What a man. I am man. I am many. I am, am I. I am, I am. I am, Amen.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
black photographers 4
love overrules 2
north philadelphia 2
family album 2
roy decarava 2
house full 2
puppet strings 2
book led 2


Important Words


  1. actual
  2. affect
  3. affected
  4. affirm
  5. amazed
  6. amen
  7. american
  8. appropriation
  9. astounding
  10. based
  11. camera
  12. collective
  13. collectively
  14. continues
  15. cut
  16. decided
  17. equal
  18. ernest
  19. form
  20. frame
  21. grew
  22. hands
  23. historical
  24. history
  25. holding
  26. human
  27. humanity
  28. image
  29. images
  30. installation
  31. integration
  32. line
  33. maker
  34. man
  35. march
  36. memphis
  37. men
  38. nourish
  39. paintings
  40. perennial
  41. photograph
  42. photographs
  43. photography
  44. phrase
  45. pick
  46. picture
  47. pictures
  48. piece
  49. poem
  50. point
  51. ponder
  52. present
  53. puppet
  54. remix
  55. research
  56. rights
  57. sanitation
  58. sculpture
  59. seemingly
  60. segregation
  61. selfish
  62. signs
  63. society
  64. speak
  65. standing
  66. start
  67. statement
  68. strings
  69. struggle
  70. student
  71. talk
  72. text
  73. thought
  74. timeline
  75. top
  76. truth
  77. unwillingly
  78. unwittingly
  79. video
  80. wanted
  81. ways
  82. withers
  83. women
  84. workers