The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #141001   Message #3242575
Posted By: Azizi
21-Oct-11 - 01:06 PM
Thread Name: Occupy Wall St.Human Microphone System
Subject: Occupy Wall St.Human Microphone System
This purpose of this post is to document & discuss on this forum "the human microphone" pattern of communication that is being used by Occupy Wall Street protestors and perhaps by protestors in other Occupy movements in the USA and elsewhere.

As background, to paraphrase the article http://www.npr.org/2011/10/06/141109428/the-nation-we-are-all-human-microphones October 6, 2011; The Nation: "We Are All Human Microphones" by Richard Kim: The Occupy Wall Street protestors don't have a permit for 'amplified sound' in public. That means that "microphones and speakers are banned from Liberty Plaza. The New York Police Department has also been interpreting the law to include battery-powered bullhorns. Violators can be sentenced for up to thirty days in prison...

-snip-

Therefore, (from that same article) "the protesters aren't deterred one bit; they've adopted an ingeniously simple people-powered method of sound amplification. After the mic check, the meeting proceeds:
with every few words/ WITH EVERY FEW WORDS!
repeated and amplified out loud/REPEATED AND AMPLIFIED OUT LOUD!
by what has been dubbed/BY WHAT HAS BEEN DUBBED!
the human microphone/THE HUMAN MICROPHONE!!! (jazz hands here)."

-snip-

I wrote a post on my blog about how Occupy Wall Street's Human Microphone system reminds me of African American call & response songs. That post can be found at http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2011/10/occupy-wall-streets-human-microphone.html.

And, by the way, I think that Richard Kim's mention of "jazz hands" refers to American Sign Language symbol for "applause"-waving both hands in the air.