What are two things that readers can glean from this book?
One, that everybody’s voice is important. Two, every voice matters.
A lot of times we downplay our gifts, we downplay our beauty, be it physical beauty, intellectual beauty or whatever gifts we’ve been given. We don’t embrace it in ourselves, [but] we’re eager to embrace it in others. You know, we’re eager to egg people on and encourage people. I find that, particularly with women, people of color, and people for whom they have a dialect, we make ourselves smaller and sometimes we make ourselves invisible. So this book is an effort to make people understand that the power of you is expressed in your voice and you need to let the world hear you.
You mentioned you can detect trauma or trouble in a person by their tone and cadence. How so?
Yes, when the voice is trapped, when it sometimes feels like they’re gasping for breath like they can’t breathe, it’s true the voice is constrained and constricted. Breath and the ability to breathe is freeing. Breath is the hallmark for spiritual meditation for easing and for letting go of issues, be it physiological or psychological or even spiritual, breathing is so essential to healing and it’s the first step of the vocal process. I say free your voice and the rest will follow.
