Spoken Word Poet Shane Koyczan's performance of "To This Day" on TED

Friends! I just watched a TED performance given by Canadian poet Shane Koyczan and I am on fire typing this at the moment. I started out giggling and within the next few moments of brilliant verse I was crying. The beginning of his poem "To This Day" is very conversational, it is creative but completely easy to swallow for an audience who is not used to listening to contemporary spoken word. About half way through the 12 minute performance a violinist begins accompanying Shane, his words and dynamics crescendo with emotion as the steady violin plays. At the same time, dark evocative hand-drawn  cartoon animation is added as a visual aid to intensify Shane's words. It was such a beautiful experience on this gloomy New England morning. I would absolutely recommend watching this right now!

http://www.ted.com/talks/shane_koyczan_to_this_day_for_the_bullied_and_beautiful.html