The Power of the Text
Although I study and produce media and popular culture, I will always consider myself first and foremost a writer. Even in this new media age I am awed and humbled by the written word. Words are power and freedom; words are life. Words are seeds and the vista; words, at least revolutionary ones, are the source of revolutions, personal and societal. I live for words. Writing is my service; my freedom; my expression; my joy; my very words are love. My words are me. |
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| At Work With Students in Los Angeles |
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| Plotting the Revolution, Of Course! |
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| Those who have the command of language have more might than those with the command of armies. Words define meaning, words influence thought. Words are the manifestation of being and becoming; words are existence. And so those who see it as their vocation to craft words, those who are committed writers also become privy to this power. Some of them/us believe that we can use the power of these words to make life better, or freer, or at least we can make sense of our own small existence and maybe help others by sharing honestly, though texts, our own process. These wordsmiths are the poets, the songwriters, the novelists, the playwrights, the philosophers, the essayists, and the academicians who use various tools and genres to communicate important ideas about the human condition; to root out dogma, to pronounce freedom; to illuminate dark spaces; to problematize the evident and to make evident the invisible. They/we also use words to express love of ourselves, or our humanity, of our lovers or to have fun with the play of language and to poke fun at ourselves and this crazy experience we sometimes call life. In my best moments I count myself among this group; it is who I am meant to be. It is what I live for. More importantly, it is what I do. So this is me, in this page, this site, these words. |
| My name is Ernest Morrell. I am a writer of poems, plays, essays, novels, and academic books, book chapters, articles, reviews, and encyclopedia entries. I am also Associate professor of urban education and cultural studies and Associate Director of Youth Research at the Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access (IDEA) at UCLA. In my spare time I run the Desert Highway Music Company and a couple of philanthropic arts foundations. Welcome to my site! |
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