Occupy Wall Street's Human Microphone Strategy & Call and Response Songs

Written by Azizi Powell

[updated with another video - 10/21/2011]

[updated with a link to another blog post on mic check - 12/3/2011]

The "human microphone" is a referent for the call & response pattern of communication that is being used in Occupy Wall Street, an ongoing series of demonstrations in New York City to protest social and economic inequality, corporate greed, and the influence of corporate money and lobbyists on government, among other concerns. The "human microphone" communication strategy is when groups of people repeat the exact same words that a recognized speaker has said. Here's an excerpt from an online article about Occupy Wall Street's human microphone communication strategy:
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
"Anyone who's been down to Occupy Wall Street and stayed for a General Assembly will instantly recognize the call and response that begins, and frequently interrupts, each meeting.

"Mic check?" someone implores.
"MIC CHECK!" the crowd shouts back, more or less in unison.

The thing is—there's no microphone. New York City requires a permit for "amplified sound" in public, something that the pointedly unpermitted Occupy Wall Street lacks. This means that microphones and speakers are banned from Liberty Plaza, and the NYPD has also been interpreting the law to include battery-powered bullhorns. Violators can be sentenced for up to thirty days in prison...

So despite all the attention given to how Twitter, Facebook and livestream video have helped spread the word, the heart of the occupation is most definitely unplugged. But 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).

The overall effect can be hypnotic, comic or exhilarating—often all at once. As with every media technology, to some degree the medium is the message. It's hard to be a downer over the human mic when your words are enthusiastically shouted back at you by hundreds of fellow occupiers, so speakers are usually pretty upbeat (or at least sound that way). Likewise, the human mic is not so good for getting across complex points about, say, how the Federal Reserve's practice of quantitative easing is inadequate to address the current shortage of global aggregate demand…so speakers tend to express their ideas in straightforward narrative or moral language…

It is, of course, ironic that New York City's attempt to crackdown on political protest by restricting "amplified sound" unwittingly ended up contributing to the structural strength of its rowdiest protest in decades. But like in Egypt or Argentina or Belarus or other places where the authorities sought to silence speech, the people found a way to be heard.

So how about it, can I get a mic check for this one: The people have the power."
-snip-
By the way, I think the "jazz hands" that Richard Kim, the author of that article referred to is the way that applause or approval is indicated in American Sign Language.

Here's a video example of Occupy Wall Street's human microphone communication strategy:

#OCCUPYWALLSTREET "Human Megaphone" in One Police Plaza - 9/30/2011



Uploaded by NOATSFilms on Oct 1, 2011

#OCCUPYWALLSTREET uses a practice called "Human Megaphone" to help deliver a speech to the masses. Public address systems and megaphones have not been allowed by the NYPD through the entire occupation. Guess this is how people addressed large crowds before electricity.
-snip-
Most of the shouted words in this video are difficult to understand, but here's my attempt at transcription with words I don't understand represented by question marks. Please correct any mistakes.:

???
You have opened this space.
We are what people are talking about.
And doing something about.
Runaway ? power.
You have broken our democracy.
Outrageous inequality.
Cruel actions
including actions of the police
You have shined a light on
the actions in this city
You can’t keep us from freedom of assembly.
-snip-
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2011/12/using-mic-check-as-form-of-protest.html for a pancocojams blog post entitled "Using Mic Check As A Form Of Protest".

Perhaps the most commonly known form of "call & response" in the United States is its use in various genres of African American music. In one form of call & response songs, a soloist sings a short line and another person or persons or the entire group repeats the exact same words that the leader sang. Here's an example of that form of call & response:

"Racing With The Sun", Ella Jenkins and the Goodwill Spiritual Choir of Monumental Baptist Church



Uploaded by caroldeniseify on Apr 12, 2011

Lyrics: (repeat every line)

Get your day’s work done
Get your day’s work done
Or soon you’ll be
Racing with the sun.
Make your plans today
Fore the evening’s on
Or you’ll end up
Racing with the sun

Hard, hard, times
That you’ve had
Hard, hard times
But today you’re mighty glad.

'Cause your work’s all through
And your battle’s won
Now you’ll never never be
Racing with the sun.
-snip-
In some forms of call & response songs the group sings a different short phrase than the one that the soloist sand. That same short phrase is usually repeated after each line of the song. The soloist might also ask a question and the response is given as an answer to that question. The African American Gospel song "Certainly Lord" is an example of this form of call & response song.

"Certainly Lord" (1978)- Rev. Ruben Willingham



Uploaded by JayEm86 on May 22, 2008
-snip-
The first question that the soloist in this song asks is "Have you got good religion?" The response is "Certainly, Lord". That same pattern was used for the 1960s civil rights song with the same title. In that song, the first question asked is "Do you want your freedom?" The response remains "Certainly, Lord". However, in my experience, the civil rights song had a faster tempo than the spiritual version of "Certainly Lord". Visit this page of my Cocojams website http://www.cocojams.com/content/african-american-civil-rights-songs African American Civil Rights Songs to find two other videos of the Gospel version of that song, as well as the words to a civil rights version of that song.

I think that it's very fitting that the call & response strategy is being used in this newest civil rights movement. To quote Bruce Foster (bwf27), a commenter on the above link Nation's article:

The voice of the people..
THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE..
Can and will be heard.
CAN AND WILL BE HEARD.

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Rhiannon Giddens - "We Are the 99" at Occupy Wall Street



Uploaded by LouannDorrough on Oct 17, 2011

Rhiannon Giddens, of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, leads the crowd at Zuccotti Park in singing her song, "We Are the 99," on October 16, 2011.

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