A. Novice Impromptu Event Prompts
Round 1 -
Speaker 1
- "Round here, we talk just like lions but we sacrifice like lambs." - Couting Crows
- “Fake the-fake the funk-the funk, not me, that's not the way to do it.” - E-40
- “Marching out of time to my own beat, now the only way I know.” - Green Day
Speaker 2
- “My shadow’s the only one that walks beside me.” - Green day
- “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.” -Counting Crows
- “Desperation on a red line, call it heavy metal noise.” - Sammy Hagar
Speaker 3
- “Bust a few moves, run your fingers through your hair." - MC Hammer
- “It’s just the beasts under your bed, in your closet, in your head.” - Metallica
- “I don't need anything to get me through the night, except the beat that's in my heart.” - G-Eazy
Speaker 4
- “Does it put fear in your heart that I know where I started, far from where I begun?” -Kehlani
- “Some folks are born silver spoon in hand.” - Creedence Clearwater Revival
- “There is a long hair that doesn't like the short hair.” - Sly and the Family Stone
Speaker 5
- “You who choose to lead, must follow.” - Grateful Dead
- “Hey now, you're an all star, get your game on, go play.” - Smash Mouth
- “It's just me, myself and I, solo ride until I die.” - G-Eazy
Speaker 6
- “All that glitters is gold, only shooting stars break the mold.” - Smash Mouth
- “But I won't waste my time tryna figure out why you playin' games.” - Keyshia Cole
- “We’re scanning the scene in the city tonight, we’re looking for you to start up a fight.” - Metallica
Speaker 7
- “Some'll win, some will lose, some are born to sing the blues.” - Journey
- “And then I saw her face, now I’m a believer.” - Smash Mouth
- “You know I’m ready to give anything for anything I take.” - Grateful Dead
Speaker 8
- "Love will survive somehow, somewhere.” - Journey
- “Hey you big star, tell me when it’s over.” - Deftones
- “It's strange what desire will make foolish people do.” - Chris Isaak
Round 2 -
Speaker 1
- "Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform." - Mark Twain
- “All war is a symptom of man's failure as a thinking animal.” - John Steinbeck
- “The Wild still lingered in him and the wolf in him merely slept.” - Jack London
Speaker 2
- “Fear urged him to go back, but growth drove him on.” - Jack London
- “It always hurts more to have and lose than to not have in the first place.”- Khaled Hosseini
- “All I ever wanted was to know what to do.” - Dave Eggers
Speaker 3
- “But everyone disappears, no matter who loves them.” - Dave Eggers
- “People aren't either wicked or noble. They're like chef's salads.” - Lemony Snicket
- “I am what I am. To look for reasons is beside the point.” - Joan Didion
Speaker 4
- “Everything goes. I am working very hard at not thinking about how everything goes.” - Joan Didion
- “The human mind has an infinite capacity for self deception.” - Gertrude Atherton
- “We are the memories we don’t remember.” - Tommy Orange
Speaker 5
- “Isn't hate merely the result of wounded love?” - Amy Tan
- “Some women get erased a little at a time, some all at once.” - Rebecca Solnit
- “Everyone has a price. The trick is figuring out what it is without overpaying.” - Kristin Chen
Speaker 6
- “All of us fixate on certain kinds of cheating, while willfully ignoring other kinds.” - Kristin Chen
- “Am I walking toward something I should be running away from?” -Shirley Jackson
- “None of us alone can save the nation or the world. But each of us can make a positive difference if we commit ourselves to do so.” - Cornel West
Speaker 7
- “The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” - Mark Twain
- “To be alive at all is to have scars.” - John Steinbeck
- “A boy who won’t stand up for himself becomes a man who can’t stand up to anything.” - Khaled Hosseini
Speaker 8
- “Friends can make you feel that the world is smaller and less sneaky than it really is.” - Lemony Snicket
- “Success is a great healer.” - Gertrude Atherton
- “I won't be what I'm not.” - Amy Tan
Finals -
Speaker 1
- “I am waiting for the discovery… and I am perpetually awaiting a rebirth of wonder.” - Lawrence Ferlinghetti
- “The best thing about the past is that it is over.” - Joanne Kyger
- "I'll never see you again, but that's a note I tear up in my mind." - Ada Limón
Speaker 2
- “The sky looks down upon the sea, the shadow of a passing cloud.” Ina Coolbrith
- “The dreamer stops dreaming, doesn't know the difference between sleep and death.” - Genny Lim
- “I am waiting to be inspired by the living and not the dead but the dead seem more alive than the living these days.” - Jack Hirshman
Speaker 3
- “I am waiting for the day I stop being invisible and start being seen for who I am.” - Lawrence Ferlinghetti
- “We have written a scene, we have set a stage.” - Tongo Eisen-Martin
- “One breath is all it takes for time to disappear.” - Genny Lim
Speaker 4
- “Each failure, a glacier. Each disapproval, a bootprint.” - Janice Mirikitani
- “We started, and no speaking, and felt the deep loneliness of incomprehension.” - William Everson
- “We have built the great cities; now there is no escape.” - Robinson Jeffers
Speaker 5
- “Desire is full of endless distances.” Robert Hass
- “Holding up the sky is dangerous business, but someone has to.” - Ayodele Nzinga
- “When a mask breaks in half, mind which way the eyes go.” - Tongo Eisen-Martin
Speaker 6
- “We were never what they wanted but we were bold.” - Lorna Dee Cervantes
- “This poet embracing the void.” - Robert Duncan
- “You can't dream another, because it's all your story.” - Ayodele Nzinga
Speaker 7
- “One breath is all it takes for a pupa to burst free.” - Genny Lim
- “No one listens to poetry.” - Jack Spicer
- “Naked in the thorny woods, blissful fools.” - Robert Duncan
Speaker 8
- “Going back and forth, back and forth, getting nowhere.” - Gary Soto
- “Whatever evil I had suffered, I forgot.” - Czeslaw Milosz
- “This ocean, humiliating in its disguises, tougher than anything.” - Jack Spicer