Transformative Art: Saul Williams, K'Naan, and Margaret Cho
This paper profiles three activist artists — Saul Williams, K'Naan Warsame, and Margaret Cho — who use their respective artistic mediums to challenge systemic oppression. Williams, a poet-rapper-actor, addresses race, incarceration, and consumer culture through spoken word and film. K'Naan, a Somali-Canadian hip-hop artist, draws international attention to war and refugee crises through music and journalism. Margaret Cho, a Korean-American comedian and actress, confronts homophobia, racial stereotyping, and gender inequality through provocative comedy. Together, the three artists illustrate how art — across genres, ethnicities, and continents — can serve as a vehicle for social transformation.
- Introduction: Art as Transformation: Three activist artists from different continents introduced
- Saul Williams: Poetry, Philosophy, and Resistance: Williams uses poetry, film, and rap to fight oppression
- K'Naan Warsame: Hip-Hop as Global Witness: K'Naan channels refugee experience into anti-war music
- Margaret Cho: Comedy as Radical Visibility: Cho confronts homophobia and racial stereotypes through comedy
- Conclusion: Transcending Art: All three artists transcend their medium as revolutionaries
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What makes this paper effective
- Draws meaningful thematic parallels across three very different artists, showing that activism through art transcends genre and geography.
- Grounds each artist profile in specific works — Coded Language, Sobaax, and Cho's Assassins tour — rather than relying on generalities, giving the analysis concrete evidence.
- Uses direct quotation from performances, interviews, and op-eds to let the artists speak in their own voices, strengthening the paper's credibility.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper employs comparative character analysis across a multi-subject profile structure. Each section follows the same analytical pattern: introduce the artist, identify the forms of oppression they target, and illustrate the argument with a specific artistic work or public act. This parallelism makes the cumulative argument — that art is a genuine vehicle for social change — persuasive through accumulated evidence rather than a single case study.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a brief framing introduction, then devotes one section each to Saul Williams, K'Naan Warsame, and Margaret Cho. Each profile moves from biographical context to artistic output to specific examples of activist impact. A short conclusion ties the three figures together under the shared theme of artists who transcend their medium. Works Cited and an Artist's Media list appear at the end.
Introduction: Art as Transformation
The artists spotlighted in this paper come from three continents and different ethnicities. They are actors, musicians, lyricists, rappers, poets, and comedians. They are also revolutionaries who use art to transform the world they live in into a better place.
Saul Williams: Poetry, Philosophy, and Resistance
Saul Williams is an artist with many interests and abilities — he is difficult to place in a single category. Williams is a poet (both written and spoken), an actor, a philosopher, a rapper, a rock musician, a prolific musician, and a producer, among other things (Williams, Bio). No matter what genre Williams is working in, one thing remains constant: the theme underlying his work. Across his albums, films, song tracks, and books, one can find Williams's commitment to transforming individuals by challenging how they think, what they believe, what norms they accept, and even what they eat. Much of Williams's work contains an inner rhythm and beat — something Williams himself says is part of the reason his poetry led to a hip-hop music career (JR Interview).
In Season Three of Def Poetry, the spoken word series on HBO, Saul Williams delivers a brilliant performance of "Coded Language." It is arguably among the most powerful spoken word pieces ever performed — a long poem delivered rapidly to a beat with an innate rhythm. In the poem, Williams seems to address the entire world. In one striking passage he states: "Whereas the velocity of spinning vinyl, cross-faded, spun backwards, and re-released at the same given moment of recorded history, yet a different moment in time's continuum, has allowed history to catch up with the present" (Coded Language). Lines like this make clear that Williams was trained as a philosophy major. The poem opens with statements about the state of the world and goes on to challenge individuals to use "dance, drama, photography, carpentry, crafts, and love…to uplift the consciousness of the entire f-ing world" (Coded Language). In an already epic poem it is difficult to select a single section, but near the end Williams makes sweeping global connections between Egyptian princesses, the four little girls killed in Birmingham, Alabama, and the gods of the past. This dedication closes with the words: "Those who burned, those still aflame, and the countless un-named" (Coded Language).
Saul Williams is a vegan, but unlike most vegans, he is also concerned with what humans consume beyond food. For Williams, it is not enough to watch what we eat — we must pay attention to everything we allow into our bodies. In his interview with Hip-Hop Corner, Williams adds another dimension to using art in the fight against oppressive advertising and consumer culture: "Be mindful of what you ingest…your diet is not only what you eat, it's what you watch, it's what you listen to — all of that is digested."
As a Black male artist in America whose written and spoken poetry engages with the legacy of slavery and contemporary racism, Williams's portrayal of a young Black man's journey from prison to poetry in the film Slam is another example of fighting oppression through art. Williams combines his acting and spoken poetry skills to create an alternative outcome for young urban Black males. Even the possibility of a different outcome — one beyond prison or death — is powerful. Across different works, Williams fights oppression by addressing race, the war in Iraq, veganism, and media consumption. Oppression takes many forms, and it is fitting that a multi-talented artist like Williams would address multiple forms of oppression through different artistic mediums — and do so simultaneously.
K'Naan Warsame: Hip-Hop as Global Witness
K'Naan Warsame, a Somali refugee and resident of Canada, is a hip-hop artist and activist. Born into a family of musicians, he debuted in Canada with his album The Dusty Foot Philosopher in 2005 (Cunningham). Through his music, he brings attention to war and all of its human consequences. More than simply an African or Black artist, K'Naan's work and influence are international in scope. His second album, Troubadour, was released in 2009 (Cunningham). K'Naan's work fights oppression by challenging senseless war.
"Sobaax," a single from Dusty Foot, features a video shot in Kenya, where K'Naan spent time with Somali refugees. The song speaks directly to the warlords in Somalia, with K'Naan rapping in both English and Somali. Hip-hop reviewer Susie Kim provides a translation of the Somali verses, making clear that K'Naan is expressing the Somali people's frustration with the warring factions. In the song, K'Naan raps that the warlords have "exasperated the people, increased the troubles, and burnt the earth…" (Kim). "Sobaax" means "come out" or "get out" (Kim).
In addition to making music about the refugee and immigrant experience, K'Naan also uses the celebrity status his music career has given him to act politically. In September 2011, K'Naan returned to Somalia for the first time in decades (K'Naan, New York Times). What is remarkable is not merely that he returned to a country without a functioning government — though that alone is impressive — but that he wrote about the trip for one of the world's most widely read newspapers. On September 24, 2011, in the opinion section of the Sunday New York Times, K'Naan described scenes from his visit: mothers holding malnourished children who were "little more than a skeleton," and specifically, "mothers hum lullabies holding the skeletal heads of their children" (K'Naan, New York Times).
K'Naan described his sadness about having performed in 86 countries while being unable to perform in his homeland. He expressed his desire to speak for the silenced, war-ravaged citizens of Somalia: "If my voice was an instrument, then I needed it to be an amplifier this time…nothing I have ever sung will matter much if I can't be the mouth of the silence. But will the world have ears for them, too?" (K'Naan, New York Times). His account of the trip was aimed at sharing with the world the true conditions of the country. Artists fight oppression directly through their art, but sometimes, like K'Naan, they also use their public platform to affect change.
In 2010, K'Naan's song "Wavin' Flag" was selected as the FIFA World Cup Anthem for the games held in South Africa, bringing him fully onto the international stage. His concerns about war and hunger are global, his music is international in reach, and he represents the ideal of a true citizen of the world — an artist with a cause who fights oppression through both music and politics.
Conclusion: Transcending Art
Like Williams and K'Naan, Cho transcends her art. All three artists — coming from different continents, ethnicities, and artistic traditions — share a fundamental commitment to using their platforms to confront oppression in its many forms. Williams challenges race, consumer culture, and incarceration through poetry and film; K'Naan bears witness to war and refugee suffering through music and journalism; Cho dismantles homophobia and racial stereotyping through comedy and sheer visibility. Together, they demonstrate that art, at its most powerful, is not merely entertainment — it is a force for social transformation.
Works Cited
Gilmartin, T.A. "Margaret Cho Takes Aim at Homophobia and Hatred on Her New 'Assassin' Tour." Lesbian News, 01 Mar. 2005, pp. 26–27.
K'Naan. "A Son Returns to the Agony of Somalia." New York Times, 24 Sept. 2011: SR5. Web. 11 Dec. 2011.
Levine, Edward. "Comedy Clubhouse." Huffington Post, 29 Mar. 2009. Web. 11 Dec. 2011.
Mazur, Matt. "Rebel 'With' a Cause: Catching Up with Margaret Cho." Pop Matters, 09 Aug. 2010. Web. 11 Dec. 2011.
Stan, RR. "K'NAAN: The Dusty Foot Philosopher." New York Amsterdam News, vol. 98, no. 29, p. 19. MasterFILE Premier, EBSCOhost. Viewed 11 Dec. 2011.
Warsame, K'Naan. "Rapper K'Naan on His Smash Hit 'Wavin Flag,' Almost Quitting the World Cup Tour, and Why Street Cred Isn't Important." Interview by Charlie Gillis. Maclean's, 04 Dec. 2010, pp. 18–19.
Williams, Saul. "Be Mindful of What You Ingest: An Inner-View with Saul Williams." Interview by JR. Hip Hop Corner, 10 Dec. 2011.
Williams, Saul. "Bio." Vulcanic Sunlight. Accessed 10 Dec. 2011.
Artist's Media
K'Naan Warsame. Wavin Flag. 2010. Video. YouTube, Toronto, Canada. Web. 10 Dec. 2011.
K'Naan Warsame. Sobaax. 2005. Single. YouTube, Toronto. Web. 10 Dec. 2011.
Margaret Cho. Lesbian Jokes & Are You Gay. 2008. Video. YouTube, Los Angeles. Web. 10 Dec. 2011.
Margaret Cho. Assassins Tour. 2005. DVD.
Saul Williams. Coded Language. 2007. Video. YouTube, New York. Web. 11 Dec. 2011.
Saul Williams. Pledge of Resistance. Single.
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