NourbeSe Phillips’ iteration of the poem “Discourse on the logic of language” shows the underlying theme of the power of speech to oppression. In her performance of the poem, she sets a tone that represents confusion and limitations. Each slave was brought from his or her mother language and forced into a life of a foreign situation. I think that when she speaks of the tongue, it represents more than just the speech in which they were forced into. It represents an oppression of a person’s ability to reach high heights. Every person is born with an innate ability to speak as the poem discusses the parts of the brain that are responsible for this action. It is through constant oppression and condemnation that puts down ones’ ability to speak. Thoughts lead to words and words lead to action. If you cut off a man’s words, you cut off his actions. You cut off his ability to communicate his goals and put them into reality. I think this is what the poem’s is intended to bring out. As well, I think that M. Phillips is putting the poem into perspective by reading it in a way that makes the listener feel like it is hard for her to communicate what the thoughts of the writer is.

To take this a step further, we can see the parallels between this poem and “The narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass”. Douglass has constantly pointed out how oppressive it was to learn. He understood what learning could do and understood the power of speech. Both pieces ultimately understood that is the power of language that will remove the barriers and the oppressors from themselves.