Jessye Norman | 1945-2019

We interrupt this week's theme of Task Commitment on Curious Quotes, Points To Ponder, & Inspiring Insights, to mourn the loss of legendary opera sensation Jessye Norman with a quote about rights, responsibilities, and talent development. 

Jessye Norman's voice has a way of transcending all that you thought possible and cutting to the core of your being. She was an iconoclast and groundbreaking artist that refused to be "pigeonholed" into singing in only one style. She most famously said, "Pigeonholes are for pigeons." This is an important reminder for us and our gifted students that we need to limit ourselves in only doing one thing well. As Jessye Norman states, "A person has the right, and I think the responsibility to develop all of their talents." You can read more about the amazing life of this opera diva here. 

Photos with solid backgrounds are always a great canvas to work with. I also make use of the instant alpha feature in keynote to eliminate backgrounds and create a cleaner canvas. I reversed the image to provide a space that would allow me to right justify the text. I did not like how the letters lined up with the commas and periods at the end of lines. So, I added an extra space for lines 2 and 4 giving it a more rhythmic visual break. I used italics to emphasize what I considered to be the keywords.