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VOICE OF AMERICA VOA Home Special English Home Transcript Archive Subscribe to E-mail Select Language About VOA
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English 'Nine Parts of Desire': Actress Brings to Life Indepe
How to Use Our Stories of Iraqi Women and a F
Web Site Seen a
Heather Raffo plays all nine parts in stage performance. Also: a question
Our Word Book Weapo
about OK, and music by TV on the Radio. Transcript of radio broadcast: Corrup
Radio Programs 19 October 2006
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MP3 Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. Childre
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(MUSIC) Expert
Real Audio Contin
All Formats Protec
I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: From P
Help
Watch Pumpk
We answer a question about the American word “
OK”… Seaso
Weekly TV Feed
Services Two S
Stories by E-mail Play some music from a group called TV on the Radio… in New
Feeds Conne
And report about a new play called “
Nine Parts of Desire”
. History
Podcasts Grame
English Learning Nine Parts of Desire Proves
Words and Are W
Their Stories
HOST:
Wordmaster Richar
Games With A new play is being performed at Arena Stage, a theater in 1902-
Words a Thou
Washington, D.C. The play is about the lives of Iraqi women.
Other Resources Barbara Klein has more. Immig
Put US
BARBARA KLEIN: 400 M

An Iraqi-American woman named Heather 'Nine P

Raffo wrote “ Nine Parts of Desire.” She also Desire
is the only performer. She acts the parts of Brings
of Iraq
nine Iraqi women. They are of different
Making
ages, education, religious and political Trade
beliefs.

They include an old woman in Baghdad, a

doctor, a young Iraqi girl, a political refugee
Heather Raffo in "Nine
living in London and a young Iraqi-American
Parts of Desire" woman in New York City. All of them tell
how their lives have been affected by
repression, violence and war. Heather Raffo brings each part to
life with small changes in her voice and clothing. The stories of the
women are separated by music and the sounds of gunfire and
bombings.

Heather Raffo says the play is a celebration of women searching

for personal freedom. Critics and other people alike have praised
the play as powerful and emotionally moving. The name of the
play comes from the teachings of an ancient Muslim religious
leader. He wrote: ”God created sexual desire in ten parts; then,
he gave nine parts to women and one part to men.”

Heather Raffo is the daughter of an Iraqi man and an American

woman. As a child, she had visited family members in Iraq. She
was a student at the University of Michigan in nineteen ninety-one
during the Gulf War. She was angry about the war and concerned
about her family members in Iraq.

In nineteen ninety-three, Miz Raffo visited her family in that

country. She says what she discovered there had a powerful
effect on her. The visit helped her understand her culture and
celebrate the women in her family. She collected the stories of
family members and other Iraqi women.

Later, she used some of these experiences to write her play, “

Nine
Parts of Desire.” She wanted people to know more about the
Iraqi people than what the news media showed. The first version
of the play was performed three years ago in Edinburgh,
Scotland. It later was performed in London and New York City.

Heather Raffo changed the version playing in Washington to

include the current war in Iraq. She says she believes strongly in
performing this play in Washington. She says the play unites
people in considering the humanity of the Iraqi people at a time
when important decisions are being made about their country.

OK

HOST:

Our VOA listener question this week comes from France. Herve
Acard asks about the American word “ okay”
. Where did the word
come from and how did it become part of the language?

“OK”means “ all right”or “

acceptable.” It expresses agreement or
approval. Millions of people all over the world use the word
“okay.” In fact, some people say the word is used more often
than any other word in the world. Still, language experts do not
agree about where it came from.

Some say it came from the native American Indian tribe known as
the Choctaws. The Choctaw word “ okeh”means the same as the
American word “OK.” Experts say early explorers in the American
West spoke the Choctaw language in the nineteenth century. The
language spread across the country.

But many people dispute this. Language expert Allen Walker Read
wrote about the word “ OK”in articles published in the nineteen
sixties. He said the word began as a short way of writing a
different spelling of the words “
all correct.” Old stories say some
foreign-born people would write all correct as o-l-l k-o-r-r-e-c-t
but speak it as “ OK."

Others say “ OK”was a way to shorten Greek words that mean

everything is fine. Still others say a railroad worker named
Obadiah Kelly invented the word. They say he put the first letters
of his names -- O and K -- on each object people gave him to
place on the train.
 Another explanation is that “ OK”was
invented by a political organization that
supported Martin Van Buren for president
in the eighteen hundreds. They called
their organization the OK Club. The
letters O and K were taken from the name
of the town where Martin Van Buren was
born — Old Kinderhook, New York.

Not everyone agrees with this explanation

Martin Van Buren
either. But experts do agree that the
word is purely American and has spread to almost every country
on Earth. Yet in the United States, it is used mostly in speech,
not in writing. Serious writers would rather use such words as
“agree,”“ approve”or “ confirm”instead.

We hope this is OK with you!

TV on the Radio

TV on the Radio makes music filled with energetic beats and

dissident sounds. This art-rock band of five men is based in
Brooklyn, New York. Their new album, "Return to Cookie
Mountain," is full of experimental energy. Critics say it might be
one of the most strangely beautiful records of the year. Faith
Lapidus has more.

(MUSIC)

FAITH LAPIDUS:

"I Was a Lover" is a song with unusual and poetic words. Like
many of TV on the Radio’ s songs, it describes a world of
destruction and change. The song has many
sounds. You can hear two voices above
layers of guitar, piano, drum, and machine
noises.

TV on the Radio’ s music is not easy to

define. The group combines many kinds of
music. Each song is very different from the
next. And this album is very different from
their past albums. The band members like
being free to try new sounds. Here is the song “
Hours.”

(MUSIC)

The members of the band say the feeling they want to express is
connection. They see their music as expressing emotions that
other people can identify with. Some songs express their
unhappiness with current politics in the United States. For
example, after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, the band
immediately wrote a song. It told about working together for a
better future with wiser leaders.

We leave you with “Province”. If you listen carefully, you can hear
the voice of famous singer David Bowie. The song talks about
bravely loving someone in a dark, changing world.

(MUSIC)
HOST:

I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today.

Our show was written by Dana Demange, Shelley Gollust and

Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the
text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site,
voaspecialenglish.com.

Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’

s radio
magazine in Special English.

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