Kate Chopin The Storm

Alicia Keys: Music Maestro, Fashionista and Humanitarian

BY GABRIELLA OSAMOR

Alicia Keys, an accomplished pianist, is an American recording artist whose body of work tells of a multitalented, ever evolving artist in search of that perfect vehicle through which she could tell her story… of love, heartbreak and female empowerment.

She has through the years remained true to her love of singing even when she has dabbled into films and has garnered numerous awards and accolades during her musical career which started when she was a child.

Alicia,real name Alicia Augello Cook;but better known by her stage name Alicia Keys isalso a writer, she writes most of her songs. According to her "everything I have ever written has stemmed from my tears of joy, of pain, of sorrow, of depression, even of question".

Life

Alicia Keys was born on January 25, 1981, in Manhattan, New York City, New York. She is the only child of Teresa Augello, a paralegal and part-time actress, and Craig Cook, a flight attendant.

Alicia’s mother is of Italian , Scottish, and Irish descent, and her father is African American. Her parents separated when she was two and she was subsequently raised by her mother during her formative years in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan.

In 1985, Alicia made an appearance on The Cosby Show at the age of four, where she and a group of girls played the parts of Rudy Huxtable’s sleepover guests in the episode "Slumber Party".

Alicia Keys in Rudy Huxtable's "Slumber Party"; as a baby and at 11yrs

Throughout her childhood, Alicia was sent to music and dance classes by her mother. She began playing the piano when she was seven and learned classical music by composers such as Beethoven, Mozart and Chopin.

She enrolled in the Professional Performing Arts School at the age of 12, where she majored in choir and began writing songs at the age of 14. She graduated in three years as valedictorian at the age of 16.

In 1994 Keys met long-term manager Jeff Robinson after she enrolled in his brother's after-school program. The following year Robinson introduced Keys to her future A&R at Arista Records, Peter Edge, who later described his first impressions to HitQuarters: "I had never met a young R&B artist with that level of musicianship. So many people were just singing on top of loops and tracks, but she had the ability, not only to be part of hip-hop, but also to go way beyond that.

Beauty in the Broken: Kate Chopin - The Storm

This seems to turn into a tale where indeed the tension between them in terms of a sexual frustration becomes the storm. The way that they are reminded of Assumption is allowing us to know that there is a definite history between these two individuals, and even though they are now with other people, that connection still remains. The longer they do not do anything with this tension, it seems that the storm rapidly continues to get closer and closer with a thunderous attitude.Once they kiss, the storm starts to settle, informing us that the storm is symbolic to the feelings they are fighting between each other. "Not only is "The Storm" a story about humans’ natural sexual tendencies, but this story also represents the sexual reservations of Chopin’s particular time period. Chopin herself seemed to be very much in touch with her feminine sexuality. Through her writing of this story, she was able to not only express her own thoughts about sexuality, but she was also able to make a private statement about her feelings on the sexual mores of the current time period. Since Chopin, according to her biographer Emily Toth, did not attempt to publish "The Storm," this statement remained private until the story was discovered decades later among papers and journals in her grandson’s attic." (http://facultystaff.vwc.edu/~cbellamy/Southern%20Literature/SL%20Chopin.htm)  As stated by this website, Chopin had also expressed her feelings with sexuality at the end of the 19th century, which is surely a frustrating time for woman. They did not find this story until it was discovered in an attic, which makes me believe that she had no intention on publishing her story, rather than writing it for her own benefit. As the story is found, I can see the significance become more powerful as people read it decade after decade. That work really defines its time.

The Storm

Fiction, Reading, Reacting, Writing

Kate Chopin, a critical biography

The complete works of Kate Chopin

The Facts on File companion to the American short story