Competition Status
Competition is currently CLOSED and judging is in process. Currently has 30 entries. Current prize fun is estimated to be worth around $150 US.
About
For BurdenedHearts' first competition we wanted to do something really special and unique.
So what do you have to do?
Recently we asked you what you would talk about if you could make a 30 second speech to the whole world - and one of our incredible team members (MotleyDreams) suggested we challenge people to actually produce those speeches, but we gave you a little more time ;]
So, you have 120 seconds to speak to the whole world. What issue would you address? What is important to you? Consider use of technical devices to make your message clear and persuasive. Think about a global audience and how relevant your message would be internationally.
The competition is in two parts, global and personal.
We will judge the two categories (Global and Personal) separately and so there will be top three placings for both - a total of six opportunities to win!
Share the text version of the speech and a recording of it (if you cannot record it yourself - for any reason, not just technical ones! - the good folks over at Elocutionists have offered to record a member of their team reading your entries on your behalf! Just tick the appropriate box on your entry form and we will sort this out for you. You do not need to contact Elocutionists directly <3)
See below for examples.
So what do you have to do?
Produce a speech on either a global issue or a personal issue no longer than 2 minutes (120 seconds).
Recently we asked you what you would talk about if you could make a 30 second speech to the whole world - and one of our incredible team members (MotleyDreams) suggested we challenge people to actually produce those speeches, but we gave you a little more time ;]
So, you have 120 seconds to speak to the whole world. What issue would you address? What is important to you? Consider use of technical devices to make your message clear and persuasive. Think about a global audience and how relevant your message would be internationally.
The competition is in two parts, global and personal.
We will judge the two categories (Global and Personal) separately and so there will be top three placings for both - a total of six opportunities to win!
Share the text version of the speech and a recording of it (if you cannot record it yourself - for any reason, not just technical ones! - the good folks over at Elocutionists have offered to record a member of their team reading your entries on your behalf! Just tick the appropriate box on your entry form and we will sort this out for you. You do not need to contact Elocutionists directly <3)
See below for examples.
Judgement
The competition will close on January 31st 2014, giving everyone just over four weeks to perfect their entries. The deadline will be 11.59pm GMT on the 31st. If you wanna know what time that is for you, use the timezone converter here.
The Judges
Global Speech Prizes
1st Place1000 points donated by TheGalleryOfEve
1000 points donated by PoetryOD
500 points donated by spoems
170 points donated by LadyLincoln
150 points donated by GinkgoWerkstatt
100 points donated by various donators at BurdenedHeartsAdmin
100 points donated by ikazon
50 points donated by Memnalar
50 points donated by neurotype-on-discord
50 points donated by LionesseRampant
50 points donated by GuinevereToGwen
25 points donated by Rose-Rayne
25 points donated by Aerode
Critique on the piece of your choice from Gingersanps, glossolalias, 0hgravity, DailyBreadCafe and WorldWar-Tori
Journal features from BurdenedHearts, MagicalJoey, MotleyDreams, camelopardalisinblue, HugQueen, SheDares, FuzzyHoser, Lintu47, A-Lovely-Anxiety, vespera, dreamsinstatic, DailyBreadCafe, 0hgravity, miontre, rainylake, Astrikos and SimplySilent
Llamas from MagicalJoey, camelopardalisinblue, DailyBreadCafe and SimplySilent
1 pixel portrait from mirz333
A digital sketch request from Astrikos
Poll feature from PizzaPotatoNBacon
2nd Place500 points donated by TheGalleryOfEve
500 points donated by PoetryOD
100 points donated by GinkgoWerkstatt
100 points donated by spoems
100 points donated by various donators at BurdenedHeartsAdmin
100 points donated by ikazon
80 points donated by LadyLincoln
50 points donated by GuinevereToGwen
50 points donated by LionesseRampant
50 points donated by neurotype-on-discord
50 points donated by Memnalar
25 points donated by Rose-Rayne
Critique on the piece of your choice from Gingersanps, glossolalias, 0hgravity, DailyBreadCafe and WorldWar-Tori
Journal features from BurdenedHearts, MagicalJoey, MotleyDreams, camelopardalisinblue, DailyBreadCafe, HugQueen, SheDares, FuzzyHoser, Lintu47, A-Lovely-Anxiety, vespera, dreamsinstatic, 0hgravity, miontre, rainylake and SimplySilent
Llamas from MagicalJoey, camelopardalisinblue, DailyBreadCafe and SimplySilent
1 custom stamp from mirz333
Poll feature from PizzaPotatoNBacon
3rd Place250 points donated by TheGalleryOfEve
250 points donated by PoetryOD
100 points donated by various donators at BurdenedHeartsAdmin
100 points donated by ikazon
50 points donated by spoems
50 points donated by LionesseRampant
50 points donated by GuinevereToGwen
50 points donated by GinkgoWerkstatt
50 points donated by Memnalar
50 points donated by neurotype-on-discord
25 points donated by Rose-Rayne
1 custom emoticon sign from mirz333
Poll feature from PizzaPotatoNBacon
Critique on the piece of your choice from Gingersanps, glossolalias, 0hgravity, DailyBreadCafe and WorldWar-Tori
Journal features from BurdenedHearts, MagicalJoey, MotleyDreams, camelopardalisinblue, HugQueen, SheDares, FuzzyHoser, Lintu47, A-Lovely-Anxiety, vespera, dreamsinstatic, 0hgravity, miontre, rainylake, DailyBreadCafe and SimplySilent
Llamas from MagicalJoey, camelopardalisinblue, DailyBreadCafe and SimplySilent
Personal Speech Prizes
1st Place1000 points donated by TheGalleryOfEve
1000 points donated by PoetryOD
500 points donated by spoems
170 points donated by LadyLincoln
150 points donated by GinkgoWerkstatt
100 points donated by various donators at BurdenedHeartsAdmin
100 points donated by ikazon
50 points donated by Memnalar
50 points donated by neurotype-on-discord
50 points donated by LionesseRampant
50 points donated by GuinevereToGwen
25 points donated by Rose-Rayne
25 points donated by Aerode
3 month premium membership from miontre
3 month premium membership from scarletwave
1 pixel portrait from mirz333
Poll feature from PizzaPotatoNBacon
Critique on the piece of your choice from Gingersanps, glossolalias, 0hgravity, DailyBreadCafe and WorldWar-Tori
Journal features from BurdenedHearts, MagicalJoey, MotleyDreams, camelopardalisinblue, HugQueen, SheDares, FuzzyHoser, Lintu47, miontre, A-Lovely-Anxiety, vespera, dreamsinstatic, DailyBreadCafe, 0hgravity, rainylake, SimplySilent
Llamas from MagicalJoey, camelopardalisinblue, DailyBreadCafe and SimplySilent
2nd Place500 points donated by TheGalleryOfEve
500 points donated by PoetryOD
100 points donated by GinkgoWerkstatt
100 points donated by spoems
100 points donated by various donators at BurdenedHeartsAdmin
100 points donated by ikazon
80 points donated by LadyLincoln
50 points donated by GuinevereToGwen
50 points donated by neurotype-on-discord
50 points donated by Memnalar
50 points donated by LionesseRampant
25 points donated by Rose-Rayne
1 custom stamp from mirz333
Poll feature from PizzaPotatoNBacon
Critique on the piece of your choice from Gingersanps, glossolalias, 0hgravity, DailyBreadCafe and WorldWar-Tori
Journal features from BurdenedHearts, MagicalJoey, MotleyDreams, camelopardalisinblue, HugQueen, SheDares, FuzzyHoser, Lintu47, A-Lovely-Anxiety, vespera, dreamsinstatic, DailyBreadCafe, miontre, 0hgravity, rainylake and SimplySilent
Llamas from MagicalJoey, camelopardalisinblue, DailyBreadCafe and SimplySilent
3rd Place250 points donated by TheGalleryOfEve
250 points donated by PoetryOD
100 points donated by various donators at BurdenedHeartsAdmin
100 points donated by ikazon
50 points donated by neurotype-on-discord
50 points donated by LionesseRampant
50 points donated by GinkgoWerkstatt
50 points donated by spoems
50 points donated by GuinevereToGwen
50 points donated by Memnalar
25 points donated by Rose-Rayne
1 custom emoticon sign from mirz333
Poll feature from PizzaPotatoNBacon
Critique on the piece of your choice from Gingersanps, glossolalias, 0hgravity, DailyBreadCafe and WorldWar-Tori
Journal features from BurdenedHearts, MagicalJoey, MotleyDreams, camelopardalisinblue, HugQueen, SheDares, FuzzyHoser, Lintu47, A-Lovely-Anxiety, vespera, dreamsinstatic, DailyBreadCafe, miontre, 0hgravity, rainylake and SimplySilent
Llamas from MagicalJoey, camelopardalisinblue, DailyBreadCafe and SimplySilent
Donate!
I am accepting donations for this competition if you wish to donate please send me a note
. You can donate anonymously if you wish to. Ideas for donations are; points, premium membership, prints, critiques, comments, journal features, interviews, gifts and collaborations.Entry Rules
Entries will be accepted in the form of a deviation of the speech (text) with a link to an audio recording (either provided by you or by Elocutionists. We recommend using websites like Vocaroo or Youtube to upload or record your files and share them. Please ensure that we have the ability to access your recording as you need both elements to qualify. If we cannot find an audio recording for your entry (either in your submission or from Elocutionists we will try to contact you but it is your responsibility ultimately so if someone else is recording on your behalf try to ensure that you have linked to the recording on your deviation as soon as possible (and before the deadline)! Entries will only be accepted if posted between January 1st and January 31st 2014, and containing new, original content belonging to the submitter. (Quotations used within your speech are acceptable if you put the original source in your artists comments but 120 seconds is not a lot of time, so we do not recommend using it with someone else's words unless necessary!) Judges and those who donate to the competition will be eligible to participate, but, in the case of the judges, will not allowed to cast any vote on their own piece. PoetryOD will not be allowed to win but may participate for funsies. All languages welcome but you must provide an English translation (of the written copy) so we can study the meaning behind the words as well as the composition and delivery of the speech. You must link to this page in the artists comments! There is no age restriction on this competition. There are no limitations on what can be discussed in your speech, or how they are discussed (for example, performance poetry), however this is a speech and cannot therefore include music etc. Your entry must be 120 seconds or less once recorded! You may only enter once per category because this excercise is based on deciding what you would spend those 120 seconds on. You will only be able to win once, for example if you get 2nd place in the Global section you will not be allowed to also get 3rd in the Personal section no matter how good your pieces are. We reserve the right to edit this information, including the rules, up to the date of January 27th 2014.How To Enter
First, write your speech! It should be original content and you might decide to make use of some of the technical devices of persuasive speech. Record your speech (we recommend vocaroo.com for recording or uploading recorded files! It's free and simple to use). If you can't record your own speech (for ANY reason) then simply tick the appropriate box on the entry form and we will try and get one recorded for you by the incredible folks over at Elocutionists. You do not need to contact Elocutionists directly <3. This is done automatically behind the scenes and your recording will be complete by the time the contest is judged. Submit the text copy of your speech to deviantART (in the correct literature category for your submission!) with a link to the recorded copy in the artists comments. Link to this competition page in your artists comments! Copy the address URL or thumb of your entry and then...Examples
The following examples are provided by members of the BurdenedHearts team to show how we would use our 30 seconds These are meant for inspiration and illustration only, you can discuss any topic you choose in your own speeches.
Listen here
to PoetryODs sample speech on Pro-Choice in regards to Euthanasiaa
I believe in choice. I, personally, am free to choose where I live. I can choose who to vote for, what to buy and who from. I can choose who I live my life with. I can choose my sexual partners without worrying about their gender or race or class. I can choose to believe in what I want and I can choose to change my mind back again.
Its not global yet but we all hope that one day it will be. That everyone will be free to choose. Already we have so much choice. We can choose to live our lives any way that we think is best. Except not at all.
No matter what level of physical, mental or emotional torture you endure - you can live however you want, unless you don't want to.
In an era in which choice has become the ultimate freedom of being, when allowing people to choose how they live their lives has become a central point in debates of equality and human rights, in an era like this -- why is it that the majority get to decide something that inflicts a lifetime of pain onto another human being? In an era when we celebrate those who are allowed to choose how to live their individual lives - why is one choice still not allowed because the majority think its Immoral. Dangerous. Insane. Wrong..
Wrong. Like interracial couples, and homosexuality and even the theory of evolution once were. They were all once Wrong to the majority. As a society we've learned to try to respect other peoples' right to choose how they live their lives. I hope you'll join me in respecting some peoples choices not to - just because their opinion is different to the majority, doesn't mean they shouldn't have the right.
Some people spend every day in unbearable pain and cannot get help to stop it. Not even offered a basic dignity we offer our pets.
Visit dignityindying.org.uk - and campaign for choice.
This is not eligible to win as it is a SAMPLE, so if you like it please fave it here.
Current Entries
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I Am More Than BPDDon't tell me you know me betterListen here
than the people who've known me
for years. I know me too, and I know
to trust them with my sanity.
Don't tell me I don't need the hospital--
I wouldn't be here
if I didn't need the hospital. This is not
a playground and I am not
stupid. My emotional appendix
has burst and reality
tastes of copper; don't tell me
this is just
attention seeking.
All requests for help
involve seeking attention.
The patient whose leg is broken
screams for pain killers
but I am only kneeling
and asking you to help me
stay alive.
Don't tell me I am being irrational
when you are basing this
on a label only.
I am capable of great rationality:
I can begin by debating this
without calling you an asshole.
Flip the table -- call the burn victim
irrational, and I think you'll find
more volativity.
Listen when my supporters tell you
that I am sunshine
poured over candy
-- they are telling you
this is not me. Hear us:
I am bubbled laughter,
naivety and gentleness--
I do art and beauty
Pregnancy and Infant Loss AwarenessImagine this: as a happily married woman in your 20s, you feel ready to start building your family. Together, you and your partner do all the prerequisites -- pregnancy vitamins and converting to a healthier lifestyle, etc. Finally, the day arrives when you discover that you're pregnant. You and your partner are delighted... but 7 weeks from now, something goes wrong.Listen here
The baby you've carried, the one you've made hopes and dreams around, has died. Every day, people around the world experience this grief -- and yes, men, too, grieve after a miscarriage -- and mostly, couples grieve alone.
In 2011, research suggested that in England and Wales that year, ten babies were stillborn every day. Scotland's 2010 research says 1 stillbirth every second day... but 16 women suffered a miscarriage every day. In the US, roughly 15-20% of all pregnancies end in miscarriage. A USAToday study suggests that, worldwide, more than 5000 babies are stillborn every day.
These numbers are staggering, especiall
The Danger of Untold StoriesI believe in words. I believe in voices, the unique cries of human beings as they pour their soul out into the sky. But most of all, I believe in stories.Listen here*
Stories, be they written or spoken or painted onto the walls of caves, reaffirm our humanity. They give us back our own heartbeat, that dull pulse of blood, but more than that they give us our minds. They let us reach back and see where we’ve been, what we felt, what we believed. They form a mirror, let us see who we are, who we were.
And I believe that everyone has a story that deserves to be heard. But more and more I’m seeing that only some stories get told. You have books for children fully admitting that people have different bodies…but where is the admission of different minds? Why do no main characters have mental illness, or attention deficit, autism or dyslexia? Where are the movies about synesthetes, those with OCD, those battling depression?
This is not just a problem of children’s literature, it e
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War: The Death of us allThere is no such thing as an art of war. All it is is the bloody death of thousands, ever millions. The reason for most wars? A difference in ideas. I’m not saying that all everyone has to have the same ideas as everyone else, but you don’t have to go around killing their people because of it.Listen here
We may all be different, but we’re all the same in many ways too. We all love, we all have hearts. So why don’t we love instead of fight. If we all put down our guns and picked up tools instead, not only would fewer people die, but we could end world hunger, save the Earth, even cure cancer. So when will we end it all for the good of humanity? When will we end the fight?
You're not meNo matter what you do to me, no matter what you tell me, you cannot change who I am. I won’t change to fit your unreachable standards for beautiful. I may not be perfect, but when have you ever been? You can call be a freak all you want, but it won’t make the smallest difference. You may think you’re better than me, but unlike you, I don’t conform to fit the world’s description of me. Just because I’m a girl doesn’t mean I have to wear ten pounds of makeup, and have a beautiful body. Nor does it mean I don’t have an opinion.Listen here
You can’t change me into your perfect image of me. I’m not you, and you’re not me. Don’t try to change who I am until you change who you are.
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What is a critique?Ladies and gentlemen of DeviantArt, I pose two questions to you: who is allowed to critique and what exactly is a critique?Listen here
To answer the second question first, a critique is a constructive comment. In it you place your thoughts and opinions on the other persons' work, remembering that what you are saying is just that; your personal opinion. You don't know everything, nobody does. Your grammar and the like is not flawless, nobodies' is. In fact, as humans we are all fallible. A critique is where you try to help people with their writing, or any other form of art, to the best of your ability.
Answering the second question, everyone is allowed to critique. You don't have to have a degree, you don't need to be a professor or have a doctorate in English. You just have to have an opinion and the willingness to help people.
GrammarNaziCritiques is a group that encourages such things. We have a group of critics who are all normal deviants such as yourselves. The only difference is that they
7,209,035,426.Earth. It is not made up of seven billion, two hundred and nine million, thirty five thousand, four hundred and twenty six different, individual humanoid fragments.Listen here
We, as a race, have very little, in fact, to do with the Earth. Our troubles and our triumphs, our loves and our losses – these do not represent the world, do not cause trees to grow, nor tides to flow, nor the aurora to wander like frozen breath across the Arctic Circle. We look at our world, and we see something pure, singular. A blue-green-white sphere, running its elliptical race around a fire-breathing star. But us? We are experience, feeling and life. We are living and dying. We are temporary.
It is our existence, our life, that is a mixed bag. We create good and bad, but we also destroy them both. Wind, however, is neither created nor destroyed: only changed or reused. The same can be said of the waves, of dandelions. Our mission on this planet, then – for we must have a purpose – is not to dwell on
This is not an Answer, it is a QuestionOver 100,000 Syrians dead. 400,000 Darfuris dead. 1 million Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks dead. 6 million Jews and 5 million Eastern Europeans, gays, and other dissident Germans dead. 2 million Cambodians dead. 96,000 Serbians, Croatians, and Bosnians dead. 1 million Tutsis dead.Listen here
Enough.
Stalin once said, “the death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic.” Why do we insist on proving Stalin right? The numbers above bring nothing but numbness and maybe a hint of shock. There is no worldwide outrage. There is no serious effort to stop these massacres. Sure people gasp and shake their heads when they read the headlines about the Syrian Civil War and the UN puffs its feathers and shakes its finger at Assad, but his actions will simply be another ignored black stain on the pages of history. As Hitler once said, in an attempt to justify his own actions, “Who, after all, speaks today of the Armenians?”
A sign in the Holocaust museum reads,
The Grey areas.All of Humanity wants to see our world in one of two constants. The natures of these constants tend to fluctuate from the ambiguous "Good and Evil" to the steadfast "Black and White". The problem is that these constants are not standalone facts; rather they exist as wildly fluctuating variables influenced by a wide diversity of opinions.Listen here *
When these opinions are taken and tallied you find that while most will overlap in places an equal or greater amount will coalesce in grey areas of sociological mores..
Grey areas as a whole, exist solely because of the dualistic nature of our psyche and sociological paradigms. Everything should and can be divided into a set of two; Guilty, Innocent, Right, Wrong, Light, Dark. I could honestly continue forever, but of course that isn't the point.
What do you think when you see someone carrying a gun? Or see two men kissing? What about seeing a teenage male walk into a girls locker room because he feels "Feminine" today?
These are some of societies curr
Anxiety and SerenityDear Friend,Listen here
You- yes you, the person reading and listening to this speech right now. If you're here because you know of this competition, then you must surely be either part of the group, Burdened Hearts or be familiar with what the aforementioned group stands for. Being a sufferer of a plethora of problems myself- brought about by Generalized Anxiety Disorder- I am no stranger to the feeling that, "our hearts are heavy burdens we shouldn't have to bear alone."
I cannot even begin to stress into letters all the unsaid and lost words, the vertigo and the cold sweating, the unreasonable panic attacks and self-destructive rampages every cell in my body begs me to get into at times- over the silliest and most fictitious of hurt words- words that I should never let crush my already chipped, porcelain-pale spirit.
My oh my though, what an amazing, amazing, amazing feeling it is to know, to really know, that you are not alone. What rapture to know that your simple words and well-wishes for o
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120 seconds...If you had 120 seconds to speak to the world, what would you say? Would you talk about the problems of the children in Africa? Maybe the shrinking economy of the world? Or even global warming? I would talk about relationships. I would speak of a world that bullies others for being different. I would speak about a world where brothers kill each other for worshiping another god. I would speak of a world that begrudges others based on the color of their skin and the way they talk. I would speak about a world that says they don’t do these things…Listen here
I would remind them of the wars started in the name of religion. I would remind them of the countries that bully their own people for disagreeing with them. I would remind them that we still hold prejudice over those we see as “lesser” beings. I would remind them of the damage rendered over years and years of bullying; both political and personal. I would remind them of what we have done…
I would give personal exper
A Golden OpportunityListen to this speech here: https://soundcloud.com/damon-wakes/a-golden-opportunityListen here
This is not a topic that affects me personally. Neither is it a topic for the world. The people who this topic affects the most will never hear it. They are struggling just to survive, just to feed themselves, just to save their children’s sight.
Approximately one million children die of Vitamin A deficiency each year. Approximately half a million more are left blinded. Imagine if there were some amazing new technology that would solve this extremely common, extremely serious problem almost overnight. Wouldn’t that be wonderful? Now imagine that this technology is not new. Imagine that it’s been available since 1999, and it’s never been used.
This technology is not a gadget. It’s not a machine. It’s not a tool. It is a living organism. A genetically modified organism. Now, what do those words bring to mind? A mouse with a human ear sprouting from its back? Some
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Education: Live It, Learn ItAnyone remember when you had to spend ninety minutes in a classroom watching your teacher write with chalk against the not-Smartboard, type reports with a typewriter and actually, like, you know, go to the library and pick up some encyclopedias if you had to do research for a project?Listen here
Really? Because I don't.
And chances are, a fair amount of you don't either.
The means of learning have indeed changed. You now have the World Wide Web at your disposal, Microsoft Word is eternally at your service, and really, when was the last time you went to A library to get one of those...what do they call it? Oh yeah. Books.
But the purpose of it has not changed. In a pretty fair majority of the world, you have to have at least some form of educational experience for the sake of your profession, whatever it may be.
School was made to teach children, teens, and young adults how to grow and develop in a forever changing society where technology and elaborate thinking has crowned itself king. It teaches
The Starving ArtistThere are many words to describe art but often they go hand in hand with an image of the artist ensconced in their dark tower and bleeding for their craft. I know this because I grew up with that image burnt into my brain by the very people I relied on for guidance. I was led to believe that following a life of art, wasn’t what smart people did, so I went to university and got myself a business degree. I worked hard and sweated towards goals that were the ones I believed were worth working for. What they didn’t know and, back then, what I didn’t understand was that with every course load I successfully passed and every thesis I bravely defended, I killed a small part of myself. With much pain to my inner self, I curtailed every artistic instinct and stopped every need to express rather than rationalize. Now I can only look back at all my words that went unwritten and all my pictures that went unmade and mourn.Listen here
This year, I celebrate having lived for quarter of a centu
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I was just wondering if the winners have been posted anywhere?