Home Girl by Hall is a perfect example of how a personality profile should be written. The paper kept me interested the entire way through which is surprising since I usually don’t finish most essays I read. This is a personal profile of Erykah Badu, who is a musician who has won many awards. She is from Dallas, Texas. Even with he music past, Hall hardly goes into the details of her fame. I really think this adds to the whole essay. You get to see who she is as a person and not what she has accomplished music wise.
At first they start out at Badu’s place, where she is washing and doing her daughters hair. This lets us see at her life as a mother and in her own house. You get a very homey feeling from this part in the interview. Also how she describes the labyrinth in the middle of her room as a nourishing environment. This shows what kind of house she runs and about her personality.
Hall does an excellent job adding only the necessary details in this piece. She doesn’t add things like a car ride to the school or unnecessary details like that she only uses details that help us understand who Erykah is as a person. Once they arrive at the school it really shows how much of a free spirit Erykah is. She doesn’t just watch the student’s dance around she hopes in and joins them in their dance routine, which she already knew. I think this is great detail that Hall goes into. Erykah offers support for the kids and even hugs one of them who accidentally fell down during the dance. This really highlights how much of a student and teacher Badu is. Not many people would hope into a class and start dancing with them.
After they dance, the kids want her too sing them a song and she sits them all down and sings them one of her songs. This detailed experience of her singing to the kids really added to the whole story. It helped further her as a person. By this time if you do not know this woman I am sure you would be looking her up as we speak. I myself had never heard of her or her music but I felt inclined to look her up because of this excellent profile. It depicts her so well and such a “hip hop hippie.”
Hall also does a good job with transitions between scenes. Every time they go somewhere different you get a different glimpse of who Erykah Badu really is. When they are at her house she is a mother who is very relaxed and down to earth who loves to grow herbs. At the school she is a free spirit and acts like a little kid. And outside the school and home she is a big activist to help clean up the streets of Dallas. All these are great details of her personality and who she is.
Hall connects Badu to a bigger picture. Instead of setting her out as a musician, she shows what kind of person she is. Which are a caring mother, artist, and activist. She takes out the whole music career and focuses on Badu as a person. Hall does this in a way and makes her ordinary experience seem much greater.
The way she explains the details really enhances the entire story and reading experience. This whole story is about how much good Badu does to help her community. And not only her community but also how she is a caring mother at home. All the details and transitions were worked in perfectly with the whole story. After reading this story I know specific details and who Erykah Badu really is.
