My job as an artist is to speak up for those who might be

"My job as an artist is to speak up for those who might be perceived as the losers. Or those who can’t shout. No wonder public-school people always get into politics or acting: they’re taught to shout that much more loudly." Thus declared Ruth Negga, lifting the mantle of the poet and the prophet. Her words carry the weight of ancient duty: that the artist is not merely a maker of beauty, but a voice for the voiceless, a shield for the weak, a mirror for the forgotten.

The ancients understood this sacred calling. The dramatists of Athens—Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes—used the stage to speak for the broken, the exiled, the mocked. Their art gave speech to slaves, women, and the powerless, who otherwise would have been silenced. In their acting, the mighty heard the cries of the humble, and thus society was stirred. The artist, in this way, became both creator and guardian of justice.

Consider the life of Harriet Beecher Stowe, who with her pen spoke for the enslaved. Her Uncle Tom’s Cabin gave voice to millions who could not be heard. Through her art, the world saw the truth of slavery, and a nation was moved toward war and emancipation. Stowe, like Negga, embraced the holy burden: to speak for those who could not shout.

So too in the story of Nelson Mandela. Long silenced in prison, he became a symbol for the countless oppressed. Yet it was through acting leaders, writers, and artists who carried his voice into the public square that his cause survived. When the powerless cannot be heard, it falls to the strong of spirit to lend their lungs. This is the work of the artist—not merely to entertain, but to awaken.

Therefore, let this lesson be carried forward: do not despise the losers, nor ignore those too weak to shout. For the strength of a people is measured not by how it exalts the mighty, but by how it raises the fallen. The true artist, the true statesman, the true actor of the world’s stage, is the one who makes the silent heard. And when their shout shakes the walls of power, it is not vanity, but justice clothed in sound.