Still in the mother's belly, what echoes in the womb is her voice. The father's voice. From the shapeless sound of voices, babies are born knowing what surrounds them. Affection or conflict.

The voice was the first vehicle. Greek tragedies and comedies were not born on the stage. Born in the voice. Poetry multiplied its lyric when it began to be spoken.

EMOTION HAPPENS OUT LOUD

Cinema was born first in the voice. The first moving images were told by someone in the tribe who had the gift of speech. And cinema was reborn when it gained sound. When he gained a voice.

The most awaited thing for a lover is to hear “I love you”. It's not reading. It's not imagining. It's not even feeling. It's hearing the voice of the other say.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a voice that connects with us is worth a thousand pictures. Because the sound of the voice catches us in an intimate and invisible place. Ancestral.

The world changes fast and stimuli multiply vertiginously. We see. We are sorry. We interact. The age of speed. The information age invents and reinvents its forms and tries to catch us in every way. And so many times we get lost in this cacophony of senses and stimuli.

When we realize we are in this maze and this hurricane of messages. And the feeling is that we no longer understand anything.

Until a voice rescues us and, contradictorily, creates the necessary silence for us to listen.

The world can take all its turns. Faster and more technological.

But nothing will ever replace a voice that takes us by the hand, moves us and tells us a good story.

—

Everton Behenck

Poet, editor, announcer and creative director of the agency Africa.