FABULOUS FORTE: Unique talents offered during pageant competition

Published 11:36 am Wednesday, June 24, 2015

STRUMMING: Miss Mississippi Delta Community College Hannah Leflore plays her ukulele Monday during a break in rehearsals.

STRUMMING: Miss Mississippi Delta Community College Hannah Leflore plays her ukulele Monday during a break in rehearsals.

 

Miss America 2015 Kira Kazantsev impressed the nation last September with her nontraditional talent, mimicking the movements of Anna Kendrick’s “cups” song while singing Pharrell’s “Happy.”

Kazantsev’s solo cup talent won her the title of Miss America, and this week, some girls with equally unique talents are hoping to secure the Miss Mississippi crown.

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Miss Mississippi Delta Community College Hannah LeFlore, 18, will sing “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” by Simon and Garfunkel while playing the ukulele.

“I saw this video of a little girl singing with her dad, and I said ‘That’s so precious. I have to get a ukulele and learn that song,’ so I did,” she said.

LeFlore said she started playing about a year and a half ago, and the instrument wasn’t too hard to pick up.

“I play guitar, and it’s basically the same except the strings and the chords are different,” she said. “You kind of hold it and play it the same.”

LeFlore said she’s heard of people learning to play the ukulele first to get into guitar because of its smaller size.

“I’m a singer, but I’m not quite strong enough to kill it by myself, so I thought I’d pair it with an instrument,” she said. “I was going to play piano, but I wanted to be able to move around. I was going to play guitar, but decided that was a lot to carry around.”

LeFlore ultimately chose the ukulele because of its small size.

“Something fun about my ukulele is that the sound hole is a snail,” she said.

Miss Southern Magnolia Briana Exum, 20, will be performing spoken word, orating an original piece titled “Listen Closely.”

“It’s an original motivational poem,” she said. “A lot of people don’t really know that spoken word is a synonym for slam poetry.

Exum said spoken word has been around for a while and it’s continuing to grow.

“It was an art form that grew out of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1940s,” she said. “We haven’t really had a place for it in the pageant scene until now.”

Exum said she has been performing spoken word for five years.

“Spoken word has been a really big part of my life,” she said.

“Throughout high school it was spoken word, competitive speech and debate that really helped me to develop my voice and what I hope will be a powerful presence on stage.”

Exum said the decision to do spoken word during the talent phase was simple.

“I want to be a motivational speaker,” she said. “It goes with my platform ‘Finding Your Voice.’ Everything ties together.”

For now, Exum said she’s anxiously awaiting the beginning of the competition.

“I hope everyone is able to tune in because I have something really important to say,” she said.