"This is a hard question," he says.

I have asked him which of his many achievements he is most proud of. I thought it would be an easy question. I am prepared to talk at length about his work. I am only slightly, but very pleasantly disarmed by his response.

"Parenthood," he says, solidly, "that is the achievement I am most proud of. I think this is the highest creative achievement." "And," he adds, "I am still very proud of Slam."

This response is genuine, honest and startling, of course. Creating and nurturing a new life through constant growth and change is the highest creative achievement, but it takes a certain amount of intellectual courage and philosophical strength to actually say it. It is immediately apparent to me that there will be no easy questions and thankfully, no pat, media friendly answers, no spin, no cult of personality. Words are powerful and Saul Williams knows it.

Freedom is one of those powerful words. It is a word that can mean many things to many people and if anything, lately our collective understanding and use of the word has been hijacked by politics, nationalism and of course war. Williams brings it home. Makes it personal, “it means balancing what is inside with what is outside” and he says “it’s attainable.” How does one attain it? "By rising above reality" and often this is a reality we are born into, an institutional reality that can and often does restrict us, Williams explains. If his body of work is indicative of anything, and it certainly is, one of those things is his own ability to rise above restrictions, both perceived and real and by doing so, offering a challenge to our own often restrictive perceptions.

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