TEDxSalem

Ideas worth spreading

Jay Shenai

TEDxYouth@Salem: The kids are alright

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Among her many after­school activ­i­ties, Megha Joshi plays vio­lin in a stu­dent orches­tra. It’s the col­lab­o­ra­tion she enjoys the most about per­form­ing.

“Play­ing with a col­lec­tive group of peo­ple to cre­ate an amaz­ing sound is an irre­place­able and reward­ing expe­ri­ence,” she said.

Now she’s help­ing orches­trate her own TEDx event.

On Novem­ber 11, TEDxYouth@Salem will kick off its inau­gur­al event at the Elsi­nore The­atre in down­town Salem. This event will be run by teens, from the speak­ers to the event orga­niz­ers.

A vet­er­an of TEDxSalem, Joshi’s own expe­ri­ence last year at “Rev­o­lu­tions” inspired her to approach TEDxSalem co-cura­tors Bri­an Hart and Car­lee Wright ear­li­er this year about devel­op­ing a TEDx event for teens.

“A lot of my friends start­ed to ask me how they could get the same oppor­tu­ni­ty,” she said.

“After the amaz­ing expe­ri­ence of giv­ing [a TED talk] as well as being an audi­ence mem­ber, I real­ized that this event had to be shared,” she said.

The pri­ma­ry goal, said Joshi, is to inspire youth to get out into the com­mu­ni­ty and make a dif­fer­ence; “to take action on their ideas.”

“By build­ing this event from the ground up by youth for youth, I hope to real­ly get in touch with the teenage com­mu­ni­ty,” she said.

Joshi is no stranger to extend­ing her­self — In addi­tion to school­work and youth orches­tra, she also works part-time study­ing nan­otech­nol­o­gy and bio­med­ical engi­neer­ing at OHSU’s Zuck­er­man lab.

It’s her ener­gy that has tak­en a once-intrigu­ing idea and made it real, accord­ing to Bri­an Hart and Car­lee Wright.

“We have want­ed to do a youth event since we start­ed TEDxSalem, but we did not have enough resources,” Hart said.

“Thanks to Megha step­ping up, now our vision is becom­ing a real­i­ty, but bet­ter — not only does this event fea­ture youth speak­ers, but it is also ful­ly youth dri­ven.”

“We are proud to be men­tor­ing Megha and the team she has cul­ti­vat­ed,” Wright said, “espe­cial­ly when, accord­ing to the Ore­gon Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion 2014–15 Stu­dent Enroll­ment Report, Salem-Keiz­er School Dis­trict is the sec­ond largest in the state with just over 40,000 stu­dents.”

“TEDxYouth@Salem is giv­ing those stu­dents a plat­form to share their ideas worth spread­ing,” Wright said.

Although the event is tar­get­ed at youth, TEDxYouth@Salem is not just for teens, accord­ing to Joshi. So who should come?

“Every­one!” Joshi said. “Any­one who is will­ing to open their eyes to new ideas and lis­ten to what youth have to say will def­i­nite­ly enjoy this event.”

And what should peo­ple come away with?

“For the younger crowd, a sense that they mat­ter in the com­mu­ni­ty, and their actions can influ­ence many peo­ple,” Joshi said. “For every­one else, a new per­spec­tive on some­thing we may take for grant­ed.”TEDxYouth@Salem in Salem, Oregon

TEDxYouth@Salem

9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Novem­ber 11, 2017

at the Elsi­nore The­atre in down­town Salem, Ore­gon

Tick­et infor­ma­tion com­ing soon
Check back with the TEDxSalem home page for the lat­est!

Get your early bird ticket to TEDxSalem V

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Ear­ly bird tick­ets for TEDxSalem V, “Through the Look­ing Glass,” go on sale on Fri­day, Sep­tem­ber 1.

A lim­it­ed sup­ply of ear­ly bird tick­ets will be avail­able start­ing at 9 a.m., through the rest of the month. 

With an ear­ly bird tick­et, you’ll get every­thing you’d get with a stan­dard tick­et (admis­sion to the full day of talks by our speak­ers, enter­tain­ment, par­tic­i­pa­tion in recess breaks, hands-on activ­i­ties between ses­sions, plus food through­out the day, a gift bag and a few oth­er good­ies) but with a $10 dis­count.

Ear­ly bird tick­ets are avail­able in a lim­it­ed quan­ti­ty for a lim­it­ed time. Sales end on Sep­tem­ber 30 or when sold out.

Reg­u­lar tick­et sales begin Octo­ber 1.

Have you heard? Our theme this year is “Through the Look­ing Glass.” Learn about the design for our new logo.

Have you met our onstage host, Kei­th Seck­el? Check out his 2015 host­ing expe­ri­ence.

Have you seen our speak­er line­up? Check them out here.

So what are you wait­ing for? See you at TEDxSalem on Jan­u­ary 6, 2018, at the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter.

Tick­ets are avail­able online at tedxsalem.eventbrite.com.

Ear­ly bird tick­ets are $45 and avail­able until Sept. 30. Stan­dard advance tick­ets are $55. Stu­dent advance tick­ets are $45.

Ques­tions? Feel free to email us at info@tedxsalem.us.

A photo retrospective on TEDxSalem IV: Revolutions

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As we embark on our new TEDx event, we invite you to look back on our pho­to ret­ro­spec­tive of the last great adven­ture we shared with Salem and beyond: “Rev­o­lu­tions.” It was an event mem­o­rable for, among oth­er things, the dri­ving snow­storm that greet­ed folks at the exits after­ward.


But while the weath­er out­side was fright­ful, the “inspire” was so delight­ful! From the ambi­tious and breath­tak­ing stage piece by Kathryn Cel­leri­ni Moore, to excit­ing and pas­sion­ate speak­ers like Kelsey Juliana, there was enough warmth and fel­low­ship to brave the cold. There was danc­ing; There was rock ’n’ roll; There was even yoga for all to begin the fes­tiv­i­ties.

Check out the sights of the day on Flickr.

And remem­ber, advance tick­ets for our upcom­ing event, “Through the Look­ing Glass,” go on sale Sept. 1!

Kelsey Juliana: Millennials will make a difference

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JulianaWhen it comes to stand­ing up to cli­mate change Kelsey Juliana is relent­less, and expects you to be, too.

“If you’re won­der­ing if you’re doing enough, then the answer is prob­a­bly not,” said Juliana, 20, a col­lege stu­dent cur­rent­ly work­ing with Part­ners for Sus­tain­able Schools to teach chil­dren about sus­tain­abil­i­ty and the envi­ron­ment.

“If you’re not uncom­fort­able, you’re not being hon­est about what we’re up against.”

Grow­ing up in Eugene, Juliana said her pas­sion for the envi­ron­ment was instilled in her by her par­ents from a young age, and from a young age she’s quick­ly ratch­eted up her activism, from writ­ing reports in mid­dle school to tak­ing part in protest march­es, to now being part of a fed­er­al law­suit to force the Unit­ed States gov­ern­ment to act to pre­vent the con­se­quences of cli­mate change.

For her TED talk, Juliana will share her expe­ri­ence being part of the land­mark US Fed­er­al cli­mate law­suit, and how it has rein­forced her belief in mil­len­ni­als to change the world.

Being a part of the pro­ceed­ings, being in the court­room to attend the hear­ings has been a “huge hon­or, and a huge priv­i­lege,” she said.

On Novem­ber 10 of last year in a momen­tous deci­sion, a fed­er­al court in Eugene ruled against the government’s motion to dis­miss, paving the way for Juliana and 20 oth­er youth plain­tiffs ages 9 to 20 to sue the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment to take deci­sive actions to lim­it car­bon emis­sions. The core argu­ment – Allow­ing cli­mate change to hap­pen is in fact depriv­ing the youngest gen­er­a­tion of its con­sti­tu­tion­al right to life, lib­er­ty and the pur­suit of hap­pi­ness, and is there­fore fun­da­men­tal­ly uncon­sti­tu­tion­al.

“It’s beau­ti­ful… that [lit­i­ga­tion has] been the way to seek jus­tice for any mar­gin­al group,” she said.

“We are per­son­al­ly affect­ed by cli­mate change,” Juliana said. “We are not okay with the fact that peo­ple allow­ing this and caus­ing this are elect­ed to pro­tect us from harm.”

It feels fair to say that fed­er­al lit­i­ga­tion is not the kind of child­hood mem­o­ry most peo­ple have. But that’s pre­cise­ly the point, accord­ing to Juliana. Mil­len­ni­als are not the dis­tract­ed slack­ers of media por­tray­al, but are, like her, active and aware. They need to be tak­en seri­ous­ly as agents of change, she said.

“Young peo­ple don’t just have cute pic­tures of polar bears,” she said, “they have real ideas and inno­v­a­tive solu­tions and they need them to be tak­en seri­ous­ly.”

And they don’t need your sym­pa­thy.

“Applaud us but join us.”

At a per­son­al lev­el, it’s her pas­sion for chil­dren that moti­vates Kelsey Juliana. Teach­ing school chil­dren about the envi­ron­ment and sus­tain­abil­i­ty is her way of being true to her­self, which is the key to empow­er­ing each of us to make a dif­fer­ence, she said.

“Every­one always asks, ‘What can I do?’ But instead of just call­ing con­gress­men, reflect on your­self,” she said.

“Who are you, what makes you hap­py? Then tran­si­tion that to: What do you love, what do you care about? What kind of world do you want to see in 20 years?”

“Peo­ple con­tribute very dif­fer­ent things,” she said. “Each of us has a unique gift that we can offer.” 

 - Learn more about the case and the plain­tiff’s legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion, Our Chil­dren’s Trust, here.

 

Get your tick­ets for TEDxSalem IV

Tick­ets are on sale now for Salem’s annu­al TEDx event Sat­ur­day, Jan­u­ary 7, 2017. Tick­ets are $50, $40 for a stu­dent. The all-day event includes talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and a swag bag. Fol­low us on Face­book for the most up-to-date news from our com­mu­ni­ty, and check our web­site reg­u­lar­ly for new infor­ma­tion. You can also reach us at info@tedxsalem.us.

 

Teressa Raiford: #blacklivesmatter was just the beginning

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Don't Shoot PDXIt can be easy to over­look Ter­es­sa Raiford in a crowd­ed room, and that seems to suit her quite fine. Short in stature, she is soft-spo­ken and unas­sum­ing in per­son, often with gaze avert­ed and the occa­sion­al half-smile.

There’s a notice­able hint of lone­li­ness in Raiford’s demeanor that the com­mu­ni­ty orga­niz­er and leader of Don’t Shoot Port­land does not try to hide, one of the ironies of lead­er­ship that she accepts as part of the job.

“I couldn’t love too much,” said Raiford, 46, speak­er at TEDx Salem’s REVOLUTIONS event.  “You’re not avail­able to pets or fam­i­ly or any­body.”

“It’s real­ly bad, but it’s most­ly for the safe­ty of the peo­ple we love.”

From online harass­ment and threats against her life, to an arrest and tri­al for dis­or­der­ly con­duct, Raiford accepts and puts aside the costs of doing her job. A gen­er­a­tional Ore­gon­ian who traces her family’s roots in the state back to the 1880s, she spent her youth in and out of fos­ter care from the age of 7 through 18. It’s one rea­son she often feels out of place, in the place she should call home, she said.

Yet at Port­land City Hall, two months ago, there again was Raiford, help­ing lead the charge of pro­tes­tors demand­ing to have a voice in delib­er­a­tions between the city and the police union.

For her TED talk, Raiford will speak about the heart of protest — the impor­tance of get­ting involved and mak­ing a dif­fer­ence. And she will share why she does it.

Specif­i­cal­ly, it was one day in Sep­tem­ber 2010 that changed the life of this for­mer accoun­tant, the day she learned of the shoot­ing death of her nephew, Andre Pay­ton. It was a loss that forced her to come to grips with the plague of gun vio­lence, a com­mu­ni­ty issue that seemed to get no trac­tion among city lead­ers who would seem on the sur­face to be recep­tive to such a pro­gres­sive cause. Port­land is sym­pa­thet­ic, but is also main­ly white, she said.

“Port­land is a fake pro­gres­sive town,” she said.

See­ing the inac­tion forced Raiford to rec­og­nize that more need­ed to be done to make minor­i­ty voic­es heard, and more would be asked of her than just fundrais­ing and march­ing, she said.

“The only way that I could empow­er my com­mu­ni­ty was by protest­ing,” she said.

Get­ting the courage to lead the com­mu­ni­ty in protests didn’t come too hard, though. The old­est of 11 sib­lings, Raiford had had to take charge of her life and fight through her sit­u­a­tion from an ear­ly age, as both her par­ents end­ed up serv­ing time in prison.

“It was always on me to take care of sib­lings and cousins, and even my moth­er,” she said. It’s what dri­ves her to each protest, each ral­ly, each plan­ning ses­sion.

“It hurts to go out there. It hurts. All this stuff is bad. Mass incar­cer­a­tion, fos­ter care audits. The pain of my expe­ri­ence, and the val­ue of my age, and know­ing that I can fight for that child. I have to have courage.”

And in the end, it’s what gives Raiford her iden­ti­ty, no mat­ter how tired, or scared she might be.

“[The com­mu­ni­ty will] come get you,” she said. “They won’t let you not serve them.”

“I am the peo­ple that I serve,” she said. “Doing some­thing is rev­o­lu­tion­ary. And it’s nec­es­sary.”

“We might not always know exact­ly what we have to do, but if we don’t do any­thing, then that means that we don’t mat­ter. And that’s telling the world that it’s okay that we don’t mat­ter.”

Get your tick­ets for TEDxSalem IV

Tick­ets are on sale now for Salem’s annu­al TEDx event Sat­ur­day, Jan­u­ary 7, 2017. Tick­ets are $50, $40 for a stu­dent. The all-day event includes talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and a swag bag. Fol­low us on Face­book for the most up-to-date news from our com­mu­ni­ty, and check our web­site reg­u­lar­ly for new infor­ma­tion. You can also reach us at info@tedxsalem.us.

Brianna Miller: Going “retro” with last year’s artist-in-residence

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Some peo­ple are said to be born too soon for this world; artist Bri­an­na Miller may have been born about 30 years too late.

brianna-01

The 24-year-old Miller could be a child of the 1960s spir­i­tu­al­ly — she shares a pas­sion for Cat Stevens music, and movies like Harold and Maude and the 60s-inspired films of Wes Ander­son. She claims the works of 60s avant-garde artists like Andy Warhol and Yay­oi Kusama, among oth­ers, as her main artis­tic inspi­ra­tions. The Port­land-based artist and grad­u­ate of McNary High School in Keiz­er also recent­ly dis­cov­ered the Moog syn­the­siz­er tones of Mort Garson’s 1976 album “Plan­ta­sia,” she said.

Speak­ing from her cur­rent home in Uti­ca, New York, where today she is the artist-in-res­i­dence at the Mun­son Williams Proc­tor Art Insti­tute, Miller rem­i­nisced on her time with TEDx Salem last year.

Her biggest hope, she said, was “to cre­ate a piece that moved peo­ple.”

“I had a lot in mind,” she said. “I want­ed some­thing visu­al­ly stim­u­lat­ing.”

Those who came out to TEDx Salem’s FEARLESS event last Octo­ber 2015 will remem­ber the unique­ly col­or­ful back­drop, evok­ing the pol­ka-dot motif of a Kusama piece, that hov­ered over the stage in a con­stel­la­tion of col­ors to give the stage an icon­ic feel.

Through the piece, Miller hoped to encour­age each view­er to face his or her fears, and con­tin­ue to day­dream, she said.

“Every­one took some­thing dif­fer­ent away from it,” she said. “That was one of my goals.”

TEDx Salem’s first-ever artist-in-res­i­dence, Miller had applied for the job on a lark, based on a friend’s rec­om­men­da­tion, she said.

“I didn’t even know that Salem was a part of [TEDx],” she said.

Her expe­ri­ence helped her recon­nect with the Salem com­mu­ni­ty, she said, and also served as inspi­ra­tion for her art career.

“It’s encour­ag­ing me to go even big­ger,” she said. “[Being a TEDx Salem speak­er] makes it eas­i­er to talk about my art.”

Since then, Bri­an­na Miller has fol­lowed a sim­i­lar path from Ore­gon all the way to upstate New York, where she serves as a Com­mu­ni­ty Arts Edu­ca­tion instruc­tor and also works on her inde­pen­dent art project – a com­bi­na­tion of print­ed media “zine” and instal­la­tion of paBriannapier-mache that is “still evolv­ing,” she said – that should be com­plete before sum­mer of 2017.

She remem­bers her time with FEARLESS fond­ly. A qui­et, soft-spo­ken per­son, Miller had to face her own fear of pub­lic speak­ing to share her art with the com­mu­ni­ty.

“Talk­ing in front of peo­ple is always kind of scary,” she said.

“My biggest wor­ry was mak­ing sure I cre­at­ed a piece that was fit­ting to the theme,” she said, but “not too dis­tract­ing.”

Before leav­ing, Miller was able to meet this year’s artist-in-res­i­dence, Kathryn Cel­leri­ni Moore. With the ben­e­fit of hind­sight, she imparts the fol­low­ing advice:

“This is a chance to exper­i­ment and not play it safe,” she said. “I wish I would have done a lit­tle bit more. I think I was wor­ry­ing too much, and got too much into my head.”

“Take risks.”

 

Learn more about Bri­an­na at her Web site here, and learn about her cur­rent work here.

 

 

Get your tick­ets for TEDxSalem IV

Tick­ets are on sale now for Salem’s annu­al TEDx event Sat­ur­day, Jan­u­ary 7, 2017. Tick­ets are $50, $40 for stu­dents. The all-day event includes talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and a swag bag. Fol­low us on Face­book for the most up-to-date news from our com­mu­ni­ty, and check our web­site reg­u­lar­ly for new infor­ma­tion. You can also reach us at info@tedxsalem.us.