TEDxSalem

Ideas worth spreading

Stefanie Knowlton

Nina Baliga: Accessible tech is better tech for everyone

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Nina Bali­ga is the man­ag­ing part­ner for Break­ing the Bias, a pro­gram that helps com­pa­nies and indi­vid­u­als cre­ate tools, meth­ods and strate­gies to build more inclu­sive work­places.

When she isn’t advo­cat­ing for acces­si­ble tech, she spends her time snow­board­ing, rock climb­ing, play­ing video games and spend­ing time with her hus­band Pierce and two dogs, Tavvi and Rook.

One thing that you wouldn’t know about the 39 year old is that she has a ran­dom col­lec­tion of belt buck­les from when she lived in the deep south. We are thrilled to wel­come Nina to the TEDxSalem stage Jan. 4th. 

Do you have a favorite TED Talk? Elaine Mari­no’s “Bring­ing the Work­place into the 21st Cen­tu­ry”. Elaine has been a thought leader in how we can build work­places that tru­ly val­ue diver­si­ty and inclu­sion. I’ve been inspired by her work for years.  

What does this year’s theme “Vision” mean to you? It’s all about acces­si­bil­i­ty. Hav­ing worked with build­ing web­sites and apps that are acces­si­ble for the visu­al­ly impaired, I want­ed to start build­ing things that would be acces­si­ble for peo­ple of all dis­abil­i­ties. I rec­og­nized from the very begin­ning that build­ing acces­si­ble prod­ucts and ser­vices means build­ing amaz­ing prod­ucts for every­one. 

How has your life been dif­fer­ent than what you’d imag­ined? I knew that I would nev­er work a desk job. My biggest fear as a high school­er was the idea of work­ing in a cubi­cle. Even though I’ve held cubi­cle jobs, I’ve shown to myself that how we define work is up to us in many ways. I’ve been able to define my job in my own terms.  

Tell us some­thing about your­self we could nev­er tell from look­ing at you. I learned Irish for my lan­guage require­ment in col­lege. I would go to under­ground Irish-speak­ing pubs in Gal­way when I lived there for a sum­mer. You can imag­ine peo­ple’s faces when a brown 20-some­thing-year-old woman was going in there and speak­ing to them in Irish.   

If you could instant­ly become an expert in some­thing, what would it be? Video game design. I believe video games are not only an escape from our hec­tic lives, but can also be used as a tool for social impact. They’re a pow­er­ful form of sto­ry­telling that any­one can access.   

Go-to karaoke song? “Pour Some Sug­ar on Me” by Def Lep­pard.   

Under your bed right now? Prob­a­bly a whole bunch of dog fur. 

Chunky or smooth peanut but­ter? Smooth

TEDxSalem VII

TEDxSalem VII is an all-day event fea­tur­ing talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and swag. It takes place from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sat­ur­day, Jan. 4, 2020, at the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter. Click here for tick­ets.  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.com

Hailey Hardcastle: student advocate

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At 19, Hai­ley Hard­cas­tle is already an accom­plished advo­cate.

The Uni­ver­si­ty of Ore­gon stu­dent is a mem­ber of Stu­dents for a Healthy Ore­gon and was one of four teen activists who lob­bied for a men­tal health bill (HB 2191), which excus­es stu­dent absences for men­tal health rea­sons. The law was enact­ed this year. 

Her fam­i­ly includes three younger sis­ters, a won­der­ful hard­work­ing moth­er and two Alaskan husky pups. Hai­ley enjoys paint­ing, read­ing the news, lis­ten­ing to musi­cals (her favorite is Hamil­ton) and watch­ing foot­ball. In Jan­u­ary, we will wel­come her to the TEDxSalem stage to speak about her advo­ca­cy, but first, let’s get to know Hai­ley Hard­cas­tle. 

What was your first TED expe­ri­ence? I had a fan­tas­tic math teacher in mid­dle school who would show us an inspi­ra­tional TED talk every Fri­day. I remem­ber think­ing that every per­son who gave a TED talk must be a celebri­ty or incred­i­bly smart. When I grew old­er and learned that TED speak­ers are just reg­u­lar peo­ple, the talks became even more empow­er­ing, know­ing that I could be like one of those peo­ple I admired so much in mid­dle school.

Do you have a favorite TED Talk? How has it impact­ed your life or per­spec­tive? My favorite TED talk is called Be The Hope by Gay­athri Ram­prasad. I came across this talk after meet­ing Gay­athri per­son­al­ly to dis­cuss the men­tal health leg­is­la­tion that I helped pass. Her sto­ry changed the way in which I talk about my own men­tal health strug­gles. I used to be embar­rassed about what I’ve been through but her talk inspired me to see the pow­er with­in my sto­ry and myself. I now open­ly share my sto­ry and embrace it to fur­ther my men­tal health advo­ca­cy work.

What does this year’s theme “Vision” mean to you? Vision to me means look­ing ahead to the future. There is a time and place for reflec­tion but right now is the time to con­sid­er what a bet­ter future will look like.

Hai­ley Hard­cas­tle TEDxSalem 2020

What do you feel most grate­ful for in your life? My three younger sis­ters, two of them are in mid­dle school and the oth­er is four years old. They’ve helped me see life from a dif­fer­ent per­spec­tive and can always put a smile on my face.

Tell us some­thing about your­self we could nev­er tell from look­ing at you. I have severe gen­er­al anx­i­ety. My anx­i­ety makes some things a lot hard­er for me but it also led me to find­ing my pas­sion for lead­er­ship and activism.

Do you have any com­mu­ni­ty activ­i­ties? I’ve always been very involved in stu­dent gov­ern­ment! Now that I’ve grad­u­at­ed I still enjoy vol­un­teer­ing for the Ore­gon Asso­ci­a­tion of Stu­dent Coun­cils to work with kids on build­ing their lead­er­ship skills.

Under your bed right now? Well I’m in col­lege so under my bed right now there’s an unrea­son­able amount of snacks.

Make one change in the world? If I could change only one thing in the world, it would be the way in which peo­ple com­mu­ni­cate. I wish more peo­ple would be will­ing to empathize and com­pro­mise with oth­ers who may not have the same beliefs as them.

Great­est fear? The ocean because so much of it is still unex­plored so we real­ly have no idea what’s out there.

Ran­dom fact: My favorite place I’ve ever been to is Machu Pic­chu in Peru.

TEDxSalem VII

TEDxSalem VII is an all-day event fea­tur­ing talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and a swag bag. It takes place from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sat­ur­day, Jan. 4, 2020, at the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter. Click here for tick­ets.  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.com

TEDxSalem Speaker Nicole Malinoff: Dancer, teacher and Sci-Fi fan

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TEDXSalem speak­er Nicole Mali­noff is a pro­fes­sion­al bel­ly­dancer, dance instruc­tor and teach­ing assis­tant from Eugene. 

When she isn’t shim­my­ing to Mid­dle East­ern music or teach­ing dance at Cel­e­bra­tion Bel­ly Dance and Yoga, she loves to cook, eat, explore inter­est­ing places, hike, swim and rest. Her house­hold con­sists of “three humans and two dogs.” 

One ran­dom fact about Nicole is that she is “a film school drop out.” She is also an actress and pro­duc­tion man­ag­er at a small the­ater com­pa­ny (more on that in a minute).

We are excit­ed to wel­come Nicole as one of our many tal­ent­ed speak­ers for TEDxSalem 2020. 

What was your first TED expe­ri­ence? Sit­ting at home watch­ing Scott Dins­more’s How to Find and Do Work You Love. I was unem­ployed and feel­ing real­ly lost. His talk gave me hope and some­thing of a plan. I watched it sev­er­al times after that and made every­one I know watch it.

Do you have a favorite TED Talk? How has it impact­ed your life or per­spec­tive? Fash­ion Styling for Peo­ple with Dis­abil­i­ties by Stephanie Thomas. As some­one who ben­e­fits from the priv­i­lege of being able to find clothes any­where, it brought the issue of cloth­ing acces­si­bil­i­ty into my aware­ness, and intro­duced me to the vibrant world of dis­abled beau­ty and fash­ion.

What does this year’s theme “Vision” mean to you? I feel like the theme kind of encom­pass­es what TED is all about: New, world-chang­ing ideas, per­spec­tives and insights from peo­ple we don’t often get to hear from. In all hon­esty, I’m just so shocked that I’m a part of this that I haven’t real­ly con­sid­ered the theme.

What do you feel most grate­ful for in your life? Hav­ing all of my imme­di­ate needs met so that I have the lux­u­ry to fan­ta­size and dream about what I want for myself and the world.

Do you have any com­mu­ni­ty activ­i­ties? Tell us more about them…I belong to a Sci­ence Fic­tion the­atre com­pa­ny called Trek The­atre. We most­ly do Star Trek episodes, but dream of branch­ing out. We’re entire­ly vol­un­teer and dona­tion run, so our shows are free to the pub­lic. I just became their pro­duc­tion man­ag­er, but I also act.

Make one change in the world? I would have every­one in pow­er take cli­mate change seri­ous­ly, so we could have a shot at avoid­ing this impend­ing mass extinc­tion.

Great­est fear? Heights, bod­i­ly harm, phys­i­cal pain, death (I can’t pick just one)

TEDxSalem VII

TEDxSalem VII is an all-day event fea­tur­ing talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and a swag bag. It takes place from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sat­ur­day, Jan. 4, 2020, at the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter. Click here for tick­ets.  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.com

It’s not too late to join the TEDxSalem party today

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You for­got to buy tick­ets, you thought you would­n’t be in town or you just put it off to the last minute?

That’s OK. We have tick­ets at the door so it’s not too late to join this par­ty. It’s going to be epic. Eleven bril­liant speak­ers, med­i­ta­tion, dance and per­for­mances from Sleep Mil­len­ni­um and Rian Gayle.

But wait, there’s more: thought­ful break­out ses­sions, snacks, a fab­u­lous lunch and an after par­ty. Join us at Tap­root in down­town Salem to cel­e­brate the day and hang out some more.

Tick­ets will be avail­able for pur­chase at the door for $60 cash or card only. No checks.

We hope to see you at the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter, 200 Com­mer­cial St. SE. Doors open at 7:45 a.m., and event starts at 9 a.m.

Music translator Rian Gayle invites us to reinterpret music together

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Rian Gayle makes music come alive for those who can’t hear it and even those who can.

The Amer­i­can Sign Lan­guage music trans­la­tor moves his body to the rhythm, uses facial expres­sions to con­vey emo­tion and spends count­less hours trans­lat­ing phras­es and metaphors into signs that dri­ve home mean­ing. At TEDxSalem Jan. 5, he will not only trans­late but teach every­one to sign a pop­u­lar song to the music.

“Some peo­ple who are deaf real­ly appre­ci­ate see­ing the music in ASL,” he said, “and they say ‘oh that’s what that song means.’ They’re fas­ci­nat­ed with the signs and the trans­la­tions them­selves. Some of them think final­ly I can access music.”

With­out this type of trans­la­tion, music can fall flat with lyrics that often make lit­tle sense in direct trans­la­tion. Imag­ine read­ing the lyrics to Bohemi­an Rhap­sody with­out expe­ri­enc­ing the emo­tion or the soar­ing ups and downs. Gayle can con­vey emo­tion, tone and show whether some­one is yelling or calm.

Gayle became deaf at the age of three, but he can still pick up the beat and feel the rhythm. He start­ed music trans­la­tion per­for­mances about 15 years ago at church and now offers class­es to those who want to learn through Salem ASLu­sic.

He loves reg­gae, hip hop, blues and pop, and his favorite song is “Redemp­tion Song” by Bob Mar­ley.

“It’s a great song,” said Gayle, who, like Mar­ley, is from Jamaica.

By day Gayle is the accom­mo­da­tions coor­di­na­tor at West­ern Ore­gon University’s Office of Dis­abil­i­ty Ser­vices. He also serves on sev­er­al boards and com­mis­sions that work to bring greater access to those with dis­abil­i­ties.

Music trans­la­tion is anoth­er way to not only pro­vide that access to the deaf com­mu­ni­ty but also build bridges. The per­for­mances are for deaf and hear­ing audi­ences.

Hear­ing audi­ences get to expe­ri­ence songs and ASL in a whole new way. He invites audi­ence par­tic­i­pa­tion and even teach­es a few of the signs. It also brings greater aware­ness, Gayle said, “yes we are deaf, but we can have fun, and we can enjoy music.”

To any­one look­ing to team up with Gayle, he said“We can work togeth­er through music, and I can per­form with you.”

“That is some­thing that I’m try­ing to work on for the future so our com­mu­ni­ty and our lan­guage becomes more vis­i­ble,” he said.

Rian Gayle

Home­town: Kingston, Jamaica,

Edu­ca­tion: B.A.  in Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion and M.A. in Inter­na­tion­al Devel­op­ment for per­sons with Dis­abil­i­ties from Gal­laudet Uni­ver­si­ty, Wash­ing­ton, D.C.

Fam­i­ly: Wife, Laine, daugh­ter, RiLana (com­bi­na­tion of Rian and Laine)

Hob­bies: Bik­ing, hik­ing, dance, sal­sa, read­ing, watch­ing movies and row­ing with drag­on boat team “Peace Drag­on War­rior”

Favorite recent movie: “Roma”

Favorite music: “I do love reg­gae, hip hop, rap and some indie music, neo soul and Span­ish music for danc­ing.”

Favorite Food: “I do absolute­ly love Indi­an food, and the Jamaican restau­rant in Port­land serves great food.”

TEDxSalem VI

TEDxSalem VI is an all-day event fea­tur­ing talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and a swag bag. It runs 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sat­ur­day, Jan. 5 at the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter. Tick­ets are on sale now for $55, $45 for stu­dents. 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.com.

Come for TEDxSalem, stay for the sights

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You don’t have to leave Salem once the TEDxSalem par­ty is over. Stay. Explore. Enjoy.

We think Salem rocks, which is why we work so hard to bring you TEDxSalem, a show­case for just how cool this city, and our com­mu­ni­ty, is.

Here are a few ideas to help you get to know us.

Ice Skat­ing. Try your skills at Salem’s newest attrac­tion: Salem on Ice, an ice skat­ing rink at Salem’s River­front Park.

The Capi­tol. Guid­ed tours occur on week­days only, but it’s worth wan­der­ing in just to see the rotun­da.

The Elsi­nore The­atre. This beau­ti­ful his­toric the­ater shows clas­sic films, com­mu­ni­ty per­for­mances and nation­al tour­ing enter­tain­ment.

Eat your way through down­town. You’ll already be down­town for TEDxSalem, so why not do some explor­ing? We have clas­sic, long-stand­ing lunch coun­ters, qual­i­ty Ital­ian, Span­ish and French restau­rants, local­ly beloved estab­lish­ments and cozy cof­fee shops.

River­front Park from City of Salem web­site

Head to the river­front. You could stroll the pedes­tri­an bridge, go for a spin on the Carousel or just soak up the atmos­phere. Use the new Minto Island bicy­cle and pedes­tri­an bridge to walk to Minto-Brown Island Park.

Taste the best wine Ore­gon has to offer. We’re pret­ty par­tial to Pinots. There are dozens of world class vine­yards and winer­ies just out­side city lim­its, many of them offer­ing wood-fire piz­zas, cheese plates or full kitchen options. Yum!

Take in a show, comedic or musi­cal. The options are darn near end­less. There’s fam­i­ly-friend­ly improv at Capi­tol City, the hottest indie films at Salem Cin­e­ma, and the lat­est musi­cal from the Pen­ta­cle The­atre (The Lit­tle Mer­maid launch­es the same week­end as TEDxSalem!).

Feel col­le­giate at Willamette. Our local uni­ver­si­ty has one gor­geous cam­pus, with wind­ing trails and autumn leaves just beg­ging for a leisure­ly stroll.

Art? Check. His­to­ry? Check. See the lat­est exhib­it at the Hal­lie Ford Muse­um of Art, peruse the finest pieces for sale at the Bush Barn Art Cen­ter, see the film-famous Ore­gon State Hos­pi­tal muse­um or soak up local his­to­ry at the Willamette Her­itage Cen­ter.

If wine isn’t your thing, maybe beer is? Our small but wild­ly tal­ent­ed (and deli­cious) col­lec­tion of brew­eries are win­ning awards and mak­ing head­lines.

Still need a place to stay? May we rec­om­mend the Grand Hotel in down­town Salem? Not only is it right next door to the Con­ven­tion Cen­ter, but TEDxSalem atten­dees get a dis­count! Just men­tion that you’ll be at the con­fer­ence, and you will get the dis­count­ed rate of $139 plus tax.

Look­ing for oth­er must-see tips about Salem? Ask any of our vol­un­teers or team mem­bers!

Still need tick­ets for TEDxSalem? Nev­er fear, they’re still avail­able online.