Meet TEDxSalem VII Artist-in-Residence

Pho­to by Ben Mah, from Press Play Salem.

Danielle Baca (Chayse) lives a life steeped in cre­ativ­i­ty, from orga­niz­ing com­mu­ni­ty events, such as the Salem Zom­bie Walk and Salem’s Rocky Hor­ror Pic­ture Show, to reimag­in­ing art on skin in her career as a tat­too artist. She is a wife and moth­er, as well as a zookeep­er of two cats, a dog, a lizard, a 20-year-old tor­tious name Mar­la and 45 house plants. A ded­i­cat­ed com­mu­ni­ty advo­cate, you will often find Danielle sup­port­ing local activ­i­ties, from vol­un­teer­ing behind the scenes to shar­ing them with her fam­i­ly. And her con­nec­tion with TEDxSalem is steeped in his­to­ry, too. She’s been active­ly shar­ing her cre­ativ­i­ty with our audi­ence for a num­ber of years, although you may not have always rec­og­nized her. We are proud to intro­duce and excit­ed to wel­come Danielle as our 2020 Artist-In-Res­i­dence. 

What was your first TED expe­ri­ence? Dress­ing up as the 8‑foot bride in 2014, while hold­ing bright orange sun­flow­ers, in light of Aman­da Palmer’s TEDtalk “The art of ask­ing.”

Do you have a favorite TED Talk? How has it impact­ed your life or per­spec­tive? Sarah Kay’s “If I should have a daugh­ter” is a beau­ti­ful spo­ken-word piece. It moved the young woman, the moth­er, and sis­ter­ly role mod­el in me, and is a love­ly reminder of my appre­ci­a­tion of poet­ry, and the pow­er has to wake us, move us, or lead our hearts for­ward.

What does this year’s theme “Vision” mean to you? It means, to see. To see the path before us, but not with our eyes, but with our minds. To look out and with­in. It means to appre­ci­ate our per­spec­tive, while not being afraid to look at some­thing in a dif­fer­ent light.  

What is one of your favorite child­hood mem­o­ries? Hear­ing my sec­ond-grade teacher play the didgeri­doo. It was strange and mag­i­cal.

What do you feel most grate­ful for in your life? The many oppor­tu­ni­ties I have had to grow, or make my life fuller, and for all the many peo­ple who have helped me along the way.

What is the best gift any­one has ever giv­en to you? My daugh­ter.

Would you rather have a rewind but­ton or a pause but­ton on your life? Pause.

Favorite col­or? Green.

Most embar­rass­ing moment? My first kiss.

Some­thing some­one should know about you? I love puns.

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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