Introducing the co-curators: Brian Hart & Carlee Wright

Bri­an’s idea of a good time is vol­un­teer­ing at Sun­dance Film Fes­ti­val every year. He does­n’t even care much for the celebri­ty sight­ings. He’s a true lover of film — you know, the friend who might rec­om­mend the most obscure, for­eign works? That’s Bri­an.

Car­lee, on the oth­er hand, is a punk rock­er. She’s the one who’ll tell you, yes, Punk Rock Bowl­ing is a thing. Because she’s been to the annu­al Las Vegas fes­ti­val, where she saw Drop­kick Mur­phys.

There is one key thing that bonds these two, and that is a love for Salem. That love is why Car­lee Wright and Bri­an Hart make a great team of co-cura­tors for TEDxSalem.

Some may think that no one real­ly loves Salem. We might tol­er­ate it and find it com­fort­able and con­ve­nient and a safe, afford­able place to raise kids. But love? That’s quite a strong word.

The kind of love Bri­an and Car­lee have for Salem isn’t the blind, naive type. It’s the hon­est, com­mit­ted, per­sis­tent type. They know there’s work to be done. And with enough invest­ment and faith, Salem could be a great city. It’s not easy work, but it’s mean­ing­ful.

TEDxSalem is among the great­est invest­ments Bri­an and Car­lee will make in Salem. They had long been lead­ers in many cul­tur­al efforts like the Cher­ry City Der­by Girls and Cul­ture Shock Com­mu­ni­ty Project when Bri­an came across Can­dy Chang’s TED talk.

It was 2 a.m. and he was in bed with his iPad when he first watched Can­dy Chang talk about the Before I Die wall. Inspired, he emailed the video to Car­lee. To his sur­prise, she was also up in bed. She imme­di­ate­ly wrote back. She was in.

That’s how their com­pa­ny, Be, was cre­at­ed. They raised the funds then lit­er­al­ly raised the wall and it was a huge suc­cess. The two con­tin­ued to think of oth­er projects to pur­sue. TEDx was def­i­nite­ly on the table, as a dis­tant, ambi­tious goal.

They decid­ed to attend TEDx­Con­cor­dia togeth­er and as they watched the event come togeth­er, the more they real­ized Salem need­ed this event and the more con­fi­dent they became that they could pull it off.

The appli­ca­tion for TEDxSalem was approved in May, and Bri­an and Car­lee decid­ed to put the event on the fast track — an ambi­tious six-month plan­ning peri­od.

“It need­ed to hap­pen now,” Bri­an said.

“Salem need­ed it,” Car­lee said.

The co-cura­tors’ eyes sparkle when they talk about the poten­tial impact of TEDxSalem.

“Their brains will be on fire,” Bri­an says.

Car­lee: “The good kind of fire.”

In all seri­ous­ness, though, Bri­an and Car­lee want TEDxSalem to be a game-chang­er. The event that peo­ple talk about for a long time. The site where new mean­ing­ful friend­ships are forged. They want it to shat­ter expec­ta­tions.

Bios

Name: Bri­an Hart

Occu­pa­tion: Pro­duc­er at Allied Video Pro­duc­tions

Born in: Salem

Vol­un­teers as: Event direc­tor for Cher­ry City Der­by Girls, among tons oth­ers

Alter ego: Super­man

Prized fash­ion item: Sil­ver dis­co pants, gold suit

Name: Car­lee Wright

Occu­pa­tion: Enter­tain­ment reporter at States­man Jour­nal

Born in: Vic­to­ria, British Colum­bia

Vol­un­teers as: Sociocraftol­o­gist at DIY Stu­dio, among tons oth­ers

For­mer life: Fash­ion design­er

Prized fash­ion item: Shoes. OMG, shoes.

– Saerom Yoo, TEDxSalem sto­ry­teller