TEDxSalem

Ideas worth spreading

2017 TEDxSalem

American Sign Language spoken here at TEDxSalem

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Ten stu­dents from West­ern Ore­gon Uni­ver­si­ty, pic­tured here with class­mates, will offer ASL inter­pret­ing at TEDxSalem Sat­ur­day.

TEDxSalem will offer ASL inter­pret­ing for the third year in a row so every­one can join the con­ver­sa­tion.

Salem is one of the few TED events around the world that offers the ser­vice thanks to our vol­un­teers. With­out them, it would cost thou­sands of dol­lars.

This year Salem teamed up with 10 ASL inter­pret­ing stu­dents from West­ern Ore­gon Uni­ver­si­ty, their men­tors and mem­bers of the deaf com­mu­ni­ty to make it hap­pen.

“It’s real­ly a won­der­ful oppor­tu­ni­ty for our stu­dents,” said Vic­ki Dar­d­en, vis­it­ing assis­tant pro­fes­sor of inter­pret­ing stud­ies at WOU.

TEDx is a great way for the stu­dents, all seniors, to get real-world ASL inter­pret­ing expe­ri­ence, she said. But the part­ner­ship is a win for every­one. The event gets inter­pre­ta­tion, and the deaf com­mu­ni­ty gains access to the TED expe­ri­ence not only in Salem, but around the world online.

Each stu­dent will inter­pret one TED talk with sup­port from their men­tor, and the remain­ing talks will be cov­ered by men­tors. Stu­dents will also have a chance to refine their inter­pre­ta­tions for the videos, which will fea­ture the ASL inter­preter on the screen.

Dar­d­en hopes to con­tin­ue the part­ner­ship between WOU and TEDxSalem next year, she said.

“I look for­ward to a real col­lab­o­ra­tion between TEDx and our stu­dents,” she said, “to pro­vide access to the deaf com­mu­ni­ty as well as expe­ri­ence for our stu­dents and expo­sure for TED.”

TEDxSalem stu­dent inter­preters

Patri­cia Desrosiers
Jaymee Gowdy
Halle Hamil­ton
Jacob Hogan
Caitlin Mas­ter­son
Alis­sa McAlpine
Lynne Mur­phy
Allis­sa Phoenix
Shaw­na Put­nam
Caitlin Woods

It’s not too late! 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. You can also buy tick­ets at the door! 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.

2017 won’t change itself, join TEDxSalem Revolutions

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I’ve heard peo­ple wish away 2016 as if a new num­ber will sud­den­ly trans­form our world.

2017 isn’t mag­i­cal. It won’t erase the real­i­ties many want to escape. Only we can change through ideas, actions, rev­o­lu­tion. On Jan­u­ary 7, a com­mu­ni­ty will come togeth­er to cel­e­brate ideas worth spread­ing in Salem and beyond.

You can be a part of it.

TEDxSalem is a full day of bril­liant speak­ers, thought­ful dis­cus­sion, art, food and enter­tain­ment meant to leave you inspired and ready to act. It doesn’t mat­ter on which side of the polit­i­cal spec­trum you fall. These ideas are for every­one.

Where else can you hear from a bug farmer, mind­ful thinker, bud­ding sci­en­tist, Pulitzer-nom­i­nat­ed writer, social jus­tice cham­pi­on, child advo­cate and so many more in one day?  Join us. Let the rev­o­lu­tion begin.

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.

Say hello to host Mark Powers

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Mark Pow­ers is a per­cus­sion­ist, an artist, an author, edu­ca­tor and men­tor. Plus, he’s no stranger to the TEDx stage. In fact, he has two talks under his belt and played the role of host for TEDxMt­Hood (for­mer­ly Con­cor­diaU­Port­land) three times.

“I’ve long been a fan of TED and TEDx talks, so being invit­ed to step on stage at sev­er­al of them has led to some of my all-time favorite (and, at times, most ter­ri­fy­ing) expe­ri­ences,” Mark said.

The for­mer Salem res­i­dent (he lived here from 2006 to 2012) who has called Port­land home for the past two years, lives by the adage of lots of eggs in lots of bas­kets.

“I’m try­ing to replace busy with blessed in my vocab­u­lary,” Mark said.

Gen­uine and sin­cere, music has been the cat­a­lyst spark­ing many of his adven­tures as he has trav­eled and taught through­out the world.

As a drum­mer, you can see him per­form with the Port­land band Mbras­catu, or with Haley John­son and Aman­da Richards. He’s shared the stage with Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen, Devon Evans of Bob Mar­ley and the Wail­ers, Rolling Stones sax­o­phon­ist Tim Ries and Bad Company’s Lynn Sorensen.

He free­lances when­ev­er pos­si­ble and is hap­py for the oppor­tu­ni­ty to par­tic­i­pate in record­ing projects, too.

“Two albums I am stoked about are M Ward — I played drums on half — and She & Him. I’m play­ing drums on one track of the Christ­mas album,” Mark said.

He’s been pub­lished in mag­a­zines, com­posed solo/ensemble per­cus­sion pieces and writ­ten numer­ous books on drum­ming. His first children’s board book, I Want to Be a Drum­mer!, was released in Sept. 2016, and his sec­ond book, I Want to Be a Read­er!, will be out in the spring.

He’s an entre­pre­neur, always think­ing about cre­ative ways of mak­ing mon­ey; How he could use his musi­cal knowl­edge to his advan­tage.

“I didn’t think of myself in that way for a long time,” Mark said

Plus, he’s a past Guin­ness World Record hold­er (Longest Drum Roll by a Group: 2003–2005) for play­ing a con­tin­u­ous 12-hour drum­roll.

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.

Meet Artist-in-Residence Kathryn Cellerini Moore

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Ore­gon-native and self-pro­fessed nerd Kathryn Cel­leri­ni Moore is a cre­ative force trans­form­ing child­hood mem­o­ries into thought-pro­vok­ing art instal­la­tions. And this year she is the TEDxSalem Artist in Res­i­dence help­ing set the tone for our event, com­mu­ni­cate its theme and con­vey an ‘idea worth spread­ing.’

Drawn to art for its ther­a­peu­tic val­ues, Kathryn holds a BS in Psy­chol­o­gy and a BFA in Allied Visu­al Arts from Ore­gon State Uni­ver­si­ty. She earned her Mas­ter’s Degree in Stu­dio Art with a focus on print­mak­ing, sculp­ture and instal­la­tion from Stony Brook Uni­ver­si­ty in New York. Although across the coun­try, Kathryn want­ed a pro­gram that would allow her to explore.

“Stu­dio art was open enough for those like me who can’t decide on one medi­um,” she said. “I wasn’t good about mak­ing deci­sions, about focus­ing. I want­ed to do what felt should be done for what­ev­er the idea was.”

“I nev­er felt like I was going to mas­ter any one mate­r­i­al because I nev­er stick with one for very long,” Kathryn said. “What you are mas­ter­ing is how to take an idea and give it form. So I would say, I am most­ly drawn to con­cep­tu­al ideas where the idea forms every­thing else.”

“I am also very drawn to mate­ri­als,” Kathryn added. “The sump­tu­ous­ness, tex­tures and col­ors.”


Inspi­ra­tion for the artist derives from her child­hood and the envi­ron­ment in which she grew up.

“My art is very seat­ed in how I respond to my every day and con­nect­ing to that…asking the ques­tion ‘Why do I respond that way?’” Kathryn said, not­ing that how for­ma­tive expe­ri­ence con­tin­ues to impact our dai­ly lives has been a thread through her work for some time.

For her TEDxSalem stage instal­la­tion, Kathryn hopes view­ers will see some­thing unex­pect­ed. It’s a vision that’s chaot­ic and con­trolled at the same time, she said. But there is also a very per­son­al lev­el, a fam­i­ly por­trait, to the instal­la­tion.

“For me, this instal­la­tion pays homage to the sweat and tears that goes into a rev­o­lu­tion,” Kathryn said, “I am look­ing at rev­o­lu­tion on a broad­er scale….as being a per­son­al a‑ha moment, a break­through in per­cep­tion that changes your life for­ev­er. I cre­ate art­work from direct per­son­al expe­ri­ence with the intent and belief that the per­son­al is uni­ver­sal.”

“Rev­o­lu­tion is also from begin­ning to end…one full cycle…a destruc­tive force,” Kathryn said. “Rev­o­lu­tions can be the basis for com­mu­ni­ty and growth.”

In coop­er­a­tion with the Salem Art Asso­ci­a­tion through a new pro­gram cater­ing to the Artist-in-Res­i­dence con­cept, Kathryn will be work­ing on her TEDxSalem stage instal­la­tion on-and-off at The Annex through Jan. 6. The Bush Barn Art Cen­ter and the Annex are open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tues. to Fri. and noon to 5 p.m. Sat. and Sun., at 600 Mis­sion St. SE in Salem. The build­ings will be closed from Dec.  25-Jan. 3.Learn more at salemart.org/programs/annex.

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.

Karen Holman: Punk rock chemist to speak on new anti-cancer drug

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kh_firechemistry3

Karen Hol­man is a punk rock­er, radio DJ, and a chem­istry pro­fes­sor and researcher. She lives deeply in all three of those iden­ti­ties.

But at TEDxSalem, Hol­man’s sci­en­tist side will be on dis­play.

Hol­man was always inter­est­ed in sci­ence as a lit­tle girl, she said, and it was her non-end­ing ques­tion of “why?” that land­ed her in chem­istry.

“I want­ed to know what was hap­pen­ing to the mol­e­cules,” she said.

Hol­man, whose spe­cial­ty is in met­als, will share about the dis­cov­ery of met­al-based anti-can­cer drugs. She hopes to make the sci­ence behind this dis­cov­ery approach­able for audi­ences of all back­grounds, to learn about the bar­ri­ers med­ical sci­ence face in becom­ing acces­si­ble to patients, and become ener­gized about sci­en­tif­ic dis­cov­ery and inno­va­tion.

kh_chemlecture1Hol­man’s sci­ence career began at Willamette Uni­ver­si­ty, as an under­grad, and she also end­ed up at Willamette to estab­lish her teach­ing career.

 

It was through that jour­ney that she became a col­lege radio DJ and became inter­est­ed in alter­na­tive, met­al and punk rock music. While in Cal­i­for­nia for grad­u­ate school in the ’90s, Hol­man saw an all-girl punk band, which inspired her to play in bands of her own. You may rec­og­nize her as the gui­tarist for the City of Pieces, for exam­ple. But after all these years, she is just now in her first all-woman punk band called Hot Sheets.

Hol­man’s expe­ri­ence as a radio DJ also inspired her to even­tu­al­ly found KMUZ, Salem’s com­mu­ni­ty radio. She hosts two shows on it, and will soon start a third lat­er this month.