TEDxSalem

Ideas worth spreading

2020

TEDxSalem poet explores identity, female empowerment through words

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Poet. Col­lege stu­dent. Black woman. Hait­ian immi­grant. Adoptee.

These are just a few of Jolie Brownell’s many iden­ti­ties.

When the 20-year-old takes the stage at TEDxSalem, the audi­ence will hear her grap­ple with these iden­ti­ties through her poet­ry.

“I want to express through poet­ry my walks of life, the inter­sec­tions of my dif­fer­ent iden­ti­ties, and what that means to me and to soci­ety,” Brownell says.

Brownell, who grad­u­at­ed from Sun­set High School in Beaver­ton, is a sopho­more at Loy­ola Mary­mount Uni­ver­si­ty in Los Ange­les. She’s major­ing in women and gen­der stud­ies.

Her choice of major wouldn’t sur­prise any­one who knew her in high school.

By age 19, Brownell had already won awards for her blog, “Me Too Girl,” and she had self-pub­lished a book with the same title. The book is a col­lec­tion of mes­sages and poems on girl empow­er­ment.

She has giv­en speech­es on this top­ic to hun­dreds of women and girls in the Port­land area, and led work­shops in part­ner­ship with Girls Inc., I Am That Girl, Pro­duced By Her, and Chick­Tech.

Brownell is orig­i­nal­ly from Haiti, but a Port­land fam­i­ly adopt­ed her when she was 3.

She first became ded­i­cat­ed to female empow­er­ment issues when she was just 13.

“Like many young girls around that age, I was con­sumed with self-hatred, self-doubt, lack of con­fi­dence,” she says. “Dur­ing the sum­mer between mid­dle school and high school, I decid­ed to shift gears because I real­ized that I’m going to have this body, I’m going to be this per­son for the rest of my life. Do I want to spend the rest of my life hat­ing this per­son, or do I want to spend it try­ing to teach myself how to love myself?”

Her essays and jour­nal entries about self-dis­cov­ery even­tu­al­ly led to her blog and her book.

“I’ve always loved the pow­er behind words, and I want­ed to use my words to uplift and inspire oth­ers,” Brownell says.

Brownell hopes that TEDxSalem audi­ence mem­bers will expe­ri­ence that inspi­ra­tion dur­ing her per­for­mance. But, ulti­mate­ly, the work to improve self-con­fi­dence is an indi­vid­ual pur­suit, she says.

“I’m try­ing to encour­age and uplift women. But I can only do so much and then you must car­ry it; you must do the work, the final step of lov­ing your­self,” she says. “I encour­age the audi­ence to find the deep­er mean­ings in my work and what that means for them.”

For more infor­ma­tion about Jolie Brownell, check out her web­site at www.joliebrownell.com

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

Mike Studer: Physical therapist, world record holder, pun enthusiast

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Salemite Mike Stud­er nev­er imag­ined him­self as an endurance ath­lete, espe­cial­ly grow­ing up as a base­ball play­er in the 1980s when the thought of run­ning more than 360 feet at a time (the length of an inside-the-park home run) seemed point­less. But that is what he became and now holds the world record for the fastest under­wa­ter tread­mill marathon. A Phys­i­cal Ther­a­pist with a Master’s degree in Neu­ro­log­ic PT, Mike enjoys run­ning, bak­ing healthy food, puns and dad jokes. He is also a ded­i­cat­ed com­mu­ni­ty vol­un­teer — “I love work­ing with the Mar­i­on Polk Food Share sort­ing food as a team with peo­ple from our clin­ic; serv­ing at our church in dra­ma roles; work­ing a med­ical tent at local sport­ing events to pro­mote healthy activ­i­ties” — and will be able to add TEDx speak­er to his list of accom­plish­ments come Jan­u­ary 4, 2020, when he speaks about the regen­er­a­tive capac­i­ties of the human brain. So meet Mike, then join us for his “idea worth spread­ing” in Jan­u­ary.

What was your first TED expe­ri­ence? I believe that it was the 1998 Aimee Mullins inter­view TED talk. For obvi­ous rea­sons, this is rel­e­vant to my pro­fes­sion as a phys­i­cal ther­a­pist.

Do you have a favorite TED Talk? How has it impact­ed your life or per­spec­tive? Per­son­al­ly, I am a bit of a health nut, and I very much appre­ci­at­ed Eliz­a­beth Black­burn’s TED talk about the Sci­ence of Aging, specif­i­cal­ly regard­ing the length and lifes­pan of DNA through telom­eres. I mod­i­fied my already strange the­o­ries on caloric intake and eat­ing in gen­er­al as a func­tion of this talk. 

What does this year’s theme “Vision” mean to you? The abil­i­ty to see what oth­ers might not. We have a human spec­trum of vis­i­ble light, that is well-stud­ied. How­ev­er, giv­en our indi­vid­ual expe­ri­ences and inher­ent bias­es, we bring dif­fer­ent per­spec­tives on human lim­its. I bring a per­spec­tive that caus­es me to believe in my vision for greater accom­plish­ments that what we present­ly achieve in peo­ple — and specif­i­cal­ly the human brain.

What is one of your favorite child­hood mem­o­ries? Pitch­ing the entire game of a lit­tle league all-star game and no-hit­ting the oppos­ing team. 

What do you feel most grate­ful for in your life? My work eth­ic and my wife. 

How has your life been dif­fer­ent than what you’d imag­ined? I nev­er imag­ined myself as an endurance ath­lete, grow­ing up as a base­ball play­er in the 1980s when the thought of run­ning more than 360 feet at a time (the length of an inside-the-park home run) seemed point­less.

What are some of the most impor­tant lessons you’ve learned in life? How did you learn them? Do the right thing. Admit to your­self and oth­ers when your con­cept of the right thing, was wrong. 

What is some­thing unex­pect­ed that has changed about you in the last few years? Med­ical advance­ments and our own fam­i­ly’s expe­ri­ences with chron­ic health con­di­tions, includ­ing pain and the rela­tion­ship to changes from the body to the brain and reverse…due to the pres­ence of chron­ic pain. 

Tell us some­thing about your­self we could nev­er tell from look­ing at you. I know more point­less facts than any­one real­ly should store in their brain. Triv­ia about sports, music, his­to­ry, etc. 

What song best describes your life? “I Did It My Way,” pop­u­lar­ized by Sina­tra or “It’s a Beau­ti­ful Day,” by U2

If you could live in the set­ting of any book or movie, with­out nec­es­sar­i­ly being involved in the sto­ry, which would you choose? “A Field of Dreams” or “Char­lie and the Choco­late Fac­to­ry”

What is the scari­est thing you have ever done for fun? At about 12 years old, I con­fi­dent­ly but inept­ly sad­dled-up a Shet­land pony and pro­ceed­ed to ride it with my cousin, Fred Stud­er, 13, at the same time. Not long into the ride, the sad­dle proved to be too loose and we were soon upside down on a 5‑foot tall horse with­out enough ground clear­ance to ride upside down. 

If you could instant­ly become an expert in some­thing, what would it be? Jazz piano

What is the best gift any­one has ever giv­en to you? Love

Would you rather have a rewind but­ton or a pause but­ton on your life? Rewind. I have enjoyed many moments that I would glad­ly relive. 

Favorite book(s)? And why. Bro­ca’s Brain by Carl Sagan — the insights into how the brain oper­ates fas­ci­nat­ed and con­tin­ue to fas­ci­nate me. 

Top 3 songs or artists? Where the Streets Have No Name, Start Me Up, Beau­ti­ful Day. U2, Rolling Stones respec­tive­ly.

Go-to karaoke song? Every­body Hurts by REM

Chunky or smooth peanut but­ter? Chunky

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

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

Meet Jacob Espinoza:
TEDxSalem VII Host

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When it comes to orga­niz­ing a TEDx event, find­ing the right host is just as impor­tant as select­ing the speak­ers. 

A guide for the audi­ence as well as an ambas­sador for the event, the host is respon­si­ble for intro­duc­ing each of the speak­ers and giv­ing the audi­ence the per­fect tease of what is about to come, but at the same time, nev­er telling the audi­ence how to feel. They are also in charge of time-keep­ing, trou­bleshoot­ing, announce­ments, con­nec­tions and audi­ence engage­ment.

It’s a big job, and when con­sid­er­ing who to ask for January’s TEDxSalem event, co-cura­tors Bri­an Hart and Car­lee Wright had a cer­tain some­one in mind.

Meet Jacob Espinoza. 

Jacob has a pres­ence: sin­cere, warm and wel­com­ing. A lead­er­ship devel­op­ment con­sul­tant, Jacob facil­i­tates train­ing and coach­ing con­ver­sa­tions, plus hosts a pod­cast. His grand focus is help­ing man­agers become lead­ers who moti­vate and inspire. Oth­er than his time spent get­ting his Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in advertising/journalism at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ore­gon, he has called Salem home for 36 years.

Woman and man sitting on couch as part of a group discussion

Sit down for a cup of cof­fee with the Salem native, and you will find your­self rapt in con­ver­sa­tion with an engaged, insight­ful, atten­tive lis­ten­er. He’s com­pas­sion­ate and moti­vat­ed, which is why it should come as no sur­prise that he has a goal of becom­ing the city’s most sup­port­ive per­son. (He’s cur­rent­ly host­ing the Insta­gram account Salem­Takeover and is the Sep­tem­ber spon­sor at Basil & Board, where you can try the Ore­gon Home­boy piz­za named after a song Jacob wrote. BONUS — 10% of the pur­chase from that piz­za goes to help Fam­i­ly Build­ing Blocks.)

Here’s what we found out about host-to-be Jacob in our last chat:

What was your first TED expe­ri­ence?
My first live TED expe­ri­ence was the first TEDx­Port­land. I loved see­ing all of the pas­sion and new ideas com­ing out of Ore­gon.

Do you have a favorite TED Talk? How has it impact­ed your life or per­spec­tive?
Simon Sinek’s Start With Why was extreme­ly impact­ful on me as a leader. It changed how I approach get­ting buy-in from those I work with. I also think it rep­re­sents the pow­er of TEDx events. They pro­vide a plat­form that gives ideas a chance to catch fire.

What does this year’s theme “Vision” mean to you?
This world needs opti­mism. To me, this year’s theme is all about look­ing into the future and remind­ing our­selves that the nec­es­sary labor will be worth it. 

What is one of your favorite child­hood mem­o­ries?
Watch­ing my dad raise two kids on his own. I did­n’t appre­ci­ate what a chal­lenge that was until I got old­er. It’s amaz­ing look­ing back at all of the sac­ri­fices he made. I’m very for­tu­nate to have some­one like him set an exam­ple for me as I’m now also the father of two boys. 

What song best describes your life?
Aesop Rock’s ”Lot­ta Years” sums up this stage of my life pret­ty well. 

What is the scari­est thing you have ever done for fun?
Noth­ing I’d admit to.

Tell us more about your com­mu­ni­ty activ­i­ties.
I enjoy coach­ing youth sports, lis­ten­ing to local artists, host a pod­cast focused on help­ing boss­es become bet­ter lead­ers and give out a lot of free high fives.

Watch for Jacob on stage as host of TEDxSalem VII on Jan­u­ary 4, 2020, and when you see him in the hall­way, have your high-five ready!

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TEDxSalem VII

Orga­nized by The Mox­ie Ini­tia­tive, TEDxSalem VII is an all-day event fea­tur­ing talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and a swag bag. It takes place 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sat­ur­day, Jan. 4, 2020, at the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter. Tick­ets will go on sale in Sep­tem­ber. 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.