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TEDxSalem

Ideas worth spreading

Revolutions

A photo retrospective on TEDxSalem IV: Revolutions

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As we embark on our new TEDx event, we invite you to look back on our pho­to ret­ro­spec­tive of the last great adven­ture we shared with Salem and beyond: “Rev­o­lu­tions.” It was an event mem­o­rable for, among oth­er things, the dri­ving snow­storm that greet­ed folks at the exits after­ward.


But while the weath­er out­side was fright­ful, the “inspire” was so delight­ful! From the ambi­tious and breath­tak­ing stage piece by Kathryn Cel­leri­ni Moore, to excit­ing and pas­sion­ate speak­ers like Kelsey Juliana, there was enough warmth and fel­low­ship to brave the cold. There was danc­ing; There was rock ’n’ roll; There was even yoga for all to begin the fes­tiv­i­ties.

Check out the sights of the day on Flickr.

And remem­ber, advance tick­ets for our upcom­ing event, “Through the Look­ing Glass,” go on sale Sept. 1!

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.

You say you want a “revolution…?”

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We’re real­ly excit­ed about TEDx Salem IV com­ing up on Jan­u­ary 7. The theme will be “Rev­o­lu­tions,” but what does that actu­al­ly mean? In today’s media, words like “rev­o­lu­tion” can be overused – Think “rev­o­lu­tion­ary” diets, inter­net busi­ness oppor­tu­ni­ties or dol­lar-shav­ing-kits by mail.

In the Mer­ri­am-Web­ster uni­verse, the word refers to the act of revolv­ing, or turn­ing on an axis. It also means polit­i­cal upheaval, like a change in gov­ern­ment, or “activ­i­ty or move­ment designed to effect fun­da­men­tal changes in the socioe­co­nom­ic con­di­tion.” On a per­son­al lev­el, it can also mean a “a sud­den, extreme or com­plete change in the way peo­ple live, work.”

Well, we believe this year’s speak­ers are going to turn some heads!

We’re going to learn about polit­i­cal rev­o­lu­tions, from resist­ing oppres­sion in Latvia dur­ing the last days of the Sovi­et Union, to the activism of Don’t Shoot Port­land.

We’re also going to chal­lenge our per­cep­tion of the world. How do we main­tain per­son­al, mean­ing­ful rela­tion­ships in a dig­i­tal world that pro­motes “likes” and “shares” over phys­i­cal inter­ac­tions? How do we fix the clin­i­cal tri­al process in order to get life-sav­ing drugs to the patients who are will­ing to try them?

Have you ever eat­en a crick­et? Would you, could you, with a friend, if it might mean a solu­tion to hunger?

And we’re going to see what it feels like to change a par­a­digm. We’ll meet a local artist and busi­ness own­er who didn’t accept area home­less­ness as a fact of life and in the process turned a Por­ta-Pot­ty into a “hap­pen­ing;” and a fresh­man in high school who wouldn’t accept that sit­ting at a desk is always going to be uncom­fort­able.

It’s all in keep­ing with the mis­sion of TED, accord­ing to TEDx Salem co-cura­tors Car­lee Wright and Bri­an Hart.

“We want­ed a [theme] that was famil­iar but dynam­ic,” Bri­an said, “sim­ple and pow­er­ful, a word that would evoke a strong emo­tion but could be inter­pret­ed many dif­fer­ent ways.”

“And with our event being at the begin­ning of Jan­u­ary, we had the idea of play­ing off the con­cept of New Year’s res­o­lu­tions,” said Car­lee.

“What’s your rev­o­lu­tion for the new year?”

“We want our audi­ence to come with an open mind and leave inspired,” Bri­an said, “to be think­ing about what they can do in their com­mu­ni­ty or how they can impact soci­ety.”

“TED is all about the biggest thinkers and doers com­ing togeth­er to spread the most impor­tant ideas to the world,” he said.

“What’s more rev­o­lu­tion­ary than that?”

 

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Revolutionary Summer Reading

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July 14, 2016 by Ste­fanie Knowl­ton

Aww! No TEDx Salem until Jan­u­ary? Don’t wor­ry, we have 10 books to get you ready for rev­o­lu­tion by win­ter.

TEDxSalem asked sto­ry­tellers and speak­ers to share their favorite read­ing based on this year’s theme: Rev­o­lu­tions. The beau­ty is that it can mean any­thing from a polit­i­cal upris­ing to rethink­ing pover­ty. Two read­ers rec­om­mend­ed books by an author renowned for spread­ing peace, a rev­o­lu­tion­ary idea indeed.

Check out their rec­om­men­da­tions, and feel free to share your own.

A hole in the flag1.  The Hole in the Flag: A Roman­ian Exile’s Sto­ry of Return and Rev­o­lu­tion by Andrei Codres­cu.

Codres­cu tracks his jour­ney as a self-exiled Roman­ian liv­ing in New York back to Roma­nia just days before the 1989 rev­o­lu­tion. Roma­ni­ans from all walks of life came togeth­er and top­pled the Ceause­cu regime. Codres­cu is wit­ty, artic­u­late, sen­si­tive and exam­ines not only how the rev­o­lu­tion hap­pened but how Roma­nia found itself in a state where rev­o­lu­tion was absolute­ly nec­es­sary.

Rec­om­mend­ed by TEDxSalem speak­er Gina Ochsner, an award-win­ning author and writer in res­i­dence at Cor­ban Uni­ver­si­ty

2. The Pover­ty Indus­try: The Exploita­tion of America’s Most Vul­ner­a­ble Cit­i­zens by Daniel L. Hatch­er

Hatch­er sug­gests that the prob­lems plagu­ing pro­grams such as fos­ter care and Med­ic­aid are deep­er and more trou­bling than most real­ize. Hatch­er, is also a pro­fes­sor at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Baltimore’s School of Law. In today’s protests for #Black­Lives­Mat­ter most activists focus on the root caus­es of pover­ty and state-sanc­tioned dis­crim­i­na­tion.  This book seems to sup­port sev­er­al the­o­ries and expe­ri­ences of those most vul­ner­a­ble lead­ers on the front line.
Rec­om­mend­ed by TEDxSalem speak­er Ter­es­sa Raiford, a con­tem­po­rary civ­il rights leader and com­mu­ni­ty orga­niz­er

 hunger games

3. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

It is a great dystopi­an sto­ry that blurs the lines of good guys and bad guys. It’s dis­turb­ing but also pret­ty real­is­tic in the sense that there’s a lot of nuance in the issues of our days. Even the peo­ple who appear to rep­re­sent you might have cyn­i­cal motives to attain pow­er. Also, Kat­niss Everdeen is a great, com­plex char­ac­ter who helps you under­stand post-trau­mat­ic stress.

Rec­om­mend­ed by TEDxSalem sto­ry­teller Saerom Yoo, an award-win­ning jour­nal­ist

 4. The Mind­ful­ness Rev­o­lu­tion: Lead­ing Psy­chol­o­gists, Sci­en­tists, Artists, and Med­i­ta­tion Teach­ers on the Pow­er of Mind­ful­ness in Dai­ly Life by Bar­ry Boyce

This is a col­lec­tion of essays on mind­ful­ness, explain­ing what it is as well as how and why we should prac­tice it in dai­ly life.

 5. The Art of Pow­er by Thich Nhat Hanh

This book does not men­tion rev­o­lu­tion, and yet it is about per­son­al pow­er and that is where the rev­o­lu­tion begins!

Num­ber 4 and 5 rec­om­mend­ed by TEDxSalem speak­er Jer­ry Braza, For­mer pro­fes­sor, Bud­dhist teacher, author and con­sul­tant

 peace is every step6. Peace is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh

Some­times a rev­o­lu­tion doesn’t erupt in a crash of mor­tar fire or artillery shells. Some­times it’s the qui­et shift­ing of every­thing inside a sin­gle per­son. This book was that rev­o­lu­tion for me. It’s where I final­ly under­stood that peace doesn’t come from the absence of suf­fer­ing, but in the face of it. Zen mas­ter Thich Nhat Hanh shares sim­ple ways to prac­tice mind­ful­ness in every­day life.

Rec­om­mend­ed by TEDxSalem sto­ry­teller Ste­fanie Knowl­ton, award-win­ning jour­nal­ist and bel­ly­dancer

7. Loop of Jade by Sarah Howe

Sev­er­al crit­ics have sug­gest­ed that Howe is rev­o­lu­tion­iz­ing British poet­ry by includ­ing strong ele­ments from Chi­na (she has an Anglo-Chi­nese back­ground). The selec­tion of this book for the T.S. Eliot Prize ear­li­er this year has been chal­lenged by some in a male-dom­i­nat­ed estab­lish­ment. A num­ber of women (and men) have come to her defense in response. These gen­der dynam­ics, tloop of jadeoo, remind us of the rev­o­lu­tion with­in the lit­er­ary estab­lish­ment as more women join men as poets, crit­ics, and prizewin­ners as we gain more con­trol over our life choic­es.

Rec­om­mend­ed by TEDxSalem speak­er War­ren Bin­ford, Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor of Law at Willamette Uni­ver­si­ty, Direc­tor of the Clin­i­cal Law Pro­gram

 

 

 

8. The Book of Float­ing: Explor­ing the Pri­vate Sea by Michael Hutchi­son

I have bTEDxSalem book covereen inter­est­ed in sen­so­ry depri­va­tion tanks, (float­ing) for at least 5 years, but did­n’t try it until last fall just before my first 10-day silent med­i­ta­tion retreat. Float­ing takes away all of your sen­so­ry inputs and helps you focus your mind inward. When you’re float­ing in 800 to 1,000 pounds of Epsom salt and water that’s the same tem­per­a­ture as your body while in com­plete dark­ness, you quick­ly lose where you are in time and space. It sounds kind of woo woo, but it is tru­ly an amaz­ing and unique expe­ri­ence. This book talks about all the ben­e­fits float­ing has on your mind and body. It has a ton of sci­ence, too, so that helps legit­imize the woo-woo fac­tor. One float shop has opened in Salem this year and anoth­er is open­ing in August. It is def­i­nite­ly start­ing to become a rev­o­lu­tion!

Rec­om­mend­ed by TEDxSalem co-cura­tor Bri­an Hart, half of the dynam­ic duo that brought TEDx to Salem

 

9. Jonathon Liv­ingston Seag­ull by Richard Bach

I believe that this book rev­o­lu­tion­izes the way we think. It encour­ages mankind to find a bet­ter world through knowl­edge. It teach­es us that it is impor­tant to pur­sue your pas­sion no mat­ter what, even if it makes you an out­cast. It is through this love of learn­ing and explo­ration that we reach enlight­en­ment and bet­ter under­stand who we are and what we are meant for. I rec­om­mend this book because it inspired me to think in dif­fer­ent ways to face the prob­lems I encounter.

Rec­om­mend­ed by TEDxSalem speak­er Megha Joshi, stu­dent and inven­tor

  1. The Art of Ask­ing: How I learned to Stop Wor­ry­ing and Let Peo­ple Help by Aman­da Palmer

Aart of AskingAman­da Palmer is an incred­i­ble, cre­ative per­son and her book is just a small look into the life of an artist. Snip­pets of music fills the space between chap­ters and sto­ries in the audio book, mak­ing this more than just a “read­ing” expe­ri­ence. I found myself wak­ing ear­ly for my morn­ing walk and los­ing myself rapt in her words. I felt like she was speak­ing to me, singing for me, play­ing at me. There were days my walks went extra long just because I did­n’t want the book to stop, and when it came to the end, there was almost a sad­ness that it was over because it tru­ly was one of those moments you just want to go on for­ev­er.

Rec­om­mend­ed by TEDxSalem co-cura­tor Car­lee Wright, the oth­er half of the dynam­ic duo that brought TEDx to Salem

 

Rev­o­lu­tion­ary Read­ing

1 The Hole in the Flag: A Roman­ian Exile’s Sto­ry of Return and Rev­o­lu­tion by Andrei Codres­cu 2. The Pover­ty Indus­try: The Exploita­tion of America’s Most Vul­ner­a­ble Cit­i­zens by Daniel L. Hatch­er

  1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
  2. The Mind­ful­ness Rev­o­lu­tion: Lead­ing Psy­chol­o­gists, Sci­en­tists, Artists, and Med­i­ta­tion Teach­ers on the Pow­er of Mind­ful­ness in Dai­ly Life by Bar­ry Boyce
  3. The Art of Pow­er by Thich Nhat Hanh
  4. Peace is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh
  5. Loop of Jadeby Sarah Howe
  6. The Book of Float­ing: Explor­ing the Pri­vate Sea by Michael Hutchi­son
  7. Jonathon Liv­ingston Seag­ull by Richard Bach
  8. The Art of Ask­ing: How I learned to Stop Wor­ry­ing and Let Peo­ple Help by Aman­da Palmer

TEDxSalem

TEDxSalem will be held Jan. 7, 2017 at the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter. Dis­count­ed advance tick­ets go on sale Sun­day, Aug. 7, 2016. Reg­u­lar tick­et prices begin Aug. 21.. Watch the blog for details. E‑mail partners@tedxsalem.us to learn about spon­sor­ship oppor­tu­ni­ties or Mindie@tedxsalem.us to vol­un­teer.

What is TEDx

About TEDx, x = inde­pen­dent­ly orga­nized event

In the spir­it of ideas worth spread­ing, TEDx is a pro­gram of local, self-orga­nized events that bring peo­ple togeth­er to share a TED-like expe­ri­ence. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speak­ers com­bine to spark deep dis­cus­sion and con­nec­tion in a small group. These local, self-orga­nized events are brand­ed TEDx, where x = inde­pen­dent­ly orga­nized TED event. The TED Con­fer­ence pro­vides gen­er­al guid­ance for the TEDx pro­gram, but indi­vid­ual TEDx events are self-orga­nized. (Sub­ject to cer­tain rules and reg­u­la­tions.)