Apparently, over 500 people applied for the 170 spots to attend last Friday’s TEDx Rochester event (“to flip the script on our hometown”) at
Geva Theatre (it was a small audience, because it was on the Fielding, rather
than Wilson Stage). Because the competition for a seat was so keen, the
committee was looking for openness, curiosity, and witty responses in the
application (no wonder I was initially wait-listed…). I was extremely impressed
with how well organized it was, and loved that the book we received came with
an “Agenda-ish.” And I was surprised to run into a few familiar women.
Suzanne Piotrowski, the organizer, welcomed everyone,
and informed us that this was going to be an “inside outside experience”: not
only inside the theatre, but also out at the breaks. She challenged us with the
goals of meeting at least 10 new people (otherwise we weren’t “doing TED
right”), and of being “comfortably uncomfortable,” since we might hear things
we don’t agree with. And she exhorted us to “please rise from your luxurious
complacency and do something.” What she didn’t admit until later was that the
breaks would be an extrovert’s dream and an introvert’s nightmare. I did talk
to a few people, but I can vouch that the cellphone is an introvert’s best
friend…
There was more diversity among the speakers than the
audience, but I did meet an Afghan MBA student at RIT (who admired our ability
to be outspoken about our leaders…), and several other interesting people I would
otherwise never have had the opportunity to cross paths with. The live speakers
were interspersed with fascinating taped talks from other venues, and each was
inspirational in his or her own way. For example, Mary Lupien, a community
activist, engaged us with how she had moved from performing relatively simple acts
of charity to the much more active and challenging acts of using her privilege
to work for social justice. Alyza Alix, an incredibly poised high school
student from Camden, NJ, recited some of her stirring poetry, then encouraged the
audience to “live,” and not settle for doing things we weren’t passionate about
(it reminded me of a student’s similar entreaties at the TEDx Allendale
Columbia, and I’d love to check in with both of them in a decade to see how
their idealism fares in the face of the realities of adulthood…).
Astrophysicist Judy Pipher challenged us to “flip” what
it means to be feminine, which is mostly associated with deference and
delicacy, and that reminded me of Trump’s recent distasteful expectation that
his female staff “dress like women.” Film-maker
Mara Ashmed, who was born in Pakistan but was raised globally, challenged the
notion of borders, and I couldn’t help but think locally of the self-imposed
borders right here in Rochester: east side vs. west side, quadrant vs.
quadrant.
Although they were all interesting, the ones that
resonated most for me were the ones that weren’t I-centric. Two well-selected taped talks are available on the TEDx website: Celeste Headlee’s presentation of
“10 ways to have a better conversation” a year ago, particularly pertinent
now: https://www.ted.com/talks/celeste_headlee_10_ways_to_have_a_better_conversation,
and Jae Rhim Lee’s experiments with a mushroom death suit – https://www.ted.com/talks/jae_rhim_lee
– sign me up!
The intensity of the talks was broken up with
entertaining performances by RIT’s a cappella group Eight Beat Measure and the
Rochester Ukulele Orchestra. I was relieved that by the end of the day, I
hadn’t failed – I’d met 10 new people, and I left inspired to communicate
better and become more involved in less comfortable activities. It was
definitely a day of ideas worth spreading, and I hope next year they will use a
larger venue, to spread the ideas to even more people.
No comments:
Post a Comment