ACTIVATING ADVOCACY
JUNE 9, 2012
TEDXSKIDROW
CONTENTS This is Your Life on Art ........................................................................................................ 3 Perception: Motivating A Change in Dreams ...................................................................... 4 Program .............................................................................................................................. 5 Speakers & Performers ....................................................................................................... 6 Speakers & Performers continued ...................................................................................... 7 Sponsors ............................................................................................................................. 8
Senior TED Fellow and TEDxSkidRow organizer, Robert V. Gupta
Page 2
TEDXSKIDROW
This Is Your Life on Art
Graduates of the Urban Possibilities Writing Program
The Cosmic Irony A truly fascinating aspect of living in Los Angeles is the incredible possibility for unmitigated success wedded to the very high probability of utter and complete failure. It happens every day. Only the strength of your net/works save you from splattering on the sidewalk. And then one day, it doesn’t. I’m not going to lie, I live in constant fear of that day. As a writer, a single mom, an independent contractor, a professional performance artists, a former educator I am a few 0’s away from “do not pass go.”
When I was asked to blog for TEDxSkidRow, I took it as sign: get it together, or get it together. When the Luck Is not Enough We live by the favor of Fortuna, goddess of luck and good fortunate. Luck runs out, or runs away, like so many friends unable to help you move, like an employer unwilling to wait for maternity to leave to end, like a police officer who does not care what your actual name is, just that you were there, like the empty bank account cause your equity in your home turned out to be magical thinking after all, like the drug that does not care about shit
cause it’s just a string of chemical molecules that does what it does. Self Rescue Through Art It comes down to this: when lady luck done gone and the cosmic joke is on you, and ll your wits have gone on vacation, it is in that moment that you truly discover you are not alone, it is not a competition, and the winner does not take all, but loves all. In that moment you art yourself. Regardless of the circumstances, to be human is to create. To create is a right. No matter where you live or how you live. Today we witness, we listen, we art each other. -Anna Beatrice Scott Page 3
TEDXSKIDROW
Perception Motivating a change in dreams What are the triggers that stimulate a change in the way we perceive the world around us? – TEDxSkidRow, Activating Advocacy, aims to activate an advocate for change within all of us. Today’s events are parsed across three sub themes: The Individual Empowered; Fearlessness; and Community. Each session combines a recent phenomenal streamed TED and TEDx talks, with live speakers and
performers from the world of arts and activism, advocates for homelessness, mental health, Veterans care, and incarceration from the community of downtown Los Angeles, the Arts District and Skid Row.
An intriguing, genrebreaking line up, this inaugural gathering boasts not only specialists about the topics that confront people surviving on Skid Row, but promotes the idea that true change comes only from engaging and witnessing those who live the Skid Row reality. We are honored to have the participation of Skid Row residents, past and current. You can expect to be moved,. Watching art
Along San Julian St. by J. Michael Walker
therapy in action is humbling. We ask that you maintain your presence or mind, because we are most interested in fostering vital and long lasting dialogue. We hope to examine how making art in the shadow of extreme pressures can and does transform lives. But we want to ensure that we do not jump to snap conclusions, pat answers, or grand gestures that ultimately become meaningless and even controlling. While people are working hard to bring assistance to those living on Skid Row who seek to change the condition of their lives, in many ways “the rest of us” work hard to ignore the conditions that give rise to a need for Skid Row. There is no easy answer. Our sponsor Street Symphony and participating
organizations--Urban Possibilities, InvisiblePeople.TV, Homeboy Industries,Drumming for Your Life Institute, and Los Angeles Poverty Department-- can attest to that. To be present, to witness with love as speaker Colin Finlay would say, is the best we can do in the face of cultivated ignorance. By the end of the day, those of us who are not Social Warriors bringing light truth and compassion to Skid Row should at least have changed our perception about this phenomenal and vibrant community. And that would be enough...for today. Feel free, however, to go beyond and engage that advocate dwelling within.
Poster from 2009 Urban Possibilities show Page 4
TEDXSKIDROW: PROGRAM
Session 1: The Individual Empowered (8:45-10:45) Host: Robert Vijay Gupta, Senior TED Fellow and TEDxSkidRow organizer Welcome: Cooper Bates, Hint Mint, Host Steve Connell, Poet Mark Horvath, InvisiblePeople.TV Aaron Huey -- screening Aaron Hill/Yana Reznik in performance Colin Finlay, photographic expedition Aaron Hill, U of Charlotte Louis Perez, Homeboy Enterprises Break: 10:45-11:15 Session 2: Fearlessness (11:15-1pm) Host: Grace Kim Michael Williams, Urban Possibilities Writing Graduate Eyvette Jones, CEO,Urban Possibilities Yana Reznik, Pianist Shamim Sarif -- screening Krupali Tejura, Oncologist Tony Tate, Urban Possibilities Writing Graduate Michael Shain, Urban Possibilities Writing Graduate J Michael Walker, Painter Sekou Andrews, Poet Lunch (1-2:15) Session 3: Community (2:15pm-4pm) Steven Angel, CEO, Drumming for Your Life Institute Samantha Wilson, Executive Learner, Child Leader Project Colin Finlay, Photographer (talk) Hill/Gupta/Reznik in performance Allison Agsten, Curator of Public Engagement, The Hammer Museum John Hunter -- screening John Malpede, Los Angeles Poverty Department Closing performance by Andrews/Connell/Gupta
TEDXSKIDROW: SPEAKERS & PERFORMERS
ALLISON ANGSTEN Curator of Public Engagement at the Hammer Museum. In her role, she collaborates with artists and staff to develop a new paradigm for the museum experience.
STEVE ANGEL Steven Angel is the President, founder, and creator of programs of the Drumming for Your Life Institute (DFYL), a non-profit organization based in Santa Monica, California.
COLIN FINLAY Colin Finlay is one of the foremost documentary photographers in the world. He has been awarded the prestigious Picture of the Year International (POYi) honor six times.
http://hammer.ucla.edu
http://www.dfyl.org/
http://colinfinlay.net
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AARON HILL Aaron Hill serves on the music faculty at the University of Virginia and plays principal oboe in the Charlottesville & University Symphony Orchestra and Wintergreen Festival Orchestra, as well as English horn in the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra.
EYVETTE JONES-JOHNSON Founder and executive director of Urban Possibilities (UP), a non-profit that inspires at-risk adults to use their gifts as a catalyst for change –and creates public performances for communities to experience the results.
http://www.urbanpossibilities.org/
KRUPALI TEJURA, MD is a board certified radiation oncologist practicing in Southern California. Her passion lies in not only treating cancer but being a patient advocate incorporating social media to give hope and fulfill the dreams of her patients.
JOHN MALPEDE directs, performs and engineers multi-event arts projects that have theatrical, installation, public art and education components. In 1985 Malpede founded and continues to direct the Los Angeles Poverty Department (LAPD), the first performance group in the nation comprised primarily of homeless and formerly homeless people
http://lapovertydept.org/
LUIS PEREZ is currently General Manager at the Homeboy Bakery. Upon release from prison, Louis dedicated himself to following the 12steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. He was hired by Father Greg Boyle, at Homeboy Industries, to do outreach for the organization.
http://homeboy-industries.org
YANA REZNIK A world renowned pianist seeking to redefine the role of classical concert music, Yana Reznik created the ‘Artistic Voyage’ concert series, a visionary gathering of musicians and artists to benefit worthwhile charity organizations around the world.
SAMANTHA WILSON Samantha Lynne Wilson is the Executive Learner of the Child Leader Project (CLP) and a life-long community builder from Moreno Valley, CA.
http://www.childleaderproject.org/
SEKOU ANDREWS & STEVE CONNELL Bring poetic magic to audiences around the world. http://www.thesekoueffect.com 110 http://www.steveconnell.com/
http://www.yanareznik.com/
MARK HORVATH
In 2008, Mark Horvath, now known to many as@hardlynormal, set out to film the stories of America’s homeless and share them with as many people as possible on InvisiblePeople.tv. InvisiblePeople.tv
Los Angeles Poverty Department honors people of Skid Row.
TEDXSKIDROW
What is Activism? “To me, the word “activism” conjures up images of war protest movements and collective strikes against all forms of cruelty. Those are important movements and we owe them a great debt for the comforts we now have, but there’s some risk in the fact that a war against a war is, in its own way, another kind of war with winners and losers.” “I consider myself an activist and define that as creating a systematic way that launches people into action that creates change.” “People like titles so often they add titles to me and my work. I've never really liked the word "activist" because it's such a general term, and growing up
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I'd see "activists" in the media yet see little change. Most commonly I am referred to by others as a homeless activist, but I really don't know what that is, and since people want a title I often use "social media activist".
Thank you for joining us Please take a moment and complete this questionnaire, TEDx Attendee Feedback Form. Make sure you are on our mailing as well. There are incredible performance happening on Skid Row and challenging opportunities to engage the community there. Don’t be a Stranger. Special thanks to all our private donors, volunteers and fearless team, and of course, TED. See you next year.