TED audience members lined up at the Temple Performing Arts Center at the 2011 event.
Credit: Kevin Monko
How much of a difference can you make in under 18 minutes? At TEDxPhiladelphia 2014 on March 28, speakers — each given a max of 18 minutes — will discuss Philly as the new “Workshop of the World.” The multidisciplinary, daylong conference takes place at Temple Performing Arts Center.
The speakers, announced today, include:
Chris Bartlett
Chris is the executive director of Philadelphia’s William Way Community Center. He is also an educator, researcher, gay activist and feminist. He founded the LGBT Leadership Initiative and hosted the 2010 and 2011 TEDxPhiladelphia conferences.
Brian McTear
McTear is the owner of Miner Street Recordings in Fishtown. He is a nationally recognized producer and musician and is the founder of Weathervane Music, which is a nonprofit arts and culture organization with hopes to spread independent music.
Sonia Sanchez
Sanchez is an activist, award-winning poet, scholar and a both national and international lecturer on Black Culture and Literature, Peace and Racial Justice, and Women’s Liberation. She has written more than 16 books including “Homegirls and Handgrenades,” and has won many awards including the American Book Award. Sanchez was also a professor at Temple University in the subjects of English and Women’s Studies.
Austin Seraphin
Seraphin is an accessibility consultant. He started programming at the age of seven after being born blind and developed a strong passion for technology and how it affects the lives of those who are blind. Austin works with app developers to make the apps accessible, designed touch tours at the University of Pennsylvania, and even found a way to make graffiti accessible to the blind with braille street art.
Dominique Streater
Streater is the 2013 winner of the Emmy Award-winning show “Project Runway.” She designs for her own self-named clothing line and has sense broken into the fashion industry. Dominique earned her bachelor’s in fashion design at Moore College of Art and Design.
Helen Gym
Gym is a community activist who advocates for the quality of public education in Philadelphia. She co-founded the Parents United for Public Education, and serves on the Asian Americans Unite board. She also co-founded the Folk Arts-Cultural Treasures Charter School and is the former editor of the Philadelphia Public School Notebook.
The complete list of speakers also includes: Nikki Adeli, Andrew Dahlgren, Geoff DiMasi, Genevieve Dion, Terry Gillen, Stephen K. Klasko, Joshua H. Nims, Natalie Nixon, Chris Rabb, Katherina M. Rosqueta, Simran Sidhu, Mathieu Turpault, and Richard Vague.
Full bios are available at TEDxPhiladelphia.org/Speakers.
