Come talk social change with TED

Today will manifest a field of ideas across UNM.
Today is for the future.

Today marks the campus’ first TEDx event from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. in SUB Ballroom C.
TEDx, representing technology, entertainment, design and “x” for the unknown, is an international initiative, and the University’s version will offer eight hours packed with talks about issues of social change, said organizer and graduate student Mark Worthy. All speakers are affiliated with UNM.

“It’s important, especially at an academic institution of higher learning, for opportunities to exist so people can engage in the
assimilation of information,” he said.

Worthy, who is studying organizational learning and instructional technology, coordinated the event to seat 100 people. He said he first learned about TEDx lectures when he got an e-mail while living in the Netherlands.
“I began to read it, and I viewed some TED talks,” he said. “I was really inspired by the concept of the spreading of ideas — very simple, uncomplicated.”

There was a 400-person waiting list, but he said he somehow got a ticket for one of the 400 seats available for a TEDx talk in the Netherlands.

“It’s passion,” Worthy said. “It’s an understanding of engaging people and promoting discussion and hopefully some action.”
Performance poet Hakim

Bellamy will talk about activism in art at 2 p.m. He also coordinates community outreach for the State Office of African American Affairs.
He helped organize Sept. 18th‘s TEDx city-wide event.

“I have 12 to 18 minutes to talk about how I do what I do: the world of creating meaningful change, the politics of poetry, if you want to call it that,” Bellamy said. “Not just poetry but the politics of music, of visual art, of cinematography.”
He said some people try to separate themselves from politics by doing safe, inoffensive work like designing Hallmark cards and claiming to not be political. He said absolving oneself from political responsibility still has an effect on political outcomes because the person turns their power over to other people.

“Even saying ‘I’m not into politics’ is a political statement,” Bellamy said. “But I’m mainly going to talk about what I do as an organizer and how that eventually snowballs. Once people who do have an agenda feel you have a platform, they’re always figuring out how to use your platform. People running for office saying, ‘Hey, we see you can gather an audience and we’d like to use you for your audience.’ It depends on what you’re selling.”
He said the idea is to replace dependence on Wikipedia with real, engaging wspeakers and dialogue.
“If we use that network, all of us are better informed, but they do it on a way-big scale,” he said. “The regular TEDx is a big deal. You get invited to it … if you’re Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. Then they have smaller local circles.”