At our 2012 TEDxGreenville event, we saw the healing power of speaking poetry out loud, courtesy of internationally-known poet, Glenis Redmond.  We saw the uplifting and energizing quality of Asheville’s Sirius.B, we engaged in rapping for a live recording of a VLOG with sintax.the.terrific and experienced the ability of a small group of young men to come together in a band and offer us sheer joy, as Greenville’s Bent Strings did.

From TED 2012, here is a 6-minute talk about the power of music to engage different cultures in healing and in conversations that politicians strive to attain, but seldom succeed in producing.

Abigail Washburn is a TED Fellow and an accomplished musician who gave up law school for a career in banjo-playing.  She performs internationally and for a period of time travelled all over the world as a member of The Sparrow Quartet, a team of young musicians who used their Western instruments to showcase Chinese music.

This talk made me smile, brought tears to my eyes and made the hair on my arms stand at attention.

Abigail, performing with The Sparrow Quartet:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCThXsF2wHs&feature=related
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aokBpZQbVV0&feature=related

~Despina Yeargin

Did you know that Greenville, SC’s water was voted the best tasting water in the country? Well, beneath the surface of our great tasting tap water is a giant filtering system created by our pristine mountains and forest system. To make sure that we continue to have clean, delicious readily available water in the future, we have to make sure that we preserve these natural ecosystems as our community grows. Thankfully, John Tynan is helping to do just that.

After graduating from Furman, John went on to get his Masters of Environmental Management from Duke University, and is now the Deputy Director at Upstate Forever, a regional conservation non-profit. John’s got a big idea worth spreading (and perhaps even drinking) that he’s going to share with you at TEDxGreenville 2012: Breakthrough. If you care about the quality of the water that you, your kids, and your grandkids drink, you’re going to want to hear what John’s doing to make sure that happens.

Click here to get your tickets to TEDxGreenville 2012: Breakthrough!

What can we learn about life from a college freshman?

Pffffttttt, you say? Um, excuse me. Stick your grown-up arrogance on a shelf for a minute. Pretty please.

At 15, insightful Anderson teen Caleb Suttles was bothered. He wanted to be optimistic about his future, but…..well, you see, most of the adults around him constantly expressed disappointment that their lives didn’t pan out like they’d imagined. Obligations began to overwhelm them, hopes were abandoned, and realities melted into lackluster days, week, months, years — decades. Could it be that sacrificing childhood dreams was just a rite of passage? Should he abandon the idea of fulfillment in life and simply concentrate on avoiding regret?

Within a couple years, Caleb had white-knuckled his passion for filmmaking and tackled the subject head-on. He filmed dozens of Upstate SC residents, interviewing them about regret and what they would do differently if they could travel back to the days of their youth. As a high school senior in 2011, Caleb debuted his two-and-
a-half-hour documentary “Pre-Do: Foresight in 20/20.”

At TEDxGreenville 2012, we’ll hear Caleb’s breakthrough epiphanies and how they continue to perform in his life daily. Will we see bits of ourselves in his disillusioned interviewees? Might his story embrace our own? Will the lessons he learned hold potential for all of us?

Brace yourselves.

Link to his film: http://calebsuttles.com/pre-do-film

Next up: team member Jay Spivey of FETE Magazine shares his thoughts about Watson’s Riddle

I have a riddle for you. What do you get when you combine a Berkley College of Music alum, a former Allman Brothers Band member, the drummer for the Marshall Tucker Band and a Bruce Hornsby Band guitarist? Answer: another riddle—Watson’s Riddle, a new Upstate jazz combo currently with a Top 50 ranking on the indie chart on SmoothJazz.com for their debut release CD, Watson’s Riddle.

Click here to get your tickets to TEDxGreenville 2012: Breakthrough!

Our Program Team members want to share more info about some of the incredible Speakers & Performers who are part of TEDxGreenville 2012: Breakthrough.

Next up: team member Despina Yeargin talking about local Blues Legend Mac Arnold and his band Mac Arnold and a Plate Full O’ Blues:

photo courtesy of Brian Kelley

From Despina: 

In the South, we know about The Blues and we love a good ole Blue Plate Special, but a Plate Full O’ Blues? If you’re confused, this is how it works: Sidle up to the TEDxGreenville counter on March 30th and ask for one heaping hot serving (don’t forget your ticket). We’ll dish out a lively and colorful local spread of blues music—one big helping of gasoline-can-guitar player and four helpings of white boy with soul.

Get your cornbread-lovin’, collards-eatin’ self ready to listen to a bass player who’s played with James Brown, Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker? What if he’s playing with Max Hightower, Austin Brashier, Mike Whitt and Danny Keylon? Well, that just whets your appetite, doesn’t it?

If you need a second helping of Plate Full O’ Blues, you can always follow this blues man and collards farmer back to the farm for his Cornbread & Collard Greens Festival in late April, or, if you just can’t wait for your helping of blues, check out the trailer for the documentary about Mac, Nothing to Prove. We’re lucky to have Mac and his band on stage for TEDxGreenville 2012— he’s a proven South Carolina state treasure!

Click here to get your tickets to TEDxGreenville 2012: Breakthrough.

Hard to believe that we’re only 2.5 weeks away from 3.30.12! Before the big day, we’ll continue to share posts from our Program Team members about some of the incredible Speakers & Performers who are part of TEDxGreenville 2012: Breakthrough (by the way, grab a ticket now, because they’re almost gone).

Next up: Michelle Offik wants to let you know her thoughts about Christoph Kresse, one of the amazing performers taking part in the big event.

Do you ever wonder what bagpipes, percussion, and electronic instruments would sound like if they were all blended into one song? If your answer is “yes,” you’re in luck because now you can experience the wonder and awe that is a Christoph Kresse composition. If you answered “no,” then you’re still going to experience something that will surprise and delight your auditory senses on March 30, 2012 at The Kroc Center.

Christoph Kresse (aka “Saki Bomb”) is an instrumental/electronica music artist, producer, and DJ, originally from Hamburg, Germany, now living in South Carolina. Christoph is a multi-instrumentalist known for his unique blend of Scottish bagpipes combined with percussion, synthesizers, and other sound experimentation. He started playing the bagpipes at the age of 10. At the age of 15 AND again at 16, his lungs collapsed. His doctors told him he’d never play the bagpipe again.

So he gave up. Nope, not really. At 19 he was the runner up in a national bagpipe championship, and has been performing throughout Germany and the US ever since.

In 2008 he studied audio engineering at Clemson University. It was during this time that he developed his electronic sound, which features bagpipes and electronic sounds combined. You may think you don’t like bagpipes, but you do. Or at least, you might…. once you have a listen to Christoph working his magic. His solo project Saki Bomb can also be found on Sound Cloud, but nothing compares to hearing and seeing him perform live. Thankfully, we’ve made that easy for you: come check out Christoph perform on March 30 for TEDxGreenville 2012: Breakthrough and also join everyone for the Afteparty at the Handlebar at 8pm where Christoph will be performing along with other TEDxGreenville performers The Bent Strings and Sirius B.

Grab your ticket!

Next up: Despina Yeargin wanted to let you know her thoughts about Ian Belknap, founder and visionary of Write Club (nope, no relation to Greenville native Tyler Durden).

From Despina:

“It’s an acquired taste”. Have you heard people use this expression? Sometimes it refers to food, say, eggplant or raw oysters. Occasionally it’s used in jest, as in, “Man, chick flicks—they’re an acquired taste.” Always, it’s used in conjunction with Scotch. (I didn’t like my first taste of Scotch, but I love to sip on it now.) Typically, this expression is used in lieu of a deeply satisfying description of a book, an event and even a person. So, Ian Belknap—he’s an acquired taste. Fortunately, it only takes one taste and you’re addicted!

As founder of a unique way of bringing writers to the readers, and supporting local charities at the same time, (an event called Write Club), Ian will share with us his breakthrough concept of a literary event. The stereotypical writer-reading-his-or-her-writing event is torn to pieces and tossed way up in the air at Write Club. Ian will illustrate what this is like and talk to us about how he developed this idea, perhaps even inspiring us to use his concept to have a breakthrough of our own.

Bring your professional wrestling enthusiasm with you and plug it in just before Ian comes on stage and see if you don’t LOL and guffaw and feel exhilarated! Really.

Heads up: Local boy, writer and Handlebar owner, John Jeter, will offer Ian a little assistance (or trouble) during his talk.

Click here to get your tickets to TEDxGreenville 2012: Breakthrough.

Despina Yeargin, a member of our hard-working Program Team, wanted to let you know her thoughts about poetry legend and native Greenvillian Glenis Redmond:

From Despina:

True story: 12-year-old girl writes poetry. Girl goes to school, gets job, builds family, grows career, gets serious illness. Glenis will share with us her story of how she re-discovered poetry as an adult and how poetry helped her to re-shape her life and break through the pain of her illness. Glenis, the same woman who started the poetry slam series in downtown Greenville, now tours throughout the United States and Europe to share her poetry, to compete and to win. You GO, girl! Isn’t it much easier to say, “poor me” or to question the heavens, “why did this happen to me”? Yes, but it’s much more rewarding to find a way out. Glenis did it through poetry. How are YOU going to do it?

Click here to get your tickets to TEDxGreenville 2012: Breakthrough.

Next up, Michelle Offik, a member of our hard-working Program Team, wanted to let you know her thoughts about Sirius B:

From Michelle:

Charangos, Melodicas, and musical saws, oh my! If the definition of absurdist gypsy folk funk punk (try saying that five times fast) seems a little confusing to you, don’t worry, Sirius. B will explain it to you. Or better yet, show you. Though the name ‘absurdist gypsy folk funk punk band’ is a mouthful it is an act that truly must be seen live to be understood.

‘Energy’ doesn’t really do it justice. Unpredictable, inspiring, jump in the barn at 3 a.m. energy might be closer, but we’ll let you decide for yourself. Turning a local Jewish bar mitzvah standard into a boisterously satisfying ‘place your adjective here’ song is not only a feat worthy of any naysayers attention, it’s music re-invented. Don’t be a square. We have no room for squares at the inn; unless you can make music with said square. In which case it’s probably ok.

Sirius B: an absurdist gypsy folk funk punk (nope, there probably aren't any other bands in that category)

Click here to get your tickets to TEDxGreenville 2012: Breakthrough

As such, Despina Yeargin, a member of our hard-working Program Team, wanted to let you know about someone who sounds like quite an interesting character: Vinnie Angel.

From Despina:
Okay, folks, so this is going to be a tad embarrassing for some. Of course, it may cause some others to offer up a few giggles. Where does a man come off talking about a tampon case…and doing it in broad daylight? Sometimes, finding ways to connect to others through a typically uncomfortable topic can be life-changing, it can alter how boys and girls—men and women—communicate with one another and it can also be loads of fun. Vinnie will talk about how he broke through the difficulty of talking with women about women’s “special time of the month” using his design skills, and how this one step helped him to begin shaping social interventions which have potential to transform not-so-good societal issues. Yay, Vinne!