TEDBlog December, 2010 Archive
08 December 2010
Text of “What I Will” by Suheir Hammad
What I Will
by Suheir Hammad
I will not
dance to your war
drum. I will
not lend my soul nor
my bones to your war
drum. I will
not dance to your
beating. I know that beat.
It is lifeless. I know
intimately that skin
you are hitting. It
was alive once
hunted stolen
stretched. I will
not dance to your drummed
up war. I will not pop
spin beak for you. I
will not hate for you or
even hate you. I will
not kill for you. Especially
I will not die
for you. I will not mourn
the dead with murder nor
suicide. I will not side
with you nor dance to bombs
because everyone else is
dancing. Everyone can be
wrong. Life is a right not
collateral or casual. I
will not forget where
I come from. I
will craft my own drum. Gather my beloved
near and our chanting
will be dancing. Our
humming will be drumming. I
will not be played. I
will not lend my name
nor my rhythm to your
beat. I will dance
and resist and dance and
persist and dance. This heartbeat is louder than
death. Your war drum ain’t
louder than this breath.
08 December 2010
Surprise speaker onstage: Hillary Rodham Clinton at TEDWomen
The US Secretary of State is onstage right now. What Twitter‘s saying:
Monica Hesse, Washington Post @MonicaHesse:
Holy cannoli, Hillary Clinton the surprise speaker at #TEDWomen
Anwar Dafa-Alla @AnwarKing: Hillary Clinton at #TEDWomen: Women’s issues are not women’s issues, they are humanity’s issues
Jenny Hertel @jbhertel
diplomacy and development as important as defence “but they still have 12 times our budget” ~ Hillary Clinton #TEDWomen
@TEDWomen
Hillary Clinton: Give women equal rights, and an entire nation is more stable, more secure. #TEDWomen
Photo: James Duncan Davidson / TED. See more photos on TED’s Flickr set.
08 December 2010
Stage shout-out from TEDxAcademy in Greece
In Session 3, an onstage shoutout to TEDxAcademy, a 100-person event organized by Niki Siropoulou in Kifissia, Greece — part of more than 115 TEDx for TEDWomen events around the world. Credit: Michael Brands / TED
08 December 2010
Photoblog: Heather Knight’s joke bot calculations
Heather Knight @heatherknight writes:
According to bot calculations, @TEDWomen liked: medium length, fairly appropriate jokes where his content overpowers movement. Is he close?
Photo: James Duncan Davidson / TED
08 December 2010
“Voices at the Table”: Roundup of Bonus Session at TEDWomen
At the end of Session 2, the Asphalt Orchestra led a parade of TEDWomen attendees to the gorgeous Atrium for dinner and a bonus session of speakers and interviews. (Photo: Michael Brands / TED)
Nancy Pelosi spoke with Pat Mitchell in an intimate conversation on women and power. (Photo: James Duncan Davidson / TED)
Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky spoke with Madama Callista Mutharika, First Lady of Malawi, and Sia Koroma, First Lady of Sierra Leone. (Photo: James Duncan Davidson / TED)
Three citizen journalists from World Pulse — Sunita Basnet, from Nepal; Jacqueline Patino, from Bolivia; and Malayapinas, from the Philippines — spoke about their work on this global site for people around the world to share news. (Photo: James Duncan Davidson / TED)
Arianna Huffington called on us all to get more sleep, and end the “sleep-deprivation one-upmanship.” (Photo: James Duncan Davidson / TED)
The amazing Angélique Kidjo and her band played a set that turned into an Atrium dance party:
(Both photos above: James Duncan Davidson / TED)
08 December 2010
Stage shout-out from TEDxSanMigueldeAllende
On stage in Session 2, Pat Mitchell connects with host Klaudia Oliver and a group of lively TEDx-ers at TEDxSanMigueldeAllende in Mexico.
Credit: James Duncan Davidson / TED
08 December 2010
TEDx Skype station: Connecting TEDWomen with Africa
Tuesday afternoon at the TEDx Africa Skype station, host Kelo Kubu chatted with TEDx events in South Africa, Ghana and Ethiopia. It was on the verge of midnight in Johannesburg when Bongi Mkhabela of TEDxSoweto talked with TEDWomen attendees about the importance of listening to different perspectives — a strong theme in Session 1. Halla Tomasdottir spoke about balancing the global financial system by injecting it with women’s voices and values. Similarly, as Bongi works to build the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital in South Africa, she tries to keep in mind another point of view: children’s. Great wisdom can come from children, she said, and they already contribute to the discourse, but adults have to listen more closely.
And then over to Ghana, where TEDxUofG‘s Myra Michelle Brown talked about her work across eight African countries getting girls access to information resources. She helps girls register for email accounts and learn social media so they can become plugged-in, independent thinkers in post-conflict countries like Liberia and Sierra Leone. Giving people the time and ability to access information resources can have extraordinary effects, not only women, but on entire generations, as Hans Rosling showed in his talk.
The last destination was Yene Assegid of Ethiopia who said the disconnect between the young and elders mentioned by Elizabeth Lindsey parallels her experience working in development in Africa. Oftentimes organizations rely on “numb practitioners” who are out of sync with what’s happening on the ground level, so they don’t make linkages with those who have been there. Particularly in Ethiopia, she said, people must take time to talk with elders to prevent the loss of knowledge, the loss of history.
Credit: Michael Brands / TED
07 December 2010
TEDWomen photoblog: Angélique Kidjo and friends
TEDWomen performer Angélique Kidjo, center, with, from left to right, Kathleen Bomani of TEDxDar, and TED Fellows Kyra Gaunt, Iyeoka Okoawo and Meklit Hadero, at the Welcome Dinner and Bonus Session, December 7, 2010, at TEDWomen in Washington, DC. Credit: Michael Brands / TED
07 December 2010
“Life’s Symphony”: Roundup of TEDWomen, Session 2
Courtney Martin: “Our generation is painted as apathetic. I’d say we’re overwhelmed.”
Sheryl Sandberg: No one gets to the corner office by sitting on the side (instead of at the table).
Columnist Mona Eltahawy says the conversation on Muslim women is usually this: “headscarves and hymens.”
Lauren Zalaznick presents data on inspiration vs. moral ambiguity in TV shows.
Tony Porter: “My father apologized to me for crying after my brother’s funeral.” This is how the “man box” confines men.
Elizabeth Lesser is launching a new initiative to counteract the tendency to “otherize.” It’s called “Take the Other to Lunch.”
Iyeoka Ivie Okoawo shares her poems. One line: “No one told her ebony was the color of the universe’s wings.”
Credit: James Duncan Davidson / TED
07 December 2010
“She Does Not Know Her Beauty”
Via the TED Fellows blog, the gorgeous text that Iyeoka Ivie Okoawo just spoke onstage at TEDWomen.
“My name is Iyeoka Ivie Arabomen Okoawo.
My father named me after my grandmother.
My name means I want to be respected.”
She does not know her beauty
She thinks her brown skin has too many flaws
If she could see her image in the Unogbo River where her mother was born
She would know
But the city holds no clear streams
West side streetlights shade the sunset’s miracles
And the concrete covers the soft memory of the earth’s unborn seed
Black is the color of her press and burned hair
She thinks her curls are too tight and short
If she could feel her natural birth locks blow in Arimogija’s fresh breeze
On the hill her father once stood
She would know
But the girl does not know her own beauty
She thinks her lips are too thick
If she could hear Benin men whisper thoughts across the Atlantic ocean
Praying to touch her heart to win her for just one kiss
She would know…but
She thinks her eyes are dark and troubled
No one told her ebony was the color of the universe’s wings
She thinks her nose is too flat
Her breasts too small
Her legs too long
She never learned how to dance you know…
Never learned how to run naked on the bank of a golden pond
Embracing her existence guided by the light of a tropical dawn
She forgets her name means
Precious child who harbors the beauty of an ocean pearl
She forgets she received her soul from her grandmother
Adopted the spirit of her mother
If she could recall the celebration they had at her birth
she would know…
If I could reach her
She would know
I would make it so there was cause for her to know
That she is more than a motherless child
Victim of an impressionable fate
Helpless before an inconsistent society’s interpretation of what beauty stands for
But I cannot reach her…
If she chooses to be blind
Only she can choose to see
But the city holds no clear streams
West side streetlights shade the sunset’s miracles
And the concrete covers the soft memory of the earth’s unborn seed
Poem written and presented by Iyeoka Ivie Okoawo. This poem will be included in Iyeoka’s new book release of her poetry scheduled to be published alongside her music album “Say Yes.”
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