TEDxBU, a public speaking event licensed by TED, will feature 10 speakers Nov. 19 at the Howard Thurman Center under the theme of “Be(com)ing Whole.”
The event will start at 1 p.m., and each talk will be 12 minutes maximum. After the talks, audience members can discuss and interact with speakers during the reception.
This is the second time TEDxBU has collaborated with Howard Thurman Center, and this year’s theme revolves around searching common ground and creating a sense of wholeness.
“I want people to become whole and think about their wholeness, while being on this journey with other people who are describing how they see their wholeness,” said James Eddy, the assistant director of Thurman Center Networks and coordinator of TEDxBU events.
TedxBU is organized by a student committee and funded by HTC, and the talk will be recorded and published to YouTube.
“I hope that people are able to gravitate towards the complex issues that are going to be going on and see how relative they are to each other,” Eddy said.
Elizabeth Kostina, a primary organizer of TEDxBU events and junior at College of Arts and Science, said this year’s theme is about reconnection.
“In the spirit of collaboration of sharing ideas, the aim was very much to create and foster these dialogues and Howard Thurman Center had programming that felt very similar to what we were doing with Tedx,” Kostina said.
Luca Del Deo, a BU alum, will speak about a new form of meditation for people with mental disorders to improve social lives.
“My talk fits into this theme of becoming whole through the idea of how becoming whole has an intrapersonal element,” Del Deo said. “Intrapersonal is the relationships that we have within ourselves, with ourselves and with the elements that exist within us.”
Kennedy Williams, a senior in CAS, will speak about her experience as a Black Lives Matter activist for a year and a half.
“You don’t have to be the person leading the protests,” Williams said. “Just caring about the issues or taking a stand, vocalizing that you care about conditions is enough.”
Seigen Johnson, a graduate student in the School of Theology, will speak about integration of an individual as broken, healed and whole.
“Wholeness can be those moments of self-care,” Johnson said. “Wholeness can be those moments where we look into the teaching and wisdom of our ancestors or our other spiritual guides, and find ways to soothe from suffering.”
After being involved with TEDxBU since freshman year, Kostina said she hopes it will continue as an annual event at BU.
“I feel very profoundly happy that this event is growing,” Kostina said. “I want this event to continue after I graduate. This is very much meant to be the legacy that I leave behind on this campus. ”
