From Coachella and Regent Park to TEDxToronto
September 25, 2012 TORONTO – The “E” in TED stands for entertainment, and it’s going to be an entertaining year for TEDxToronto. The October 26 conference will feature our most ambitious lineup of performers ever, alongside a roster of all-star speakers.
“Story is at the heart of every programming decision we make at TEDxToronto,” said co-chair and head of programming Darius Bashar. “The misconception is that only speakers have stories worth spreading. The truth of the matter is, when every jazz musician or visual artist or dancer performs, they are telling a story, too.”
BADBADNOTGOOD: Toronto jazz musicians Matthew Tavares, Chester Hansen and Alex Sowinski first met in Humber College’s Music Performance program and have put out a series of critically-acclaimed independent releases. They backed Frank Ocean at this year’s Coachella festival and have been described as Canada’s next big export.
Lemon Bucket Orkestra: Started in Toronto over Balkan music and Vietnamese food, the thirteen-piece Balkan-Klezmer-gypsy-party-punk-super band is spreading their urban folk revolution around the world.
KRNFX: A Toronto raised, two-time Canadian Beatbox Champion, he has rocked the stage in Iraq, Afghanistan, Qatar, Pakistan, Austria, and the U.S., and performed alongside hip-hop and music icons.
Elysha Poirier: A visual artist, designer and illustrator working in various forms of new media, her techniques in painting and design have been adapted to video for live performances of music, film and dance.
Mustafa Ahmed: A 16-year-old Regent Park student whose love of spoken word poetry began at age 10 as a way to interact with his sister, he has performed around the world.
Matt Lagan: He began playing the piano at age three and the tenor saxophone when he was 12. When he was 14 he joined the Humber College Community Music School and has performed with jazz icons Lew Tabackin, Kelly Jefferson and Al Kay.
These performers will appear on stage during a one-day conference on the theme of Alchemy. The roster of 17 TEDxToronto speakers includes celebrity chef Susur Lee, SlutWalk founders Heather Jarvis and Sonya Barnett and six-year-old Cassie Creighton, who developed the viral gaming app Sissy’s Magical Ponycorn Adventure with her dad.
To see the complete lineup of this year’s TEDxToronto speakers and performers, please visit www.tedxtoronto.com
For interviews with TEDxToronto organizers or performers please contact
Siri Agrell, TEDxToronto
416.877.0269 siri@tedxtoronto.com
About TEDx, x = independently organized event
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.
About TED
TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California 27 years ago, TED has grown to support those world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives. At TED, the world’s leading thinkers and doers are asked to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Talks are then made available, free, at TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Benoit Mandelbrot, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Isabel Allende and former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Two major TED events are held each year: The TED Conference takes place every spring in Long Beach, California (along with a parallel conference, TEDActive, in Palm Springs), and TEDGlobal is held each summer in Edinburgh, Scotland.