TEDxYYC 2021 is coming up fast and we are so excited!
In line with this year’s theme, we are reimagining what our typical attendee experience will be like. With our shift to a virtual format, we can welcome an even bigger audience from home, a café, a socially distanced patio… wherever! This year, you can check out a virtual booth from some amazing local artists and trailblazers. Here are the details on our amazing partners below!
Cooking Vegetarian in the Big Easy with Chef Joey
Imagine sitting in a cafe on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, sipping a Hurricane and enjoying a juicy Cajun Vegetarian Burger and a basket of Potato Wedges with a Creole Sauce. Chef Joey will teach you how to layer flavours as you cook. With some pre-class prep done before class, we’ll have time to focus on this flavour-packed vegetarian patty! Non-vegetarians will love it too. We’ll share all the resources you’ll need to follow along or simply sit back, enjoy a few laughs and learn a few tricks. Find the ingredients here to cook along at home!
About Chef Joey: Chef Joey found his passion for cooking in his birthplace of New Orleans. He honed his mad chef skills over his thirty-year career by learning from the greats throughout the US and Canada. He moved his family to Calgary after being approached by the president of Arcis Seismic to create a Google-like corporate culture. Chef Joey designed the kitchen and served their employees each day for ten years earning the title Top Workplaces to Work in Canada. Matrix Solutions lured him over to do the same thing for five years, until COVID hit and they had to close the Bistro. His partner in crime, a marketing specialist, met the same fate when COVID struck and up sprung Chef Joey, a virtual cooking class for people of all skill levels. His classes are an experience; it satisfies his love of teaching and cooking while meeting new people from all over the world. You can expect beautiful food with a few laughs from stories of his past, and food lore. Chef Joey continues to reinvent himself and loves where this latest turn in his path has taken him.
Check out Chef Joey’s website here and catch Chef Joey’s class at 12:00 PM!
Bollywood Dance Workshops with Madhuban Performing Arts
COVID-19 Dance (Bollywood) Workshop: Madhuban is re-imagining a regular dance workshop with a COVID-19 twist. Inspired by our collective experiences with the pandemic and lockdowns, this dance tutorial will give you some quirky ways to learn and retain the choreography. Beat virtual exhaustion, get up on your feet to groove with us and we dare you not to laugh! -At 12:00 PM
Dance with your face: Did you know the most celebrated dancers in the Bollywood industry are those who can dance with their face? Facial expressions are an instrumental component of traditional and modern Indian dance forms. Madhuban welcomes you to learn how to express emotions and dance with your face just like the stars do! Join us from wherever you are and feel free to be yourself! – At 1:45 PM
About the group: Since its inception, Madhuban has supported over seventy five non-profit organizations and causes through their authentic dance and musical performances. Within three short years of being in business, Madhuban launched “Madhuban Anthem” and it became a viral sensation. Featured on national platforms like CBC Calgary, the piece was celebrated for its artistic cinematography, intricate choreography, and beautiful backdrops throughout Calgary. Recently, Madhuban reached new heights by partnering with a major Bollywood production house to create and perform an original flashmob for the hit song, “Madaari,” from the hit film, “The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir.” The video has nearly 300k hits on YouTube and was also featured on several, national Indian media outlets.
*Don’t forget to share a picture/video from our workshop on social with the hashtag #TEDxYYCwithMadhuban for a chance to win some swag!
Follow Madhuban on Facebook and catch Madhuban’s performances at 12:00 PM and 1:45 PM!
Improve your communication and listening skills with Talk2morepeople
Session 1: Improve Communication Skills with Play!
Join this interactive session to experience how curiosity and play can help you become a stronger communicator. Expect to meet new people as you will be put into groups to practice what you learn, or simply to have a great conversation. -At 12:00 PM
Session 2: Reimagine Listening.
Together we will play with the idea of “Talk2MorePeople Listening”. This technique helps you meet people who in turn can change your life for the better. You will have the opportunity to network with fellow participants in smaller groups and experience how to reimagine listening. -At 1:45 PM
About Tony Esteves: International facilitator, virtual event producer and Solution-Focused coach Tony Esteves is passionate about creating human connection. He is the author of “Talk2MorePeople: Change Your Life by Meeting People” and holds a B.A. in Communication Studies. When not facilitating live, or managing virtual events, Tony can be found hiking in the Rocky Mountains west of Calgary or performing in the circus.
Visit Talk2MorePeople.com to join the adventure at catch these sessions at 12:00 PM and 1:45 PM!
Bridging the Gap with Whiley Eaglespeaker
Join Whiley for a first person account of stories from the time of Treaty signings through to Residential School survivors and the impact of #215children.
About Whiley Eaglespeaker: Whiley Eaglespeaker is a member of the Kainai Nation located in Southern Alberta. His Blackfoot name is Yellowhorse. Whiley has been in the nonprofit field for more than twenty years helping the people in various leadership positions. Whiley’s mother is a residential school survivor and Whiley has been fighting intergenerational trauma and the generational effects of residential school throughout his personal and professional life. Whiley offers a unique worldview on this issue that strives to bridge the gap between nonnative understanding and answers to the questions of “how can nonnatives can help” and “what’s next”.
Don’t miss this session at 12:00 PM.
Desk Yoga with Janelle Snow
Join Janelle Snow for a virtual yoga session. No yoga mat or change of clothes will be required, as Janelle will lead you through mindfulness breath work, while relieving neck and shoulder tension.
About Janelle Snow: She has been practicing yoga steadily for over eight years and has noticed the profound effect yoga has on her mental health. In 2019 she took her 200-hour yoga teacher training to deepen her practice and through that, she fell in love with teaching. Her approach to teaching is creating accessible classes and workshops for everybody and all bodies. By day, Janelle is a digital strategist for the Government of Alberta.
Follow Janelle on Instagram @sundogstrengthandsoul. Get your yoga on at 12:00 PM!
Resilience, Healing and Renewal -The Indigenous Experience with Autumn Eaglespeaker
Highlighting Autumn’s families matriarchal generational experiences as Blackfoot women, overcoming intergenerational traumas interrelated to the Canadian and US experience and resiliency and healing through love and family. Autumn will weave these experiences and a path forward towards healing and reconciliation.
About Autumn Eaglespeaker: Autumn EagleSpeaker is a member of the Kainai First Nation. She is from the All Short Peoples Clan and the Running Antelope Band. Autumn was born and raised in Seattle, Washington and has resided in Calgary for the past twenty six years. Autumn is the daughter of Diane EagleSpeaker and Michael Williams and is the granddaughter of the late Glen and Leona EagleSpeaker and Helen and Stanley Williams. Autumn is a Blackfoot/African American Renaissance Woman, Mother of six, Warrior, Lover of Indigeneity, Politics, Art and Books. She is a speaker, passionate volunteer and Creates events and opportunities for others. Autumn is an entrepreneur, designing her own line of jewelry: Falling Leaves Designs. Autumn’s educational background at the University of Calgary and Mount Royal University focused on International Indigenous Studies and Political Science. Autumn has previously worked in Oil and Gas Indigenous Consultation and Non-profit Organization and Food Bank Management, and for the City of Calgary as a cultural event planner organizing the first ever Calgary Canada Day Powwow. Autumn is a Community organizer. She (along with her sister Melrene) organizes the Authentically Indigenous Craft Market, a social enterprise that creates opportunities for local Indigenous artists, makers and creators through craft markets and events. Authentically Indigenous is now in its 7th season!
Follow Autumn on Instagram @autumn_eaglespeaker and be sure to attend her session at 1:45 PM!
One Person, Many Lives with Farrah Nuff from HireHeels
We all love life and love to hate it all the time, now imagine you are living several all with different needs and wants and expectations of you. Listen to the layers of an entertainer, coach, educator…and more talk about the need to adapt to their surroundings, and why drag was the key to figuring it all out. There was a day that everything made more sense.
About Farrah Nuff: Born and raised in the Calgary, Farrah is a business owner, full time student, educator, and full time drag queen. Performing is her life, growing up a dancer and later moving onto an early career as a professional dancer, she has always had the passion for the stage. When an injury changed her life, steering her in the direction back to Calgary, she fell in love and started a new life teaching dance, an off again, on again love affair with optical fashion, and an unmatched passion for life. Fifteen years in the drag world, she has traveled the world and worked on stage and behind the scenes in many facets. an award-winning choreographer and hair and make-up designer in the theatre world, Farrah’s performances often take flight on the wings of a Broadway show stopper. The matriarch of the Nuff family, she has a wonderful drag sister Nada Nuff, with whom she owns a local drag agency HireHeelsYYC and two wonderful drag daughters Tana Nuff and Nearah Nuff. She also just got married to her boyfriend of twelveyears! She is so excited to be a part of TEDxYYC and hopes you will join and enjoy every aspect of this wonderful day.
Be sure to check out HireHeelsYYC.com and don’t miss this booth at 1:45 PM. AND don’t miss the exciting AfterParty at 3:30 PM!
Reimagine Meditation: A Practice for Deeper Embodiment with Worthyandwell
In this engaging activation, you’ll be invited to reimagine meditation and experience it as a practice for deeper embodiment, so that you can heal the patterns that hold you back from living true, reclaim your personal power, and awaken to your deeper purpose. It’s time to pay attention and let your body lead.
About: Casey Berglund is the founder of Worthy and Well—a company dedicated to guiding purpose-driven leaders navigating change on their journey toward feeling worthy and well-aligned, well-nourished, well-loved, and well-paid. She is also the Creator of the Let Your Body Lead TEDx Talk, Professional Certification, and associated movement.
Learn more and get started at Worthyandwell’s site here and free your mind at 1:45 PM!
Addressing everyday anti-racism through empathy with Humainologie & The Kings of Hearts
Because empathy is a tool that’s readily accessible for most humans, it offers a realizable, everyday opportunity for each of us to dismantle racism. Join Yenukwa Kombian (he/him) of Kings of Hearts and Salima Stanley-Bhanji of Humainologie as they chit chat and share personal insights on real world ways empathy can support anti-racism.
About Yenukwa Kombian:
Yenukwa Kombian is the co-founder of The Kings of Hearts , a nonprofit organization that creates brave spaces for men, Yenukwa is a personal development facilitator and a captain for Samurai Brotherhood. Committed to bringing high performing individuals into alignment and his own journey of self-discovery, Yenukwa loves eating and cooking food, existential conversations, and playing soccer.
About Salima Stanley-Bhanji:
Salima Stanley-Bhanji is a lawyer, filmmaker and the CEO of Humainologie, a nonprofit whose mission is spread empathy, increase inclusion, reduce discrimination. Co-founder of Calgary’s Annual Empathy Week, Salima is a Board Director of the Alberta Hate Crimes Committee and a TEDxYYC speaker and coach. She is learning to skateboard and SUP, loves going to the cinema and having picnics with her three-year-old daughter.
Visit Humainologie’s website here and listen well at 1:45 PM!
