Last Thursday, TEDxPSU hosted our second Salon event, Synthesizing Sustainability. The event was held at the New Leaf Initiative in State College, and was hosted by Mike Shamalla, who kept the conversation focused on living sustainably as well as maintaining sustainable mindsets and practices. The event opened with speaker, Allison Lilly, Outreach Coordinator for the national competition EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge. “I eat, breath, sleep…and pretty much drive, these three syllabuls: EcoCAR,” says Lilly. Her discussion revolved around hybrid technology and the next competition EcoCAR 2: Plugging into the Future; how to turn a 2013 Chevrolet Malibu, compact car, into an innovative hybrid vehicle. She also talked about the growing role of social media and focusing on younger generations to get kids thinking and cmmunicating about what they are doing in the future. “In the theme of TEDx: I think these are some Ideas Worth Spreading,” Lilly remarked in her closing line.
The second speaker was Spud Marshall, the creator of the New Leaf Initiative, who reflected on his time spent in Haiti that had inspired a local music project. Marshall began by relating the “sea of blue tents” he saw when he first flew over Haiti; the country has less than 1% tree coverage and the rest is scattered by patches of white and blue, people’s homes. As desolate as the land may look, the first sight off the plain was a band of musicians. “I took my first steps in Haiti, and this [music] was the first sound I heard,” said Marshall. Many of the local he met while in Haiti were connected to music in some way, one explaining, “When music hits you, you feel no pain.” Marshall took the opportunity to really explore Haiti by spending time getting lost in the city, only to spend hours finding his way back. After talking a local named Carlos, Marshall got the idea to create a music project to support the local music and musicians. The project is currently underway and focuses on local Haitian music as well as international music that is popular in the country and a diaspora of music from the United States, particularly State College.
Click here to watch TEDxPSU Salon Synthesizing Sustainability in a quick two minute video.
