Last Sunday, Baltimore muralist Michael Owen set out to paint a vibrant mural on a wall facing Pulse nightclub in Orlando in homage to the victims who died in a mass shooting there this summer. He finished the project before the week was out, and the end result is a stunning tribute.
In case you’re not already familiar, TED talks are the source of brain-bursting ideas, viral videos, inspirational speeches from today’s top thinkers, whether they be neuroscientists or architects or writers or ex-presidents. Think of it like a Malcolm Gladwell essay performed live: TED speakers give a brief, technology-aided lecture about the most inspiring or revolutionary aspect of their work, the crowd laughs/cries/gasps and everyone goes home enlightened.
Maybe you’ve watched one of the many TED videos posted online and considered attending the conference in person — until you found out that tickets cost $6,000. Eep. Lucky for the non-millionaires among us, though, TED also sponsors what they call TEDx events, which are independently organized events worldwide that are inspired by the same spirit of deep discussion and open-sourced wisdom. And now Towson University is bringing that TEDx spirit to its campus with the first-ever TEDxTowsonU conference, “aimed at inspiring lifelong personal and social responsibility and encouraging individuals to be an agent of change for a better world.”
