Diverse discussion topics planned for TEDxDicksonStreet on Friday (Oct. 6)

TEDxDicksonStreet is planned for Friday (Oct. 6) at the UARK Bowl, 644 W. Dickson St. in Fayetteville.

The all-day event is a locally organized event, independent from global expert speaker initiative TED Talks. It will feature video TED Talks and live speakers.

Thirteen presenters from throughout the community will cover a broad range of topics.

“The speakers and their topics are certainly amazing and will make attendees pause and consider the richness and depth of our community,” Sami Kinnison, the volunteer organizer of TEDxDicksonStreet, said in a press release. “TEDx events really reflect the local flavor and vibe of a community. … These are very intimate events that have the potential to prompt larger discussions and spur action.”

Tickets for the full day are $65.

A description of the speakers follows.

Co-founder of The Belford Group of Fayetteville, Angela Belford, will speak on homelessness from her perspective as someone who experienced it after the passing of her adopted mother. Though she had a nontraditional upbringing — by the time she graduated from high school, Bedford had lived with four different families — she changed her trajectory in life for the better, according to the website. Bedford is chair of a local board working on a strategic plan to end homelessness in Northwest Arkansas by 2025.

Her new book, “Be Freaking Awesome,” was released in September.

Peter Ungar, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Director the UA’s Environmental Dynamics Program, will speak on his research on the role of diet in human evolution. His work has been featured in documentaries on the Discovery Channel, the Science Channel and BBC Television and others, and he has spoken at the Royal Society in London, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC., and the American Museum of Natural History in New York, according to the TEDxDicksonStreet site.

Allison Thurmond Quinlan, principal at Flintlock Architecture & Landscape in Fayetteville, and Jessica Hester, owner and architect at Verdant Studio in Rogers, will speak on plants and urban development. The two worked consecutively on the University of Arkansas Community Design Center, on which each earned separate national and international design awards, according to the TEDxDicksonStreet website.

Munya Nyamanzi, born in Zimbabwe and raised in California, was hit by a car at age 10 and subsequently in a coma for three months, according to the site.

As a result, he had to learn to read, write, walk and talk again at age 11. Now, he is a public speaker out of Little Rock.

Public policy Ph.D. student and Doctoral Academy Fellow at the University of Arkansas, Creed Tumlison, will speak on his research in decision-making, both for lawmakers and the general public.

Dayton Castleman, artist and museum director for 21c Museum Hotel in Bentonville, will speak on his own personal “quixotic adventure,” illustrated by “props” he created at the time, according to the website.

Writer and workshop facilitator Jamie Smith of Jamie’s Notebook will speak on communication struggles between the world of people with disabilities and the rest of society.

Laura Bell Phillips is a political activist and co-founder of For Fayetteville, a group that campaigned to pass the city’s LGBTQ rights act in 2015. Phillips will speak on how diva drag, the art of drag performed by women, has boosted her body image, self-confidence and mental health, according to the site.

Ilana Starr Berman, a UA graduate student researching trauma, will speak on the importance of group therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder.

UA student Taylor Bridges will speak on environmental sustainability, and Olivia Trimble, a sign painter and muralist in Fayetteville Arkansas, will speak on using fear as fuel.

Other speakers include local stand-up comedian Raj Suresh and Martha Londagin, vice president of commercial and U.S. Small Business Administration loans at Legacy National Bank.

More information on the speakers is available here.