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TEDx Philadelphia is one of the hottest tickets in town for city enthusiasts eager for fresh and creative ideas about how to return our urban home to its past glories. TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to “Ideas Worth Spreading,” and it started as a four-day conference in California nearly 30 years ago. TEDx is a local, self-organized manifestation of the same goal and this year, Philadelphia’s third year of programming focuses on the phrase “The New Workshop of the World.”
Four South Philadelphians, with extremely diverse backgrounds and specialties, are slated to give talks: Christopher Bartlett, Geoff DiMasi, Terry Gillen, and Austin Seraphin. Their respective command over their fields is a stunning testament to the range of diversity present in the area.
The newest addition to the South Philly family is Seraphin, an inspiration to abled and disabled neighbors alike. Seraphin’s blind and his only visual receptors are bits of light and color. He’s been dubbed “an accessibility consultant,” with his lifelong fascination with technology, programming and computers leading to work with companies and organizations to improve aspects of access.
“I’m planning on talking about accessibility and my own experiences using different technologies and the potential that we have to become a really accessible city,” the Swarthmore native and two-year resident of Hawthorne’s 12th and Fitzwater streets said. “It’s been really smooth – a lot better than I thought,” he admitted. “Transportation can be an issue but you get through it. That’s a big point I’m going to make.”
The tech-obsessed programmer learned to teach a computer what to do at the age of 7. But “getting the iPhone was big,” he says. It opened his world. “I think it’s an equalizer. A blind person can go and do things pretty much the same way as a full-sighted person can.”
But it’s his forays into the art world that have attracted some big fans: he and Sonia Petruse put together a groundbreaking campaign to let the blind experience graffiti (“Blind people don’t really get to see it and it’s a subversive but real art form that’s expressive,” he said) and his volunteer work at the University of Pennsylvania’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology has really made waves.
“Museum accessibility is a hot thing,” he said. “And that’s why I’m really excited because these Touch Tours are really breaking ground.”
The exhibits allow visually disabled culture-seekers a rare opportunity: to let their hands take them to ancient Egypt and Rome. Replicas of ancient artifacts let the blind actually enjoy a museum by simply doing something forbidden at most esteemed halls of preservation: See with their hands.
Bartlett, the executive director of the Center City-situated William Way Community Center, has been around a bit longer. In fact, he did something ambitious when he was young. A lifer, he decided to stay put in Philadelphia until he could see the change he set out to make.
“I made a decision in my early 20s – to judge the success of my life based on the impact I have on Philadelphia,” he said. “I may move away, but I want to evaluate my life based on the impact I’ve had here.”
Bartlett performed the duties of emcee in the two previous Philadelphia installments of TEDx, a role he was thrilled to fulfill.
“Being a good TED host is about loving Philadelphia, and I’m such a lover of Philadelphia,” he said, revealing his talk will be about capturing the success of minority neighborhoods in Philadelphia, the Gayborhood and Chinatown, and drawing parallels for why they thrive.
“What makes these cultural districts work and what makes these neighborhoods thrive?” he asks.
One of Philadelphia’s leading experts on LGBT issues, the Passyunk Square resident even ruminated on the potential of a migrating border of the Gayborhood, wondering if 12th and Passyunk could be Philadelphia’s Gayborhood in 20 years.
Not far off from that intersection is the home base for DiMasi’s P’unk Avenue, 1168 E. Passyunk Ave., a collective whose mission is purposefully broad. Technology is a tool he and his team use to build bridges and lift up organizations and businesses through creating websites and design campaigns.
“Livable and inspiring places, help people stay well and to create knowledge,” he puts simply is the mission of P’unk.
The artist-by-trade bought the office’s headquarters 14 years ago and founded his creative agency nine years ago on April 1. It spurred him to co-found the Passyunk Square Civic Association, initiate conversations and community-building projects and breathe some life into a then-underdeveloped East Passyunk Avenue.
The father of two now calls Collingswood, N.J. home but rejects the notion this makes him no longer a part of a neighborhood to which he has extraordinarily long ties. From the top floor of his dual-address offices, one can see City Hall (where his great grandfather was a judge) and the spire of St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi, 714 Montrose St. (where his grandmother was baptized and married).
The co-founder of the thriving co-working space in Old City, Indy Hall, will touch on the conference’s central theme: “I’m giving a talk on the way in which people operate, the human aspect of the workshop of the world. I’m really interested in how people organize themselves, how they communicate with each other.”
Perhaps one of the most esteemed authorities on the topic of job creation through her longstanding work in The Philadelphia Navy Yard, Gillen plans to talk about her experiences working with Gov. Ed Rendell and Mayor Michael Nutter to create jobs. She’ll share lessons learned and talk about an upswing of success the city’s experienced.
“We had trouble convincing businesses to be here,” she says of days past, and looks at Comcast as a glowing beacon for what Philadelphia can still accomplish.
“Comcast presents us with a real opportunity to have a major corporation’s headquarters in the city, right in the city, and a company that’s on an upswing,” she gushed. “It’s a huge opportunity for the city. It can help us brand ourselves as vibrant and as a job center.”
The resident of the 2300 block of Naudain Street helped illuminate the potential in March 28’s day-long conference.
“Workshop of the World talks about a time when Philadelphia was great,” she said, alluding to Philadelphia’s specialty manufacturing heyday of the 19th century. “These TED topics talk about how we can get back to that time and that level of greatness. And I think it’s a good question to ask because it sets the bar really high, and we need to set the bar really high.”
Contact Staff Writer Bill Chenevert at bchenevert@southphillyreview.com or ext. 117.
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