Theme: It's about time

TEDxABQWomen is about the power of women and girls to be creators and change-makers. And…

It’s about time.

Time is personal. We all have the same amount of time — 24 hours a day and yet most of us feel we never have enough. Even with today’s latest inventions, technology, science, we can’t make time or stop time — or can we?

Is there anyone among us who doesn’t wrestle with it? On the one hand, what we want never seems to arrive promptly enough — gender parity in our boardrooms and bedrooms, class and racial equality, even love. On the other hand, time seems to move faster than it ever has. We have a love/hate relationship with our mobile phones, dream of a 4-hour work week, and bemoan the timesuck of outdated bureaucracies.

Join us as we examine the question of time and will ask the hard questions. Because isn't it about time:

To find long-term solutions to climate change, poverty, immigration, violence, race, gender and economic inequities?
To lead for different outcomes?
To challenge our "time-saving" technologies?
To pay full attention and be fully present for ourselves as well as others?

African American Performing Arts Center
310 San Pedro Dr NE
Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87108
United States

Ebony Isis Booth & Marya Errin Jones

Performance Artists

Marya Errin Jones is a writer/performer/musician, a graduate of Dell’Arte International and a member of the experimental performance art band Milch de la Máquina. She is a founder and curator of The Tannex, a performance venue in Barelas. Ebony Isis Booth is a poet, performance artist and vocalist committed to art as a method to engage and inform audiences toward social justice. Ebony is is the co-creator of Burque Noir, a multi-media performance and art showcase highlighting Black Artists.

JoAnne Tucker & Áine McCarthy

Advocates for Incarcerated Women

JoAnne Tucker (PhD,) founded and was artistic director of the Avodah Dance Ensemble from 1973 to 2004, a modern dance company that was based in New York City. In 2002 Avodah began doing residencies in women’s correctional institutions. Drawing on her dance training from Juilliard, undergraduate work in theatre at the University of Pittsburgh and doctoral program at the University of Wisconsin, JoAnne is dedicated to bringing dance and movement activities to non-traditional environments. Áine Pierandi McCarthy holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University in Connecticut where she first started volunteering in prisons through Wesleyan’s Center for Prison Education. She is a graduate of the Buddhist Chaplaincy Training at Upaya Zen Center and now serves as co-director of this program. Áine is also a certified Labyrinth Facilitator through Veriditas, an organization dedicated to sharing the labyrinth as a contemplative tool and works as a board member of the Labyrinth Resource Group of Santa Fe.

Valeria Montes, Hakim Bellamy, & Jesus Muñoz

Performing Artists

Valeria Montes, known as La Chispa (the Spark), has been described as “mesmerizing” for her passionate and vibrant interpretation of Cante Flamenco (flamenco song) and for her complex rhythmic zapateado. In 2010, she won the prestigious Kresge artist fellowship for Performing Arts. She is founder of La Chispa and Company, a principal dancer for the Jesus Muñoz Flamenco Company, and COO and full-time instructor at Casa Flamenca, a non-profit organization based in Albuquerque, NM. Hakim Bellamy became the inaugural poet laureate of Albuquerque in 2012. Many poems later, Bellamy has been on two national champion poetry slam teams, won collegiate and city poetry slam championships, and has been published in numerous anthologies and on inner-city buses. A musician, actor, journalist, playwright, television host and community organizer, Bellamy has also received an honorable mention for the Paul Bartlett Ré Peace Prize at the University of New Mexico and the Emerging Creative Bravos Award. Jesus Muñoz was a creative collaborator for this performance and provided the music.

WAZO

Singer-Songwriter

WAZO is a 21-year old self-taught singer-songwriter. She has been a musician for half of her life, and was classically trained on viola for six years before switching to guitar and voice as her lead instruments. Always a poet, her writing moved to songwriting, drawing from her favorite genres including hip-hop, jazz, R&B, and soul which helped her mold her own unique, lilting, but powerful vocal style.

Christina Foster

Academic & Activist

Christina Foster is a native of Albuquerque, New Mexico. She received her B.A. in History with a focus in Psychology and African Studies. She obtained her MA in Intercultural Service, Leadership, and Management from SIT Graduate Institute, in Brattleboro, Vermont. Her dedication to social justice has long been a part of who she is as a person. While in Albuquerque, she cultivated her desire to advocate for the human rights and civil liberties for people, especially those of African descent. Relocating to Atlanta, Georgia, she interned for HABESHA, Inc. and assisted in the establishment of the KASI Sustainable Development Institute being built in Ghana, Africa. Christina serves as Ambassador of Pan-African History for Lutino Adunu Library in the Nwyoa District in Uganda, Africa and is a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. Christina will continue her education with a Ph.D. in Africana Studies. She is currently the middle school Social Studies teacher for Imhotep Academy.

Davina Detrik

Disrupter

Davina Detrick is a former dentist and founder of The Disruptive Collective. She coaches high-achievers to leverage their degrees and creativity to incite bold movements that disrupt industries and professions.

Jane Epstein

Nurse Practitioner

Jane has been a nurse practitioner with a specialty in adolescent medicine since 1989. She received her nurse practitioner degree from Yale University. She has worked at community health centers, clinics for adjudicated youth, academic settings and school-based health centers. Her focus areas have included sports medicine, medical complication of obesity, sexual health and the health care rights of minors. In addition to primary care, she provides contraceptive and sexual health care services to teenagers. Her focus is to help young women feel empowered about their health, their choices and their sexuality. She now works at the University of New Mexico in the School-based Health Center Program seeing patients at Albuquerque High School and helping to establish a new clinic at Manzano High School.

Laurie Magovern

Educator & Storyteller

Laurie Magovern is a native New Mexican and has been the Curator of Education at the Anderson Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum since 2009. She is a professional storyteller, having presented at festivals, schools, libraries and theaters across New Mexico, Colorado and Washington, DC. For 15 years she has led workshops for teachers, librarians, museum professionals in the art of improvisation, storytelling and how to use it in educational settings. Laurie also serves as the president of the Rio Grande Down Syndrome Network which promotes inclusion and independence for over 300 families and individuals with Down Syndrome. She is not an expert on Down Syndrome, other than raising her seven-year old daughter with Downs, which comes with a high learning curve in medical, educational, social and emotional considerations. She wants New Mexico to be a place that welcomes and embraces her daughter, who loves to say hello.

Meggan Gomez

Theater Educator

Meggan Gomez, Theater Education Director at Working Classroom, studied acting in the BFA program at Montclair State University School of the Arts. She is a member of the Latino/a Theater Commons steering Committee, and is on the programming committee for an international theater conference in partnership with Revolutions Theater Festival and Theater Without Borders. She has taught and developed theater curriculum at the Arts Academy Charter School in Allentown, PA and Touchstone Theatre in Bethlehem, PA.

Michele Justice

Businesswoman

Michele Justice is the President of Personnel Security Consultants and the Managing Member of Kees Adjudication Services. Michele, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation and of Hispanic descent, has over 25 years of experience in employee background screening, training development and is recognized as a national expert in personnel security. Michele has committed her business services to aid in the protection of Native American communities. She has served as the Federal Bureau of Investigations Tribal liaison for the last nine years for Native American communities throughout the United States. Michele also serves as an Adjunct Instructor for the US Graduate School and has been invited to train nationally to clients such as NASA, TSA and the Federal Protective Service.

Ramona King

Storyteller & Actor

Ramona King is a professional storyteller and actor. She helps educators and parents build the esteem of children through the power of story. She’s performed throughout the US for over 25 years in venues including the White House, cultural centers, universities, festivals, and conferences. She’s also the former host of the Spoken Word Hour on KUNM Radio in Albuquerque. Ramona studied Human Development, Family Studies and Early Childhood Development at Cornell University and the University of New Mexico.

Sandra Akkad

Educator & Entrepreneur

Sandra Akkad is a Muslim Palestinian American woman and a Native New Mexican educator and entrepreneur. Education has always been her passion and she has always been a fervent believer that education leads to empowerment. She is the founder and director of “Tutor-Me”, a learning and enrichment center where she teaches, motivates, and reinforces students in all subjects from K-12. Additionally, she has had the privilege of being an adjunct instructor at UNM where she teaches “Children in Genocide”, a Peace Studies department course. Her time as an educator has brought her to the fore of issues pertaining to cultural identity, relevancy, and diversity. She co-founded “The Red Hearted” initiative which was designed to provide youth of all backgrounds a platform that encourages and engages them in frank discussion aimed at building connections, dismantling stereotypes, and promoting tolerance.

Sue Coates

Lifelong Learner

Sue Coates worked in contract management for 35 years on a variety of projects in both public and private sectors, and owned a small business for fifteen years providing procurement-related consulting and training services and publishing a local bid information service. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Management from Golden Gate University, a Master of Public Administration from University of San Francisco, a Certificate in Contract Administration from University of California Berkeley Extension, and numerous awards for procurement-related service. She is a PhD candidate in Organizational Learning and Instructional Technologies at University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, studying inter-organizational relations. Her dissertation is a collective case study of how organizational culture compatibility supports project sustainability.