TEDxDonovanCorrectional 2018: Reasoning with Reality
In the spirit of world-renowned TED Talks, TEDxDonovanCorrectional – a unique gathering focused on inspiration, transformation and interaction – took place at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility on Sunday, March 11, 2018.
The independently organized event featured a broad spectrum of TEDx Talks from men on the inside and from outside community members under the theme “Reasoning with Reality.” The process of organizing TEDxDonovanCorrectional fully engaged the prison inmate population. A Core Team of ten inmates strategized, planned, and facilitated the event from beginning to end, supported by a group of local TEDx volunteers.
Reasoning with Reality can mean to question reality, to plead with it, to bargain with it or to create one’s own version of it. One might do this through art, music, cinema, virtual reality, other creative outlets or by using one’s own mind. It can mean using science to try to determine the very nature of reality itself. It can even be as simple as changing one’s perception.
The question still stands: what is reality? Beyond the fundamental laws of physics, reality can be both objective and subjective. For some, reality is purely intellect and logic. For others, it is an amalgamation of faith, hope, love, intimacy and spirituality. Though we all inhabit the same physical world, our own personal realities are entirely unique. And it is because of this that we all must ask ourselves what does reality mean to us? And more importantly, how are we reasoning with it?
Inside Speakers
Steve Miller’s “From Gangster to Grace”
Frank Beltran’s “The Value of Golden Memories”
Azeez Momoh’s “Finding the Man Within”
David Pride’s “Second Chance Parenting”
Outside Speakers
Carie Covel’s “Why Not Me?”
Jennifer Duffy’s “Interpreting Other’s Realities”
Ami Carpenter’s “Lowering Defenses to Raise Security”
Tommy Sablan’s “Heroin: Through the Eyes of a Younger Brother”
Arthur Toga’s “How Does the Brain Reason with Reality?”
Outside Performer
Rheanna Downey’s “Raise My Hands”
Rheanna Downey’s “Bury It”