On March 5, TEDx came to Colorado State University for the 2022 TEDxCSU event. Hosted in the Lory Student Center Theatre and ballrooms, students and the general public came together to experience the speeches of various speakers, musical performances and short films. 

This year’s theme was Retrace, described by emcee Kyle Oldham as “to discover and follow a route or a course taken by someone else, or to trace something back to its source or beginning.” The energy in the room began with excitement: “It’s been two years since we’ve been together in this space for this purpose,” Oldham said. Past TEDxCSU events faced complications due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the Saturday event saw a packed audience and was one of the first public events the University has hosted since lifting the mask mandate. 

There were six speakers who discussed a variety of topics — from music education to attachment styles to African media — but each speaker touched on their own personal experience and skill set, tying in the theme as a whole. 

“It felt like what was wanted was for me to become something that people could want, and to do this, there was a linear path.” –Cei Lambert, CSU community member and TEDxCSU speaker

Undergraduate CSU student Paul Rose started the event with a critique on the modern musical canon, which is the cornerstone of what is taught in most musical education programs.

“We are teaching music education in a way that the white man comes out on top, and these economic holds are part of the reason that we have stayed there but also should be the driving force for change,” Rose said.

The next speaker touched on her own expertise in a similar fashion. CSU professor Ashley Harvey taught the audience about attachment styles and explained how to better communicate with friends and family through working with each individual’s unique attachment style. Harvey included a quiz in which attendees could find out their attachment styles, which can be found here.

At the halfway point of the event was a magic show performed by TEDx veteran Dan Jaspersen.

“We figure out, how do we make the impossible happen?” Jaspersen said. “If you can imagine something that’s impossible, … you can work towards making that a reality.” 

After a lunch break, the theme of bringing things into reality was again a strong undertone in the musical performance and accompanying speech by Kent Washington III. Washington spoke of his talent as a rapper and explained that he uses his music as a sort of “superpower.”

“If I’m an artist and I’m speaking certain words into existence, into fruition, I am also practicing energy work and spell work,” Washington explained.

The final speakers of the day also touched on their own passions. CSU graduate student Joy Enyinnaya spoke of the media’s relationship with Africa — both how Western media portrays African people and her theory of how African people interact with media themselves. 

“I realized that a lot of the representation of African people within Western media was predominantly hunger, disease and extreme poverty,” Enyinnaya said.

Colorado State University alumnus Cei Lambert spoke of their experience having a multifaceted identity and how they go about living a life that encourages all of their identities.

“It felt like what was wanted was for me to become something that people could want, and to do this, there was a linear path,” Lambert said.

The feeling of not wanting to take a linear path in life from Lambert’s speech struck a chord with attendees.

“The way they were talking about living that multifaceted life, I think, really stood out to me ’cause I think I often try to think of myself in a linear fashion,” CSU graduate student Lalo Velazquez said. “When they were saying, ‘Yeah, I went to graduate school to figure it out,’ I was like, ‘Hey, that’s what I did.’”

For other attendees, some of the other speakers similarly sparked a note of self-reflection.

“How can I be a culture cultivator?” graduate student Darian Abernathy said, reflecting on Washington’s speech and performance. “How can I really influence that in the work that I do?”

The 2022 TEDxCSU event can be viewed on the CTV 11 YouTube channel.