TEDx Philadelphia looks at social justice issues in all walks of life

You may be surprised to learn the theme of Philadelphia's next TEDx conference could best be summarized by a pop song. But then you'd be underestimating the creativity of TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design), which draws inspiration from all quarters of culture.

Called "And Justice for All," TEDx Philadelphia 2015 (that small x denotes a locally organized, as opposed to national, TED) will bring 14 speakers to the Temple Performing Arts Center for a daylong conference Thursday.

The speakers will not wax philosophical about the abstract concept of justice, said TEDx coproducer Emaleigh Doley. On its own, the term is too large, too general to mean much.

Doley said she was inspired by a line from the song "Glory" by John Legend, featuring Common, on the Selma sound track: "And justice for all ain't specific enough."

"That's where our speakers are taking us," Doley said, "to specific issues."

The conference - featuring speakers as varied as labor activist Fabricio Rodriguez and cable company executive Brigitte F. Daniel; artist and ex-con Jesse Krimes and Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey; and journalist and active-listening proponent Ronnie Polaneczky and architect Rosa Sheng - will explore the ways equality and justice can be realized in actual people's everyday lives.

TEDx Philadelphia is one of numerous local events inspired by TED Conferences L.L.C., a venture founded in 1984 to bring together people from a wide range of backgrounds to share innovative ideas, usually involving technology and design. It has since evolved into a conference that addresses all areas of social life and public policy.

The first TEDx in the region was held in 2010. Each year, program producers have chosen a different theme. Save for this year.

"This is the first year we let the audience vote on the conference theme," said Doley. "It says a lot about how important the subject matter is to have people vote for it."

In accordance with TED's famous rules, each of the 14 presenters will speak for no more than 18 minutes.

Doley said the issue of justice was applicable to all levels of life. Take our access to cable TV and the Internet, the subject of a talk by Daniel, executive vice president of the local cable company Wilco Electronic Systems Inc.

"We are an African American-owned and -operated family . . . company that provides cable to underserved communities in the area," said Daniel, who grew up in Elkins Park.

"I plan to talk about how we can create digital equality for all," she said. "How can everyone enjoy the same Internet access, which has become so essential to finding jobs, health care, wellness programs, child care?"

Issues of social justice and equal access also run through urban design and architecture, said San Francisco architect Rosa Sheng. She will discuss how the gender disparity within her profession affects the industry's ability to create spaces that serve everyone equally.

"Approximately 50 percent of architecture school graduates are women, but women only make up 18 percent of licensed architects," Sheng said. Most of the women who train as architects end up working in other fields. That disparity may hurt the industry's ability to create designs and buildings that serve women and men equally.

Artist Jesse Krimes is concerned about how our visual culture, including the organization of our public space, reflects and reinforces unequal power structures.

"My work is about creating objects that complicate vision, that create paradoxical experiences," said Krimes. He will talk about how advertising and pop culture have ill served people's needs for visual literacy.

"Through marketing, we are taught to look at only the surface appearance of things. We are manipulated into seeing the world in a certain way," he said. For Krimes, art should open our eyes to that manipulation.

Fabricio Rodriguez and Charles H. Ramsey will speak about more traditional, meat-and-potatoes issues.

Rodriguez worked for years alongside his father in underground mining. He became a full-time activist when he was fired for asking that miners be given a lunch break.

"Americans generally have become much more hostile to the idea of labor organization," he said. "It's something I struggle to understand."

Rodriguez said he would discuss how effective grassroots organizing could be in encouraging real social change.

Ramsey, who advocates an open, self-critical approach to policing, said he would address ways the police could "build a new dynamic in policing, a new trust and confidence."

Said Ramsey, "We have to acknowledge the history of policing in the United States and how we have not always been on the side of justice."

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