Care about what I say, not how I say it. | Taiwo Demola | TEDxProvidence

Words matter and so does the way you say them. Through socialization, we have learned to merit the importance of an idea through how it has been said rather than the content. As an avid public speaker, activist, and artist Taiwo Demola is familiar with this concept and has learned the theatrics that goes behind performing speech in order to convey a message. However, through the story of her successes and failures in public speaking and work with Diversity Talks, a business she co-founded that centers its practices around dialogue across identities, she aims to highlight how the desire to utilize language as a tool to validate rather than to communicate silences voices, shakes confidence and widens the imagined distance between communities. Taiwo Demola is the co-founder of Diversity Talks, a business that provides student-led professional development for teachers that utilizes restorative justice practices and provides the tools necessary to engage in culturally relevant conversation within the classroom. She is a former delegate for the Providence Student Union. In this role, Taiwo assisted in the development and implementation of an ethnic studies curriculum and educated community stakeholders about the issues impacting Providence high school students. As a member of the Nellie Mae Foundation speaker’s bureau, Taiwo has been able to educate audiences outside of Rhode Island about the importance of empowering young people to be agents of change. Taiwo is currently a sophomore at Mount Holyoke College and remains committed to inspiring and uplifting people through honest dialogue and narrative sharing This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx