Salome Agbaroji

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Okay.

Okay.

Hi, yes, I'm Salome Agbaroji.

I'm a spoken word poet.

I mean, a more formal title is, like, the seventh National Youth Poet Laureate of the U.S., but that has many syllables, and in essence, I just find a lot of joy and passion in using words to really hit the heart of an audience.

I describe myself as a creative writer, but another big part of my work is social advocacy, so...

A lot of the issues I advocate on are like arts, arts education, literacy for all people, and just uplifting marginalized voices.

And I try to do a good job of using my poetry as a voice to push those messages forward.

Samara, what about you?

I have to say that as a poet, I mean, I'm always going to be thinking about the words.

There were so many lines from your part that was so potent and evocative.

I think one of my favorite lines from yours was, I'm saying a lot of things I don't believe.

Is that the exact line?

But that one stuck out to me as much as all the others.

And I just wanted to say that I loved the writing there.

But to answer the question of what...

helped me decide what I'd bring to the very unique and valuable TED space.

I mean, looking at the list of the other speakers, of course, there's so many brilliant and budding technologists here, people who are at the cutting edge of innovation, who do work that is very different from what I do.

And I knew inherently, I have an audience of very, very capable ears who will go back to their labs or go back to their