Salome Agbaroji

I think people have found interesting ways to integrate

technology into process in a way that does not at all mitigate human creativity.

But as I was listening to Samara's response, I remembered everything that is currently going on in the U.S.

about art and museums and censorship and

We find ourselves in the beautiful Vancouver, Canada right now, but I will get on a flight in two days and go back to the U.S.

in a space that, you know, seems to punish our artistic voices.

So the reset, maybe not so much, but I definitely think that there needs to be a recalibration of understanding the dire, dire importance of art in our societies.

Like, I look back to

ninth grade Salome who didn't know much of anything that she wanted to do, just wanted to do something meaningful.

A daughter of immigrants from Nigeria who only really had ourselves.

And it was nonprofit art programs that allowed me to blossom and grow into this person who articulates herself and somehow makes her way onto a TED stage, you know.

And poetry, and specifically poetry programs that were funded for that specific purpose,

made a transformative change in my trajectory.

I don't know where I would be right now if it wasn't for my art, yet I see an administration that totally neglects that.

So I think that's where a reset or a recalibration comes in.

Acknowledging the fact that you don't just go to school to learn basic arithmetic and you go back home and that's the end of it.

Art helps us, art programs in schools, art programs in communities,

helps form a sense of community identity, a sense of self, helps us articulate opinions about societal or political happenings.

And I think if we start adding back the ethos into art, we wouldn't see as many attempts to suppress it with whether it be AI or policy.

I would say, you know, being an artist is a way to take your power back.