Sarah Kay

So do bad things, and always apologize when you've done something wrong, but don't you ever apologize for the way your eyes refuse to stop shining.

Your voice is small, but don't ever stop singing.

And when they finally hand you heartache, when they slip war and hatred under your door and offer you handouts on street corners of cynicism and defeat, you tell them that they really ought to meet your mother.

Well, I was 22 when I was given that opportunity.

And so all I knew was I was invited to a cool conference and maybe I'll learn some smart things.

That's about as much as I understood.

And I love performing poetry in lots of strange spaces.

That's a huge part of my joy.

And to me, this is just another strange space to share poems.

And of course, we didn't know that the TED platform would become so global and would become so widespread.

And after I gave the talk,

the video did go viral.

And I started to receive emails from people all over the world, many of whom would say, not only was that video my introduction to you and your art, but that video was my introduction to this art form.

I did not know poetry was performed.

Are there more people like you?

Can I do this?

Could you come here and show me how to do it?

And it became this unbelievable adventure of getting invited to so many surprising corners of the world to share poems and help people figure out how this art form could be useful in their communities and in their classrooms.

And that's the accidental ambassadorship that I certainly did not know was coming.

Certainly not.