Here are a few pictures of my trip to Puebla, Mexico for the National Fulbright Conference. There were around 400 super inspiring people from all over the world, specializing in different fields of work. I did a 10-minute plenary talk … Continue reading
This april I was asked to sing at the Fulbright TEDx event in Washington DC. Two years ago I played some songs at their 1st one in Boston and in this little time they had grown into an enormous happening, this time held in the US Chamber of Commerce building, located on historic Lafayette Square, mere steps away from the White House’s North Lawn. Speakers present in the building’s grand Hall of Flags, named for the banners of twelve great explorers of North America that hang within it, and its the site of important addresses by US and world leaders including Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Rajiv Ghandi, Corazon Aquino, Anwar Sadat, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama. They were expecting 500 participants and there was lifestream so that people from all over the world could join.
I got to DC on friday and went to the soundcheck. I could stay in the house of a Fulbrighter, Nicolas and it was super nice of him to host me. There was a really nice diner after the soundcheck were we could talk and find out what everybody has been working on. In general the Fulbright events are always amazing because everybody is very inspiring and connected. The next day
click here for the live stream
Here the TEDxFulbright ’14 Speakers:
* Romain Lacombe, Democracy in the Age of Data, Head of Innovation for Etalab, the French Prime Minister’s Open Data Taskforce
* Laura Skandera Trombley, Board Member of the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Program and President of Pitzer College
* Massimiliano Versace, CEO, Neurala Inc., Boston, Director of Boston’s Neuromorphics Lab
* Lisa Dyson, CEO of Kiverdi, alternative fuel technology, Turning CO2 into Oil
* Michael Forster Rothbart, Boxing Outside the Think: creativity, photography, and seeing the world anew, Photojournalist
* Paola Santana, Lawyer & Entrepreneur, An Internet of Things, Matternet
* David Baker, New Minds, Gods, and Political Upheavals, Imagining a New World from the Education Revolution, Professor of Education and Sociology, Penn State University
* Arlene Birt, Sustainability: Made Visual, Visual Storyteller
* Marlene Stearns, The Rise of Women Entrepreneurial Leaders in Agriculture, Entrepreneur, 3Psourcing
* Jeremy Xido, Music and a Nation’s Fight for Freedom, Documentary Filmmaker
* Lennart Joos, Can Carbon Capture Curb Climate Change? Scientist, Ghent University, Belgium
* Rebecca Davis, Discovering YOU Matter, Youth empowerment programs in post-conflict areas, Rebecca Davis Dance Company
* Rush Doshi, Rediscovering Geography in a World of Technology, Defense Analyst, Long Term Strategy Group
* Danielle Cho, Cellist, Co-Founder of Sound Impact
* Santiago Garcia, Citizen, Government, and the Software In Between, yovoto.com.py
* Jennifer Welch, The Limits of Knowledge in a World of Limitless Knowledge, Nutrition and Information, the Committee of 100
* Vivienne Aerts, Jazz Singer and Songwriter, Berklee Global Jazz Institute
There comes a point that I really need to go to NYC. Sometimes that city will mix you up and you’ll always get some new inspiration. I wanted to see my friend Joanne, and guitarist Joe Cohn, and my Parisian friend Felix Lemerle (who will study guitar on a Fulbright in NYC next year!)
Also there were some Dutch people in the City I would try to meet, Hans Mantel, Mirjan van Leijenhorst and Ahmet Polat. They were on a trip for Jazz festival Delft to meet some people for their project “ the jazz dream“ connecting renowned artists with young talents. (http://www.thejazzdream.nl)
The plan was to stay with Joanne, but I hadn’t clearly communicated my stay, so on saturday afternoon I needed to find a place to sleep, but, its NYC, anything could happen. I went to have a coffee with Sajda, a friend that studies art philosophy in NYC, then went to the after diner hang with the Dutch jazz – peeps and Mirjan told me (thank the lord!!) that she had a hotel room with two beds, and I could just stay there 🙂 …
I went to the concert of Joe Cohn in a sushi place where I met Felix and after hanging with Joe for a bit I went with Felix to another jazz – restaurant where we sat in, singing a bit.
The next morning it was really nice to have breakfast in the hotel with Hans Mantel and catch up a bit. Then I talked for a while with a art journalist from the Gardian (UK) which was really interesting. I went to see Joe Cohn’s concert in Brooklyn and had an amazing diner in that place. That evening I would stay at Joe’s place so we went to his house to drop off my bag and make some music. Joanne was performing in this acrobat show in Brooklyn and it happened to be a really cool show, people juggling, trapeze, aerial hammock, aerial straps, Chinese pole and fire eating … wow.. .that was really something else!
http://www.themusebrooklyn.com
Here some pictures 🙂
Na de wind moest ik effe uitwaaien… Er was een georganiseerde trip met Fulbrighters uit Boston om naar Salem te gaan. Salem is een stad aan de kust, noordelijk van Boston waar veel toeristen rond Halloween heen gaan. Er waren namelijk heksen vervolgingen in dit dorpje. Sommige huizen zijn nog steeds ‘haunted’ en dat maakt het natuurlijk bij uitstek een plek om effe te kijken naar pompoenen en zwarte katten. Dus hadden ze bijna 100 Fulbrighters in twee bussen gestopt, en reden we naar Salem, dat ongeveer een uurtje rijden was. Het is altijd leuk om andere Fulbrighters te ontmoeten, altijd interessante verhalen, culturen en studies. We hadden lunch in een chinees restaurant waarna we naar het Peabody Essex Museum gingen. Aan het eind van de middag kregen we nog een bus tour en vertrokken we weer naar Boston.
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TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is een jaarlijkse, vierdaagse bijeenkomst die in 1984 voor het eerst gehouden werd in Californië. Sprekers worden uitgenodigd om in maximaal 18 minuten “de presentatie van hun leven” te geven over hun gebied van expertise, over … Continue reading
Dit keer een kort verhaaltje… Dacht ik eindelijk een keer muziekloos uit te gaan, liep het weer eens anders… Met drie Fulbright vrienden die ik tijdens St Louis had ontmoet – zie vorige blog…. (een amerikanistiek-phd-er, een dokter en een … Continue reading
Toen was het tijd om in te checken… Het Hotel wat Fulbright geregeld had was geweldig, een voormalig treinstation, heel erg mooi. En we konden meteen de bus in naar de openingsceremonie. Deze werd gehouden in het St Louis Museum … Continue reading