Please join me at PechaKucha Portland this Thursday

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Please join me at the upcoming PechaKucha Portland at Asylum, where I will be the emcee for the evening. I don’t want you to join me in a co-emcee capacity, but I do want for you sit in the audience and have a good time. The stage can only fit so many people, and you should relax, shouldn’t you? You work so hard as it is and I want for you to have a good time. The event takes place at 7:20 pm (doors open at 6:30) and it will be a great deal of fun.

If you are already familiar with PechaKucha, you know that you are in for a good time. If you are not, the odd-sounding word (pronounced peh-chah-chka) translates to “chit chat” in Japanese. A series of speakers with various perspectives and levels of expertise take to the stage to give presentations about topics of their choosing. Their presentations are delivered by way of projected slides, and what is beautiful about the model is that they are bound by a 6:40 (six minutes and forty seconds) time constraint, which comes down to 20 seconds per slide. This makes for a series of great, energetic performances and ensures that no one will be able to bore you to death.

Not that any of the speakers are boring―they are not. I have been to many of the past events and have learned and laughed a lot. I was fortunate to attend a practice run of the upcoming event last week and hear stories of survival, preservation, dead people, grave yards, torture, and triumph. Really, the collective theme of the evening is quite fitting for Halloween season.

I hope to see you there!

Speakers and topics include:

  • Journey to the East by Mei Selvage
    Stories about how art can heal one’s self.
  • Maine’s Next National Park by Lisa Pohlmann
    Bringing national recognition to the largest undeveloped forest east of the Mississippi.
  • A Celebration of Creativity by Arthur Fink and Meredith Lyons (dancer)
    How YOU can be more creative — told in words, pictures, and live dance.
  • For the Good of the Child by Gary Wall
    The history of juvenile confinement in New Hampshire.
  • Painting for a Purpose by Tina Clark Edwards
    The power of art to heal and bring people together.
  • The Eastern Cemetery Has Something to Tell You by Holly Doggett
    A burial ground is more than an outdoor museum of sculpture, stories and sacred soil.
  • Story of a Story by Frank O. Smith
    The community that published Dream Singer.
  • Fear Death? by Peter Baldwin Panagore
    An ice climbing adventure with a mistake that changed everything.
  • Message in the Bottles by Sarah Speare
    The welcome interruption of what you can see on beach walks.
  • Fear and Judaism at Great Heights by Abby Holtzman
    How friends and songs can help you to face your fears.

IMAGE CREDIT: Pecha Kucha Portland / SDP Photography

Alex Steed

About Alex Steed

Alex Steed has written about and engaged in politics since he was an insufferable teenager. He has run for the Statehouse and produced a successful web series. He now runs a content firm called Knack Factory with two guys who are a lot more talented than himself.