“Wait”
My thoughts on delivering my first-ever TEDx Talk via TEDxLadbrokeGrove 2021. Originally delivered on 21 May 2021 at the Design Museum (London, UK).
“Shine like the whole universe is yours.” — Rumi.
And I am going to continue to shine brighter than Sirius.
Normality is a crowd-sourced, ableist fantasy. And I refuse to be Ableism’s commodity.
I am honoured to delivered my first ever TEDx Talk on 21 May 2021 at Design Museum (London, UK) for TEDxLadbrokeGrove and the theme for the event was Alternative Paths! But I am even more honoured to have spoken amongst some extraordinary humans –
You can watch the official talk from the official TEDx channel via the link at the bottom of this post, but here is the final edited talk with BSL that I downloaded and added captions in the right location to make it super accessible:
…
I just wanted to share my thoughts on the entire experience and the procedure of what I went through.
Follow me on my journey.
The process
It all began with an idea: people over productivity. I had wanted to do a TEDx talk for the longest time, but it never seemed like the time or life seemed to get on top of me.
Then in August 2020, I found out that TEDx Ladbroke Grove were doing an open call for speakers to apply, and it seemed like the perfect time for me to do so, especially with my lived experience of Disability during a pandemic. I decided to take the leap and apply. To my surprise, I got selected to go through to the next stage, the interview round in September 2020. Oh my days. I actually had to come up with a coherent idea!
The day of the interview arrived. My interview was right after an Instagram Live with Hungama London, which was great but exhausting. Thankfully, I’d written down some of my ideas about what I wanted to discuss during my interview. After I gave a five-minute presentation, I was asked several questions by the panel. It seemed to go well, and I was pretty pleased with everything, but I decided just to put it out of my mind until I found out the decision, either way.
A few weeks later, near the end of September, I got an email stating that I’d been selected as one of the nine speakers for TEDx Ladbroke Grove 2021. I did it! But I didn’t realise at the time what I’d actually signed up to do and all the effort that would be required.
The preparation
After I was selected to speak, the TEDx team provided each speaker with speaking coaches at the end of September 2020, and I was blessed by two magnificent speaking coaches: Katarina and Matt. In preparation for the talk I had to do a great deal of research and consistently write draft after draft of my talk. This took an incredible amount of time - more than I expected - but it was worth it in the end to get a delightfully crafted talk that was true to me. Early on at the sessions with my coaches, I had a lot of anxiety and panic about what I had actually signed up to do. The work felt utterly overwhelming. Thankfully, my coaches reassured me that I had plenty of time and that I needed to just take everything in small chunks.
Apart from my nearest and dearest, nobody knew I’d been selected for a TEDx talk nor all the preparation I was doing. I was working towards delivering the most impactful talk of my life (not that I knew it at the time). Slowly but surely, the preparation for the talk was coming along, and I was ticking away.
The speaking coaches
None of my success could have happened without my outstanding, award-winning speaking coaches, Katarina Skoberne and Matt Greenough. In my opinion, they are the best speaking coaches of TEDx Ladbroke Grove 2021 (though I am biased). Not only did they help me write, craft, and refine the talk, their compassion, kindness and support are second to none.
Katarina and Matt have a way of cutting through the noise and helping speakers craft radical and revolutionary talks. I cannot recommend them both highly enough, so anyone ready for some tough love to create a fantastic talk: hire them both now!
The dedication
When you sign up for a talk like this, no one tells you the amount of effort it takes to deliver a TEDx talk - you might think someone shows up and gives a great talk; it takes hours and hours of commitment and dedication over several months. It took me a solid eight months of dedication and preparation to deliver this talk. Without the commitment or capacity to undertake such an endeavour, I suggest waiting until you have this to do yourself justice.
The dedication also extends to mindset and progression. You’re often doing things for long hours and lots of extensive writing and discussion. This takes considerable energy and time. As someone with a muscle-wasting condition, this is something I had to manage very well and ensure I was able to pace myself. During this whole time, I was also shielding. While this didn’t affect me too much, I was able to work flexibly over Zoom with Katarina and Matt, which made the process much easier as I didn’t have to get too fatigued from travelling to meet them both.
In terms of dedication, it’s just important to remember that consistency is vital as the TEDx requires you to memorise your talk (this is something I struggled a bit with, and I’m not sure how inclusive this is for Disabled people, for example, those with traumatic brain injuries). It is also essential to plan for mitigating circumstances like personal health or family situations. For instance, I had to take out a week or so of dedication and sessions with my speaking coaches because of side effects from the Covid vaccine. But Katarina and Matt were supportive and worked around my needs.
In the end, this dedication seems to have paid off.
The rehearsal
The day of the rehearsal came, and I felt anxious but excited. Thankfully, because I did an access visit the previous week at the Design Museum, I felt very relaxed that I knew my way around the venue, which was a huge relief. My dress rehearsal was in the afternoon. It felt good to finally share it in public for the first time, but I decided not to stay on at the venue to hear the other speakers rehearse because I didn’t want to get too tired before the big day the following day.
The talk
Oh my days! The time had finally come for my TEDx talk, and what a glorious day it was (apart from the weather). I arrived at the venue at 2pm for a 4pm start as I always like to be early and wanted time to get settled beforehand in my dressing room. My amazing younger sister was with me the whole day from start to finish and served as my right hand. [Side note: my younger sister Sana was so supportive before and during the event, particularly in the final few days, in helping me practice. I couldn’t have done it without her, and it is proof of the interdependence I highlight in my talk. Thank you, Sana!]
After the work warm-up act, a talented young performer with a beautiful voice. I was waiting in the corridor outside the auditorium and heard my name being called the next thing I knew. The door flung open, and I zoomed on to the famous red circle carpet. And breathe. I closed my eyes for a second to get my bearings. And then reopened my eyes and started sharing my talk. And in the blink of an eye, it was over. After my talk, I zoomed out of the auditorium and back into the dressing room to rest for a second before I headed back into the auditorium to hear the remaining speakers. After hearing the first half of the speakers, it was time for a break that gave me time to rest a bit more in the dressing room with my younger sister, older sister, and Mama. After a quick bite to eat, we went back to the auditorium to hear the day’s remaining speakers. Wow, what an extraordinary bunch of speakers I heard and I am so honoured that I got to share a platform with them.
Once all the speakers had spoken, we had another quick break before the in-person attendees joined the speakers at a post-talk panel discussion and reception. This was the first time I had left my home since 4 March 2020 (except for doctor and vaccine appointments). That’s 446 days of shielding, which I am still adhering to on the whole.
It was exciting but quite anxiety-inducing to be around all those people at the same time, but all in all, it was a fantastic event.
The accessibility
I took a proactive approach from being selected as a speaker right from the beginning. I helped the TEDx team push for the event to be fully accessible with live captions for the Livestream and BSL interpretation. Unfortunately, during the morning of the talk, we discovered that it wouldn’t be possible to do the live BSL during the event due to technical issues, so instead, we decided to do the BSL interpretation in post-production for all the speakers. An enormous thank you to Love Language for their BSL interpretation of all the talks in Post-Production and Ai Media for the live captioning on YouTube during the event; and big love to Elvis Communications and my friends Born Equal Consults for sponsoring the Accessibility budget for the event. I pushed very hard throughout the process to ensure accessibility for my disabled global family since accessibility is a necessity, not a luxury.
The venue staff took excellent care of me throughout the day, and a special thanks to the Design Museum events manager, Megan, for supporting my access needs and ensuring a smooth day. It was also great to see how accessible the Design museum was, with fully wheelchair accessible and disabled parking on site.
This really aided the smooth running of the day, and it was beneficial to have somewhere to rest if needed in isolation.
The evaluation
Evaluating my whole experience was an incredible but highly exhausting experience for me personally since I was in my wheelchair for almost 12 hours. I was enthralled by the venue and all the emotive stories from the speakers.
The look
The outfit I decided to wear was quite special to me. I wore my rainbow coloured sequin kimono and a magical look that was fire, which you can see here:
The conclusion
And just like that, it was all over. I thoroughly loved the whole day, made all the better by the people supporting me through interdependence and joy. Tremendous gratitude to my speaking coaches, Katarina and Matt, Sana, my family, care team, Aimee and the TEDx team, fellow speakers, Design Museum staff, the Accessibility partners, the Accessibility budget sponsors, friends and accomplices, and my Disabled global family.
On the latter, this talk was not for me; it was for us, my Disabled global family. Overall it was a fantastic day with beautiful people. Watch this space for my next talk for TEDx 2.0.
Onwards and upwards.
The details of my talk =
Title:
How Humpbacks and Heartful Breathing Create a Healthy Life
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Description:
Sulaiman challenges the idea that an individual’s worth and value are defined by their health, productivity, or earning potential. Gain a whale of actionable insights for the post-pandemic future of work through the lens of Disabled creativity.
And here is my talk =
Here’s the officially released video on YouTube via the TEDx Platform:
Enjoy!