CHENNAI : How often have we whispered about periods in the presence of the male members of our family? TEDx Napier Bridge wants us to break the taboos through its potpourri of carefully curated Ted Talks and conversations on topics like period, choice-based parenting, sex and many more.TEDx Napier Bridge hosts inclusive TEDx conferences inspired by ideas worth spreading for the past four years. “We have derived our name from Napier Bridge. We wanted to be represented as a bridge that connects both north and south. The team aims to create a chain of events with ideas that will foster dialogue and action to bring about a change in namma Chennai,” says Shyam Sundar, one of the organisers of the event.
“Recently there was a lot of buzz around the online campaign, #Metoo, where women openly spoke about sexual harassment that they have faced. It was a successful campaign. We wanted to explore the concept of breaking taboos further through our event,” he says. TEDx will host a salon event, titled Red Light — Breaking Taboos on Sunday.
It is their fifth salon event so far. Unlike the other salon events, this particular event will not have live speakers. Five members of the team have carefully curated a set of seven to eight TED talks based on the theme. They have even decided to break the conventional greet pad which consists of a notepad and a pen.
After screening the TED Talks, they will open the platform for interaction with the audience.
“We are planning to host a Taboo card. In this activity a card will have five taboos from which the audience will choose one taboo that they want to let go and express it to others through gestures and action,” says Shyam. Apart from that, they are also planning to organise an Instagram-based event. “After every TED Talk, we will conduct Insta-polls and screen the result. It will be a live interaction event,” he says. These help us open the platforms for as many people as possible.Talking about the larger outcome, Shyam Sundar says that TEDx serves as a platform for audience to get an idea and add a perspective to the programmes that are host based on various subjects like food, how to become a citizen etc.
(The event will be held on June 17 at AtWorks, Guindy. For details call: 9566260587)