(applause)
- I'm the youngest of ten kids
and when I was growing up,
I never got to sit at the adult table at family gatherings.
I always had to sit at the kids table.
But actually we had a lot of fun.
We made up new stories and we rarely stayed in our seats.
Eventually I grew up
and I finally got to sit at the adult table
at family gatherings.
And what did I notice?
Adults tell the same old stories over and over again.
Even though it's a privilege to sit at the adult table,
as someone who's been interested in performance
for most of my life,
I missed the spontaneous creativity of the kids table.
About four years ago,
I found myself at an adult table
at an all day meeting with the Rockefeller Foundation
discussing the 100 resilient cities initiative
to help cities around the world become more resilient
to the physical,
social and economic challenges
that are a growing part of the 21st century.
As the day went on,
I noticed that even though the resilience of our cities
depends upon the participation
and the engagement of young people,
there were no young faces in the room.
Even though the room was filled with dedicated
and creative people committed to change,
I missed the insights and the creativity
that might have been offered by the kids' table.
By that time I left the meeting,
I had a new mission.
To include youth voices in our cities
new story.
I applied for and received a grant
to create and tour a show
that merged theater and dance
and themes of how cities can become more resilient
in the faces of challenges like climate change
and it was entitled,
Shine.
To create it,
I partnered with scientists at CU,
at the National Center for Atmospheric Research
and at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory,
along with Grammy winning composer
and a former Broadway choreographer.
The grant allowed us to bring the show to eight communities.
Boulder,
New Orleans,
Chicago,
Malope South Africa,
London,
New York City and Tuba city in the Navajo Nation
and Sandy Hook, Connecticut.
The first part of the performance
brought to life the last 300 million years.
It told how fossil fuels were formed
and how our use of them is impacting our climate.
The second half of the show was written by local youth.
To create the second half of each show,
youth in each city met with scientists
to talk about their ideas
and figure out how to perform a single solution
based on their city's resilience challenges.
And what did they perform?
A girl in East London lay on the ground
undulating as the river Thames.
Folks walked by and just through rubbish into her.
Another girl walked by and saw what was happening
and she asked everyone to help her clean up,
which they did.
And then the river Thames stretched out in pleasure proudly.
In Boulder,
one young man announces that he's a farmer.
The others in the group line up to gain entry
into the farmer's compost pile.
Each one spines out what they are.
The grass clippings are allowed in,
as is the rotting banana peel and the watermelon rind.
The chicken bone is asked to go to the county compost,
but the broccoli is allowed in.
The compost pile is shoveled together
as the group forms a clump.
They decompose down to the ground together
and then from their center,
a young girl hiding within pops up and announces
that she is a flower.
And what did this do for the youth?
The audience in the cities?
Eighth grade student Charlotte Gary said,
I tried to make it fun for the audience,
but also to challenge them that this isn't just a play
but this is actually happening.
I feel like people didn't realize we young people have a say
or took us seriously
until we showed them that we could lead this whole thing.
After the performance parent Cathy Deli shared,
I love how much activism is going towards the youth.
While adults are still arguing if global warming
really exists,
the kids are more than ready to take the baton
and run with it.
This makes me feel much more optimistic.
Brett KenCairn, Boulder city planner wrote,
I'm reminded by these young faces
why we are doing this work
and that we have every reason to have hope.
When we come together around our most cherished values,
love of place,
family,
community and our natural world,
we have what we need to transform our situation.
Our use of fossil fuels is changing our climate
and those who did the least to cause it
are being impacted by it the most.
What we plan to do in these coming decades
will determine if we can survive
and even thrive on this planet.
How do we make this plan
and who we include in the planning
may determine our future justice much.
So I invite you,
whatever you do,
whether it's helping cities be more resilient,
developing entrepreneurship
or protecting the planet,
be sure to bring young people into the equation
because new stories are being written at the kids table
and those new stories can save the world.
Thank you.
(applause)