The power of healing through storytelling: Nicole Stewart at TEDxSMU 2013
Nicole Stewart is a sixth generation Dallasite. She attended the Hockaday School then graduated summa cum laude and with honors in theatre from Northwestern University in 2001. She pursued a professional acting career in New York City and then Los Angeles, where her passion for true, personal storytelling was ignited. After twelve years away, Nicole moved back to her hometown and started the live storytelling series Oral Fixation (An Obsession with True Life Tales). She has produced 19 shows, each with a different theme and featuring regular Dallas folks reading aloud their stories edited by Nicole. The third season of Oral Fixation will commence later this month at a new venue: Hamon Hall in the Winspear Opera House, right here in the Dallas Arts District. Nicole has also directed theatre at the Episcopal School of Dallas, volunteered with Planned Parenthood's acting troupe TACT (TeenAge Communication Theatre), and was commissioned by the Dallas Holocaust Museum to write a short play about teens in the Holocaust that played for an audience of 1300 people at their annual fundraising dinner in October 2012. Nicole has been named one of Dallas' Most Interesting People and Best Future Arts Leader, both by the Dallas Observer. She spoke on the theme "Light My Fire" at the PechaKucha event at the Nasher Museum in August in celebration of the Texas Sculpture Association's 30th anniversary. For podcasts, videos and more, please visit www.oralfixationshow.com. Nicole would like to thank her extraordinary husband Anton Schlesinger for his love and support.
About TEDx:
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)
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As a person who was "supposed to be" aborted because the doctors (yes-plural, doctors) said if I wasn't aborted, both I and my mother would die... as someone speaking from that position, this story saddens me. At risk of her life, my mother said no to the doctor, (and had to find a new doctor because he refused to have her "blood on [his] hands") and here I am at fourty-one yrs old with a beautiful child of my own and a life I thank God and Mom for often. Mom lived to sixty-nine before other health issues intervened. I write because I fear people make this decision too easily-and I am not implying Nicole made it easily, I can't imagine that it was easy-there are risks, and challenges, and fears, but there is also hope for the life of the unborn child. AND... as someone who has lost a child while still in the womb, I feel for Nicole's loss, and my heart goes out to her. I don't condemn her for her decision, but I hurt for her because of her decision. God only knows what sorrows she and her husband may have faced had they chosen to keep their child, but also... God only knows what joys they may have found there as well. My heart goes out to her and her husband.
@dexm2010
5 жыл бұрын
This is an old comment obviously, but I and others like me are very happy that you are alive and with us today!
nicole, you are amazing and our true humanity would be closer to our surface if everyone was so fearless, shameless and courageous, we all have to undo our socialization through being honest, then maybe we will have a chance to really live lives worth living and have a wonderful impact on this planet instead of such a currently parasitic one.... thank you!
So if the baby had been born and you were able to hold it then would it make it OK to end it's life? Just because your baby was not going to be "normal" that does not give you the right to abort it. Making these talks just makes you feel better about the horrid decision you made.
@venusbrownreacts
10 жыл бұрын
You don't even know what the full depth of the situation was. How insensitive. How judgmental. She said they went through extra tests and found it to be MUCH worse then they thought. That was AFTER the Dr. brought up abortion. She didn't just run out and get an abortion as soon as she found something to be wrong. She took time to think about it, to discuss it, to research it and learn from it. Have some empathy, and stop being so insensitive to another person's very devastating situation, when she has dealt with it the best way she could.
@venusbrownreacts
10 жыл бұрын
Your question is not applicable to the situation. Aborting a fetus is not the same as killing a living baby. You may feel that it is, but people do not have to be in agreement on the point of when a fetus should be considered a baby. According to the law, and even according to the bible they are not the same. You also said "Just because your baby was not going to be "normal" that does not give you the right to abort it. Making these talks just makes you feel better about the horrid decision you made." Way to make light of a very serious situation! In the first place I have never gotten an abortion and probably never will, but it is NOT my right to force that decision on another. In the second place, you are wrong, I do have the right to abort a pregnancy, as long as I am within the laws of my state and country, as do any other women that choose such an option. Maybe you don't see this as a freedom that can be provided by a state, govt. or country, maybe you see it as a right that can only be given by God. That is your prerogative, but that is a belief of yours that cannot be forced on others that do not hold the same views. The women in this country have a right, as American citizens, to make choices concerning ending pregnancy so long as they operate within the law. You may not like it, but it is their right, and your disagreement cannot take that right away.