Dr. Mae Jeminson's Powerful TED Address

http://www.ted.com/talks/mae_jemison_on_teaching_arts_and_sciences_together.html

Dr. Mae Jemison begins this presentation before TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Conference in 2002 with quotes from Alice Walker, Zora Neale Hurston, and goes on to mention Frantz Fannon. This is the definition of having an African-centered consciousness. Her normative positions start from her own cultural experiences letting these expressions move into a broader conversation concerning the myopic ways in which we approach education.

She argues that we teach science and the arts together, rather than teaching them as some disparate subjects confined to either hemisphere of the brain. Intuitive can apply to science, just as much as analytical can apply to creative fields. She is able to seamlessly weave her cultural and philosophical disposition into an address before attendees who more than likely are not of African-descent without coming off as the "angry black woman" or the "belligerent Afrocentrist." It wasn't an attacking posture that she assumed, it was an enlightening posture that affirmed the people that she quoted, while not asking for validation.

And a bit more on TED according to their site:

TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with the annual TED Conference in Long Beach, California, and the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford UK, TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Program, the new TEDx community program, this year's TEDIndia Conference and the annual TED Prize.