I want to be a cello. 

At Saturday's TEDxBirmingham conference 12-year-old cellist Malik Kofi wowed audiences as he flawlessly played compositions by music greats ranging from Mark Summer to Johann Sebastian Bach. 

Between performances, this child prodigy told a captivated audience in the Sirote Theatre of the Alys Stephens Center that he fell in love with the cello because of its wide range of tones and commanding presence. He saw the possibilities and the power of this instrument. Some people think that the cello is only for classical music. But Kofi and Summer know better. 

The message Kofi indirectly conveyed to me yesterday was to pick my instrument and use it in a surprising way to inspire others. 

I want to be a cello. I want a wide range of skills and a commanding presence. But my gift is not in music. My talents lie in the realm of the written word. But it turns out that storytelling just may be the key to changing the world. 

The theme for the conference was "Rediscover the Magic"with the goal of reigniting a fervor for helping our city. But in his or her own way, each speaker at Saturday's TEDxBirmingham event demonstrated the power of storytelling and helped me rediscover the magic of this timeless art form. 

I was proud to receive a scholarship to attend TEDxBrimingham
and to be recognized at the event as an Educator Fellow.

Graham Boettcher of the Birmingham Art Museum shared stories about the process of authenticating art, but through these anecdotes revealed that a work's true worth isn't in its monetary value but the experience of the beholder. 

Jen Barnett of Freshfully, the Birmingham local food market that closed in late January, ironically used the story of her business failure to encourage everyone in the audience to be brave. "We need a city full of brave people," she said. "Think of the one thing you're afraid to try and ask yourself, 'What could happen?'" Getting lots of laughs from the crowd, Barnett said if neither early death nor imprisonment are risks, go for it!

Glenny Brock's heartfelt yet humorous stories about her love for the Lyric Theatre have helped raise the $7 million dollars to restore this historic landmark and on Saturday she shared many of these stories with TEDxBirmingham attendees. Brock comes from a family of "show people," she said, people deeply entrenched in theater. And, as she said in her talk, "show people show people." They show people what they're passionate about and why so they'll be eager to support those passions too.  

As Larry Lawal, founder of the medical research crowdfunding platform Healthfundit, spoke I realized storytelling could even help lead to cures for diseases. It’s through storytelling, Lawal said, that people are motivated to help fund the research that could lead to lifesaving discoveries.  

Emmy-nomiated filmmaker Michele Forman left a job working with Spike Lee in New York to return to her hometown of Birmingham and co-found the media studies interdisciplinary minor at UAB. She returned because she wanted to help tell Birmingham’s story. And after listening to her talk I became inspired and determined to do the same.

But I can't tell these stories alone. Victoria Hollis reminded me of this. Just as all parts of the human body must work together to function well, change makers must work together too, she said in her talk. Hollis is the program manager at the Birmingham Education Foundation and is dedicated to transforming the city's public education system. And she urged the audience to share her concern. Whether or not your child is in Birmingham City Schools is irrelevant, she said. If you saw a child fall on the playground and no one rushed to his or her aid, most likely you'd go over to help. Likewise, you should feel compelled to help a child in a struggling school even if it means getting out of your comfort zone. 

"Our city won't reach its full potential if the ones who will inherit it don't reach theirs," she said. 

Just a little #TEDxBham selfie with the hubster.
Check out his recap of the event for AL.com.

The TEDxBirmingham conference was organized into three themed sessions -- Mystify, Evoke, and Transform. As TEDxBirmingham co-organizer Matthew Hamilton explained near the end of the conference, ideas mystify, words evoke, but only action transforms. 

The folks behind this conference wanted us to all leave the Alys Stephens Center ready to do something to transform the city. In fact, we were all asked to fill out a slip of paper declaring what we will do over the next year to help people rediscover the magic of Birmingham. 

I committed to telling the stories of the women of Birmingham through a new See Jane Write Magazine series I'm calling the Birmingham Jane Project. Taking Hollis' advice I'm going to step out of my comfort zone by exploring new ways to tell these stories and exploring a variety of areas in the city to find them.

Striking a pose with fellow ASFA teacher PJ Godwin.

Throughout the day we attendees not only listened to 15 live talks but also viewed a few extraordinary presentations recorded at larger TED events. One was by Japanese world yo-yo champion BLACK, who mixes dance and sport to create performance art with, yes, a yo-yo. He shared his journey to mastering the yo-yo then dazzled the crowd with an unbelievable performance.

See for yourself…

Watching this the thought once again crossed my mind that a change maker is one who chooses his or her instrument and uses it in a surprising way to inspire others. 

My instrument is storytelling and I will use this instrument in innovative ways to evoke, just as Kofi does with his cello and just as BLACK does with something as simple as a yo-yo.   

What's your instrument?

Today I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve.

It's the day before the TEDxBirmingham conference and I'm not sure if it's possible for me to be more excited than I am. I've been looking forward to this for months and now the weekend is finally here.

TED is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting "ideas worth spreading" and started out doing so in 1984 by organizing a conference that brought people together from three worlds -- Technology, Entertainment, and Design. Since then TED's scope has become even broader. In addition to two annual conferences -- the TED Conference and TEDGlobal -- TED has a number of other programs including TEDx conferences, which are independently organized events.

The theme for TEDxBirmingham is "Rediscover the Magic."

Attending TEDxBirmingham is kind of a big deal.  Being part of this event wasn't as simple as purchasing a ticket. Residents had to apply to in order to receive an invitation to purchase a ticket. I am proud to say not only was I selected to attend, but I also received a scholarship offered to select educators.

Just as some parents let their kids open one gift on Christmas Eve I feel I'll be doing just that when I attend the TEDxBirmingham VIP reception tonight. Then tomorrow I'm expecting my world to be rocked and my life to be changed.

I'm hoping to learn more about innovations in the field of medicine from speakers like Dr. Patrick Hymel, co-founder of MedSnap, and Larry Lawyal, founder of the medical research crowdfunding platform Healthfundit.

I'm hoping to learn more about the importance of eating locally from Jen Barnett of Freshfully and Chris Hastings, James Beard Foundation Award-winning chef and owner of Hot and Hot Fish Club.

As an educator I'm hoping to leave the conference with new ideas on how to incorporate TED talks in to my lesson plans but I'm also hoping to leave with more enthusiasm and passion for teaching in general. I expect talks by Victoria Hollis, program manager of the Birmingham Education Foundation, and Jan Mattingly of Dynamic Education Adventures will get me there. I'm also looking forward to the talk by TED-Ed Community Manager Jordan Reeves. Reeves currently lives in New York, but he grew up in Hueytown, Ala., and attended the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Michele Forman of UAB's Media Studies program is speaking too.

The UAB Digital Media team put together a wonderful video (posted above) about the Magic City to spark excitement for TEDxBirmingham. It sure did work. Every time I watch that video and listen to the poetry of Shariff Simmons I get chills.

I'm happy to say that two of my dear friends will be speaking too. Laura Kate Whitney is the small business ambassador for Dogtrot Studio and known around town as one of Birmingham's biggest fans. Glenny Brock of Birmingham Landmarks, Inc. is one of the people leading the restoration of Birmingham's Lyric Theatre, which was one of the first places in the South where blacks and whites could watch the same show as the same time for the same prices.

If you're now just as excited about TEDxBirmingham as I am, but feeling bummed out because you didn't apply to purchase a ticket, don't fret. The entire event will be streaming online. You can access the live video beginning 10 a.m. CST tomorrow by going to Livestream or the TEDxBirmingham website.

One of last week's prompts for See Jane Write's #bloglikecrazy was to share your favorite TED Talk. Some of the women participating in this challenge to blog daily in the month of November wanted to know: Who is TED?

I then realized that everyone isn't obsessed with TED Talks like I am. I have the TED app on my phone and my iPad. I show a TED Talk once a week to the students in my Women and the Media class (We call is TED Talk Tuesday) and I watch at least two more a week on my own. I LOVE TED Talks.

I'm working on a TED Talk playlist of sorts for my YouTube account. It will full of feminist goodness of course and the video below will be at the top of the list.

Take some time to watch Eve Ensler, creator of The Vagina Monologues, discuss how everyone (yes, even men) need to embrace their inner girl.

I have a confession: one of my biggest role models in life is about half my age.

Tavi Gevinson is only 17 years old but she's been a huge inspiration for me. Gevinson came to public attention at the age of 12 because of her fashion blog, The Style Rookie, which she started in 2008. The blog started drawing nearly 30,000 readers a day and eventually caught the attention of The New York Times, which interviewed her for an article about young bloggers. Because of her blog’s success, Gevinson was invited to attend New York Fashion Week and Paris Fashion Week and even commissioned to write articles for popular publications like Harper’s Bazaar.

Later the focus of her blog began to shift to feminism and pop culture and in the fall of 2011 Gevinson launched Rookie Magazine, an online publication aimed primarily at teenage girls. RookieMag.com, is a huge inspiration for SeeJaneWriteMag.com. 

You may think it's silly for a 30-something to admire a teenager, but after watching this talk Gevinson gave in 2012 at TEDxTeen, I think you'll become a Tavi fan too. 

In her speech, Gevinson broaches questions like What makes a strong female character? and discusses how one-dimensional portrayals of women in film and television can harm us in our everyday lives. She also discusses feminism and the struggle to figure out what that word truly means. And on the topic she has this to say: 

Feminism is not a rulebook. 

Feminism is a discussion, a conversation, a process. 

We are all familiar with the notion of the depressed writer, the scribe who is a tortured, tormented soul. Sadly enough, many of my favorite writers committed suicide -- Sylvia Plath, Virginia Woolf, Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

Eat Pray Love author Elizabeth Gilbert (yes, I've been on an Elizabeth Gilbert kick lately) is not OK with this notion that creativity and suffering are inherently linked or the assumption that artistry ultimately leads to anguish. She addresses this in a TEDTalk she gave a few years ago.

Perhaps some of this comes from the fact that everyone around us insinuates that our art is something we should fear -- that we should be afraid of failure, rejection, and writer's block and that even after we find success we should be afraid of never being able to top our big accomplishment.

But as Gilbert asks in her talk, "Is it rational, is it logical that anybody should be expected to be afraid of the work that they feel they were put on this earth to do?"

In her presentation Gilbert offers a new way to think about creativity and this is certainly a talk all writers and artists need to hear.