Kindness in Action Speaker Series

Ben’s Bells Kindness in Action Speaker Series brings to Arizona powerful speakers who are leaders in the Science of Kindness. Part educational, part entertainment, pure inspiration, these events are made possible by the generous support of local businesses and community members. Audience members will enjoy relaxed evenings with experts offering profound insights and lively discussion. All proceeds support Ben’s Bells community programming.
The Kindness in Action Speaker Series continues in Tucson and Phoenix with Kindness and Masculinity: The Danger of Silence, featuring author and TED speaker Clint Smith.
What are the consequences of our silence in the face of another’s suffering? How can we move from being bystanders to the world around us, and into empathetic and actively kind citizens? In Clint Smith’s recent book Counting Descent, he questions ideas about masculinity, offering his words as “a protest against isolation, against loneliness, against thinking you’re the only one experiencing the trauma that leaves a man full of cracks.” In this engaging talk, Smith draws on his experiences as a teacher and poet to share personal stories of justice, community, and education, and he illuminates how we can all recognize the power of our voices and use our voices to make new definitions for kind masculinity and kind communities.
Clint Smith is a teacher, writer, and doctoral candidate in Education at Harvard University studying incarceration, education, and inequality. He is a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and was named the 2013 Christine D. Sarbanes Teacher of the Year by the Maryland Humanities Council.
As a poet and essayist, he is a 2014 National Poetry Slam champion, an Individual World Poetry Slam finalist, and his writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Guardian, and The American Literary Review, among other publications. His two TED Talks, The Danger of Silence and How to Raise a Black Son in America, collectively have been viewed more than 4 million times.
Come to the Speaker Series early, have a drink, shop the Ben’s Bells merchandise table, and peruse the Kind Stitches display.
Thanks to support from AZ Vocational Rehabilitation and the Transition from School to Work model, young adult students with disabilities will receive valuable job skills training while supporting Ben’s Bells and sharing the “be kind” message with our community – that’s win, win, win! TUSD students will collect high quality recycled clothing and embroider the Ben’s Bells “be kind” flower on the clothing. Ben’s Bells will sell the clothes and revenue will support kindness education programming.

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