We host a series of brief lectures by York, PA's makers and doers, who talk about their craft. Our speakers come from varied backgrounds, but they all work systematically and intentionally to create visceral experiences.
PechaKucha Night York utilizes the 20x20 PechaKucha presentation format: 20 slides that automatically advance every 20 seconds. Learn more at PechaKucha.org.
Featured Speakers AT August 17, 2023 PK NIght Event
Our twentieth event featured six presenters talking about their respective crafts. The event was hosted at Wyndridge Farm.
Thaddeus Abbott
There’s No Such Thing as a Grown-Up
Crafting a life while motivating, inspiring, and moving.
Thaddeus is a son, brother, father, student, coach, teacher, educator, entrepreneur, friend, musician, artist, gymnast, fitness enthusiast, and human who spends his time with all that those roles bring his way. He enjoys spending a Sunday morning sitting on a big rock after a run, some back flips, and some handstands. Thaddeus serves as a dean and administrator for a local independent school and continues to be thankful for each day he opens his eyes.
Alexa Born
Crafting Yourself
Alexa has always been a truth seeker, but that identity can bite you in the ass and leave you a bit scared. Life threw some ups and downs, ins and outs, leavings and returnings that shaped her and left her attached to some ideas about herself. Through relationships with other-than-human beings, Alexa has come to learn some lessons about how to be a person. Now, struggles have taken on a new character. Alexa will share what made her creativity turn inward, her processes for crafting herself and therefore the world around her, and what it might mean for all of us.
Alexa Born is Managing Director of White Rose Ventures and Executive Director of Braided River Collective. In both those roles, she spends a lot of time thinking about how we make our dreams reality and what is needed to take that first leap. Raised but not born in York, Alexa is a boomerang. She went away to Pittsburgh for 13 years, came back for a work opportunity, and then fell in Love with the hometown she thought she'd never return to. Her life is full of people she loves: not least of which are her 3 amazing daughters, 2 wonderful bonus sons, 1 very sweet husband, and 2 beautiful dogs. She has a brain that loves contemplating possibilities, a heart that loves connecting, and a body that loves remembering what it already Knows.
Blake Gifford
Architecture as Art, and Loving Where You Live
Blake will discuss how growing up in Houston, among acres of parking lots and sprawl development, felt devoid of identity, community, and history. He’ll talk about how York, in contrast, showed him what it means to “love where you live,” and inspired him to utilize traditional architectural drafting techniques as a tool for celebrating the beauty of a place.
Blake Gifford is a local architect who works and lives in downtown York and is fascinated by the area’s historic sites. He serves on York’s Historic Architectural Review Board, as well as the York County History Center’s Building and Grounds Committee, gives historic walking tours of downtown, and runs the York Architecture Illustrated website and social media pages, where he shares his hand-drafted portraits of York’s beautiful buildings.
Andrew Gobel
Not a Cyclist
Support. Friction. Tension. Balance. How an ambitious weekend bicycle repair project led Andrew to his passion and vehicle of choice for exploring the world and himself.
Andrew Gobel’s newest bike was built in 1987. He co-founded Bike York to promote bikes for fun, fitness, and transportation, and offer free repairs at community events. Andrew served on a bike and pedestrian committee for the local metropolitan planning organization. He is a singer and multi-instrumentalist who lives and works in downtown York.
Nicole Osborne
I Have Always Been
Sometimes we know exactly who we are and where we’re going. Sometimes we forget. Sometimes we get lost. Creativity finds us, reminds us, and inspires us to determine our own identity.
Artist, educator, curator, and zookeeper, Nicole Osborne is a York County native raised among the hills of the Mason-Dixon Line. After attending Penn State University for Art Education, Nicole has spent eight years teaching art to middle schoolers, currently teaching 8th grade at Central York Middle School. Art class continues outside of school hours with Nicole’s business, Reptile Smiles, which integrates her love for animals and artmaking, allowing students of all ages to connect nature and creating. When she’s not teaching, directing curation for Creatives on King provides infinite inspiration and exciting collaboration with York’s creative community. Within her studio nestled above the gallery, Nicole’s artwork centers around her passion for animals, particularly those in her vast collection of reptiles, and her love for surreal portraiture. Nicole is pursuing a Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology, hoping to eventually become an art and animal therapist to continue working with youth in York.
Cindy Terlazzo
Creating a Life
Creating a life that resonates with who we are can take a lifetime. In the process of becoming, it is incredibly important to examine societal dictates and follow that with naming, claiming, and living out loud our own Being-ness.
Reverend Cindy Terlazzo has spent her life asking big questions – like where did we come from, where do we go next, and what do we do while we are here? In the process of creating a life, she has wrestled with demons and been blessed to find work that feels meaningful, all while taking this journey with a life partner, two fine adult children, three grands, and the love and support of extended family and friends.
FEATURED PRESENTERS AT OUR EVENT ON August 17, 2023. LEFT TO RIGHT: Thaddeus Abbott, Blake Gifford, AlexA BORN, CINDY TERLAZZO, NICOLE OSBORNE, ANDREW GOBEL.
Photo by Allison Witherow
