By: Rami Mansi and Jaida Dent
In the Gerard Lynch Theatre at John Jay College, a full audience waited to hear speakers from across CUNY campuses speak at the 2026 TEDxCUNY conference.
TEDxCUNY is an independently organized event between the internationally recognized TED organization and the City University of New York (CUNY). Consisting of speakers with varied connections to CUNY, as students, professors, alumni, and faculty, TEDxCUNY 2026 featured speakers delivering memorized speeches centered around the theme of “Playback.”
Playback, as a theme, is about examining what the future will look like by using the past as our guiding star.
“Playback allows us to rest, reflect, and re-engage with the stories that have shaped our world […] Together, we pause the tapes to rediscover lost stories, rethink old narratives, and celebrate our resilience,” according to TEDxCUNY.
With a team exclusively run by CUNY student volunteers, students like lead organizer Saanavi Goyal are diligent in creating a safe atmosphere at the event.
“For [TEDxCUNY] to be organized, we need four different subteams. [The team] wants to make sure everyone’s taken care of,” shared Goyal, a graduating Macaulay Honors student.
Many of the speakers’ topics ranged from music accessibility to advocacy.
The latter was the subject of speaker Richard A. Celestin, Esq., who took the stage and presented a lecture advocating for men to fight against gender-based violence, including domestic violence.
After the passing of his sister due to domestic violence, Celestin has dedicated his work as an attorney, youth advocate, educator, and author to raising awareness and ending domestic violence.
Speaking to The Vanguard, Celestin discussed the need for men to be taught to work with their emotions from a young age.
“I think we need to start as young as possible and start planting the seeds as young as possible because as young boys start growing up, they get more influenced by what’s out there […] it shouldn’t be like being emotional is somehow a feminine trait and that’s just kind of like that narrative needs to get drilled in.”
The preparation for the lecture was not without difficulty for Celestin, who found the process both triggering and difficult, as well as kindhearted and healing.
“Once the opportunity [to speak at TEDxCUNY] presented itself, I immediately knew that I wanted to share my sister’s story. So it was kind of natural, but at the same time, I also knew before I even started that it was going to be an interesting and challenging emotional journey because having to kind of almost still be present with [the story], constantly telling the story over and over and over again. It was certainly challenging, but the team here at TEDxCUNY was phenomenal, insanely supportive.”
Following his music lecture, a speaker with over 2 decades of involvement with CUNY came to the stage.
Andre Perez is an educator, CUNY professor, and PHD candidate at the CUNY Graduate Center. With a focus on the science of education, pedagogy, Perez spoke about the role instructors play in the classroom.
“It’s really important to look at our students as whole people, no matter what grade you teach, [the students] are coming into the classroom with an entire life that exists outside of the classroom. That includes a full set of experiences that frame how they understand and navigate the world around them,” Perez shared with The Vanguard. “I think it’s really important for teachers to, in whatever way they can, allow students space to express themselves.”
For Perez, the goal of his lecture is to advocate for students in the classroom and help teachers see the students as individuals.
The last speaker, Mira Sophia Goodman-Singh, took the stage as the conference’s sole student speaker.
Goodman-Singh is a freshman at the Macaulay Honors Program at CUNY, studying History and minoring in Public Policy and Environmental Studies.
Reflecting on her lecture, which speaks on applying the equal protection clause to the environmental crisis, Goodman-Singh discussed the message she hopes the TEDxCUNY audience will take away.
“ I hope that [my lecture] empowers people to think and realize that they can use the constitution as a tool to improve their lives, but also, I think that there should be more social awareness about these [environmental] issues.”
Throughout the program, performances were held to highlight talent from across New York City (NYC). The first of these performances came from Maggie Crane, a comedian representing the Brooklyn Comedy Collective, which is a performing arts center. Other performances included the American Mime Theatre, MothWorks at the Moth, and Lehman College’s Herbet H. Dance Company.
Audience members found TEDxCUNY to be a great platform to highlight CUNY voices, a sentiment shared by CUNY Graduate Center alumni Dr. Katarina Antolovic and Dr. Iris Strangmann.
Dr. Antolovic shared how insightful speaker Professor Perez’s CUNY experience has been towards his research.
“[Herself and Dr. Strangmann] definitely see that [Perez] has been able to draw on his experiences working with students at CUNY. He has the chance to share that information with the wider community, I think that’s a beautiful thing,” shared Dr. Antolovic.
Dr. Strangmann added that CUNY is a rare case of an accessible collegiate system.
“I cannot emphasize enough that CUNY is one of the few public institutions catering to a whole set of people that otherwise would not have mot been able to go to school. Education, I view, as a right and with this event, [CUNY] is promoting itself to a greater community, and that’s just really important.”
For more information regarding TEDxCUNY, follow their Instagram: @tedxcuny