Blueprint for a Breakthrough: Shane Koyczan at TEDxYouth@SanDiego 2013

Shane Koyczan shares his extraordinary blueprint for a breakthrough and breaks open hearts, minds and attitudes with his unlimited gift of poetry, storytelling and human connection (accompanied by The Short Story Long Band). This transformative performance took place at TEDxYouth@SanDiego 2013 for an audience of 400 amazing high school students from 40 different high schools and they will never be the same.

About Shane: Poet, author and performer, Shane Koyczan, wowed the world at opening ceremonies for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics where an audience of more than 1 billion people worldwide heard his piece "We Are More." He has published three books: Stickboy, Our Deathbeds Will Be Thirsty and Visiting Hours.

Shane breathes life into the new genre of talk rock with his band the Short Story Long. The band creates a musical backdrop that blends folk, classical and rock to emphasize Shane's powerful words. They have released two albums. The most recent album includes the viral hit "To This Day," which explores the anguish of anyone who grew up feeling different or just a little bit alone. To bring visual life to this image-rich poem, Shane invited artists from around the world to contribute 20-second segments of animation to the project. Posted on YouTube on February 19, 2013, by the close of the month the video had been viewed 6 million times.

Shane Koyczan and Short Story Long Band Members: Shane Koyczan (spoken word), Olivia Mennell (keys and vocals), Jordie Robinson (cello and vocals), Jesse Lee (bass and vocals), Maiya Robbie (guitar and vocals).

TEDxYouth@SanDiego is an independently organized TEDx event designed by youth, for youth to bring the power of big ideas to the youth of San Diego -- and the world. WWW.TEDxYOUTHSANDIEGO.COM

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)