Why We Ain’t Gonna Get Free in One Language | Jamila Craig | TEDxDelthorneWomen

"The revolution may not be televised, but it will be multilingual!"


Linguist Jamila Craig shares her compelling story of interpreting into Spanish during a tour of Goree Island in Senegal, West Africa. And how the concept of language justice can be a core strategy for our freedom fighting.


In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. Our event is called TEDxDelthorneWomen, where x = independently organized TED event.


With our theme, Collective Liberation, TEDxDelthorneWomen centers the voices that are reimagining a new and just society through a liberatory lens. Not just from a space of dismantling tired, old concepts and fighting oppressive views, but implanting fresh seeds rooted in new imaginings, curiosity and right relationship.


TEDxDelthorneWomen was produced, curated and hosted by Sonali Fiske, a Leadership Mentor to BIPoC and the host of the radio talkshow, Revolutionary Voices. Jamila Craig, Esq. is a linguist and social impact entrepreneur specializing in Black-centric language coaching and multilingual community building across the African Diaspora.

As the Founder of Jamii Linguists, a Black-lesbian-led multilingual communications team, she leads a 7-person team and 1000+ network of interpreters and translators to support organizational/community leaders, linguists, and language learners as they leverage the power of language to create impactful, inclusive multilingual spaces. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx