Bakersfield College had their most recent performance of “Renegade Talks,” an hour and a half long talk in the style of TEDtalks, a conference held every year with the best from Technology, Entertainment, and Design (TED), along with science, the arts, business, etc.

In the Renegade Talks, there were professors and students from communications, science, and history.

There were also students who performed oral interpretation pieces, which meant dramatic work that wasn’t their own, usually in the style of poetry. Aspiring theater professor and BCstudent Ryan Lee began the night with his performance of “Pickles,” a story that at first appears to be about someone who was fired from his job because he messed up an order.But the message of the story really was,“just because it’s hard to be the person you want to be, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to be them.”

Professor Nick Strobel presented a talk about “being scared of getting lost in the scale of the universe,” explaining that if you look at the Earth in relation to the rest of the universe, we’re pretty insignificant. However, if you saw the world through a religious standpoint, we’re really important. Melanie Cohen, a BCstudent, gave a talk titled “My Own Little Piece Of Black History” about her grandfather Kenny Washington, the first black NFL football player, who broke the color barrier in the NFL when he was drafted by the LARams back in 1946.

Cohen had always heard stories about her grandfather, how he changed the rules of the game, and how he broke the color barrier.

She spoke about how when she was growing up no one knew who her father was, but she did.

Other performances and talks included, Ariel Monet’s “Pretty,” a combination of two poems about the expectations and lines that are drilled into the head of little girls as they grow up “pretty.” Tiffany Karroll spoke about what life is like raising a child who does not identify as either male or female, and the importance of using inclusive language such as “mailperson” instead of “mailman.”Glendy Ardon gave an oral presentation of a poem titled “Welcome to Holland,” about having a child with autism.

The poem talks about how one’s whole life, they imagine having a child, and the child is normal, or in the poem, referred to as “Italy,” and they look forward to going to “Italy,” but then the plane lands in Holland, and Holland is great in it’s own way, but they never get to “Italy.”There was a former college speech teacher in the audience who wished to be anonymous but said, “I was very impressed with the quality of these presentations. There were some problems with the technology, but the speakers adapted well until the problems were fixed,” began the teacher.

“I could see how thoroughly prepared and well-rehearsed everyone was. I expected high quality from the professors, and I was not disappointed; I was very favorably surprised with the student presentations. “I have been a professional speaker in the past, and let me predict that each of these students will have a bright future in law, business, teaching, or the communications field of their choice.”

For full video footage of the talk, visit www.bakersfieldcollege.edu/renegade-talks.