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Café Society: Inspiring Conversations with Jeff Krisman

Join us on Thursday, September 13th, from 6 - 8 PM for a night of inspiring conversations with Jeff Krisman! Jeff Krisman has been interviewing artists and those in the local community making a difference on his podcast for almost two years. These conversations are an "opportunity for him to hear their stories, life journeys and lessons learned along the way, and their visions for the future."

On Thursday night Jeff will be bringing his podcast live to Artspace at Untitled, interviewing Christian Pearson, CEO and co-founder of OkSessions "a music media and tech startup focused on building live music culture in Oklahoma City." Dr. Daniela Busciglio, a professor of applied linguistics and a Communications Strategist will also be interviewed. Jeff will dive into her approach to political messaging, the science behind brain-based messaging and her drive for equal representation, true progress and uniting people on the basis of common values. 

Come and listen to the process and passions of these two community influencers while jazz pianist Adam Ledbetter entertains!

You won't want to miss this night of inspiring and enlightening conversations. We look forward to seeing you there!

 


Christian Pearson

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Christian Pearson is an Oklahoma-grown entrepreneur, musician, and businessperson. After graduating from the University of Oklahoma with a double major in finance and accounting, he spent 4 years in finance where he worked as a commercial credit analyst, corporate lender, assistant controller, implemented tech solutions for firms he's worked for, and passed level II of the CFA Exam before leaving the industry to start his own company, OkSessions.

OkSessions is a music media and tech startup focused on building live music culture in Oklahoma City. The venture seeks to build OKC's music industry through media, engaging live-music events, and collaboration with local artists and businesses. The startup wants to affect the way the public thinks about and participates in local music in a way that is appreciable to artists, venues, and the city at large. In building cultural values and habits around live music, OkSessions aims to build Oklahoma City's music industry and explore tech solutions that could be used to grow local music economies in other cities.

Christian is also a pianist who has worked for 10 years in OKC's music scene, performed at SXSW, judged Miss Oklahoma 2017, was awarded the NextGen Under 30 award in 2014, is a small-time real estate investor, and sits on young professional boards for United Way of Central Oklahoma and Allied Arts.


Dr. Daniela Busciglio

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Dr. Daniela Busciglio is a professor of applied linguistics and a Communications Strategist, and owner of DFB Consulting (dfbconsulting.co / politicalmessaging.co). Over the past few months, she has been working with candidates running for office to craft values-based messaging, branding, image, and PR strategies and content for speeches, engagement with voters, and written position/issue statements using the research of cognitive linguists, psychologists, and sociologists. She also integrates coaching on prosody (intonation, stress, rhythm of speech), paralinguistic features (facial expressions, body language, gestures, tone and pitch of voice) as well as mindfulness training for enhancing focus and decreasing anxiety. With a Ph.D. in applied linguistics and broad research knowledge in sociolinguistics and cognitive linguistics, she is the only messaging expert in the state of Oklahoma. She is also currently preparing to offer an online live course on language and the brain. Follow her on Instagram: @politicalmessaging


Musical Guest Adam Ledbetter

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Adam Ledbetter was born into an artistic family. He was born the 3rd of 4 children of Father Spencer Ledbetter, a drum virtuoso turned Pastor and Jackie Ledbetter, a singer and former program director of their local YWCA chapter. All of his siblings were exposed early to a myriad of disciplines: martial arts, double dutch jump rope, art classes, aviation, sports, dancing, theater etc. So it was kismet when Mrs. Ledbetter created a piano program for the YWCA and at the last minute one student didn’t show up and Adam (aged 10) was thrown in at the last minute.

Within months Adam was accepted into the piano program at Classen School of Advanced Studies and became his church pianist, a position he still holds after almost 25 years. Adam went on to major in Piano Performance at Langston University, Oklahoma City University and The University of Central Oklahoma where he performed with their top jazz ensemble both locally and overseas. An avid composer Adam has twice won The Evelyn Larue Pittman Composers Award. In recent years Adam co-founded The New Growth Jazz Quartet with elite guitarist, Grant Goldstein and Adam & Kizzie, a duet with his wife, Kizzie Ledbetter which is signed to Ropeadope Records and is frequently touring their original music.