The healing power of art with Lily Yeh (Transcript)

[00:00:00] Chris Anderson:
Hello there. This is Chris Anderson. Welcome to The TED Interview. So, in this series of The TED Interview, we're diving into generosity in all its aspects. I've come to believe this is the single most important idea in the human arsenal because everything else depends on it. It's an idea I wrote a book about called Infectious Generosity, and in the spirit of generosity, we're offering free copies of both the ebook and the audiobook to TED Interview listeners.

You can go to ted.com/generosity. Fill out the short form there to claim yours.

Now, generosity can be expressed in so many different ways, and today we're focusing on one of the most beautiful, perhaps the most beautiful, enchantment. The gift of enchantment is something that can be offered by an artist, by any musician or photographer, poet, storyteller, filmmaker, and we’re, in an age where that gift can be shared online to an unlimited number of people.

Actually I, I think that fact sometimes blinds us as to how powerful a gift this is. We're swimming in a sea of free content. We almost don't have time to reflect on the enchantment it is capable of bringing us. So, I think it will be powerful today to step back from that frenzied online world and instead, meet someone who has devoted her life to spreading enchantment to numerous communities around the world, often in the most unlikely places, the broken places, as she puts it.

So. I'm here with Lily Yeh, a truly remarkable artist now in her eighties. And, rather than try to tell you her story. I am going to invite her to tell it herself and to explore with me the amazingness of this ability to enchant, to lift people, and what can happen as a result of that.

Lily Yeh welcome to The TED Interview.

[00:03:31] Lily Yeh:
Thank you. What an honor.

[00:03:33] Chris Anderson:
So Lily, I'd love to hear a bit about your childhood.

[00:03:37] Lily Yeh:
Well, it was just a lot of running away. I was born in China and it, it was during the China-Japanese war. My mom's, um, memoir talked about constantly packing up, constantly running away from bombing and finding new homes and tra-uh, you know, traveling on the road and the difficulty and so forth.

And, then finally, 1948, my family moved to Taiwan because my father was a high ranking officer in the army, Chiang Kai-shek’s army. We have to escape for our lives. Yeah, so.

[00:04:22] Chris Anderson:
Hmm. So, you fled to Taiwan and then continued your childhood there and I mean, your father was a renowned general, but he encouraged you to be an artist. Do I have that right?

[00:04:34] Lily Yeh:
Oh, yes. My father, who, who loves to travel, but then when he, we retired to Taiwan, we couldn't travel so freely for different reasons. And, the, he loves Chinese landscape painting, and in a way, Chinese landscape painting is structured in such a way that you can literally enter the painting and travel with the people.

When I was 15, he took me to a teacher, Tian Man-Shi, and then, after that, I just found I was hooked. I just loved the beauty and the calmness. So, from high school to college, Taida University, seven years, I used most of time in painting landscape and it was very happy, happiest.

[00:05:31] Chris Anderson:
You've described this form of art as dustless. What, what does that term mean?

[00:05:36] Lily Yeh:
Yes. In the Chinese scholar, in their poetry, in their writing, the longing is going to a place that is tranquil and pristine, like in the landscape painting it, it, it's a serenity, even though it is so quiet, but it contains all the movement. For me, it's an energy center. When I'm close to that and I feel myself, my heart it beat fast.

When I'm close, that energy, it's like it's forever renewing. You know? It's like Dao in, yin and yang, it's in dark and light is in eternal embrace and struggling. But, there are always imbalance. So, it's contains the light and the dark, and in other term, good and evil. The, the good brightness and the darkness, the balance is so intense.

It's like, uh, the translucency of the sunlight that contains all powers. That to me is the transcendent reality and they call the dustless world.

[00:06:54] Chris Anderson:
So, it's not intended necessarily as a description of the world as it is, it's, there's a kind of longing for a purer expression of the dance of reality of that we go through.

[00:07:05] Lily Yeh:
It is life, you know, life in its most tranquil, balanced, um, state of being and its equilibriums.

[00:07:17] Chris Anderson:
How did you end up coming to America?

[00:07:20] Lily Yeh:
To study. You know, Taiwan is very small and also during my time, uh, growing up it was very controlled because there's still a lot of, uh, political tension. So, our goal is to further our study abroad. And, so when I came, I got, you know, several offers to study art, and so I chose Philadelphia because University of Pennsylvania is one of the old, very old school and Philadelphia is full of history and culture and charm.

[00:07:43] Chris Anderson:
And, did Americans embrace your landscape painting?

[00:07:58] Lily Yeh:
Yes, at the beginning of a course, how could you not? It's not really mine, it's the tradition, you know? But, because of that, I find myself in such a strange bound. If I continue the tradition, I'm bound by the tradition. In a way, I felt like I, I have tied feet, but then if I let go of the bondage, I was lost. I was quite lost for quite a few years in a fog, stumbling, wondering, and, and by the way, you know, I lived in the classical, this dustless world, this beautiful. And, then I come to the sixties late, you know, in the sixties. Wow. My god. Anything is permissible.

Uh, the, you have the student rights, you have the protest, you have the huge art market in new, uh, in New York, and art is, uh powerful and whatnot. I just felt that I didn't belong to any of that, and often I felt that the train is moving.
I'm holding, hanging on by the door, one hand holding and trying to get on the train. It was very exciting, disorienting and, uh, fog, you know, kind of, I mean, I'm a very slow in finding my way. Yeah.

[00:09:30] Chris Anderson:
But, um, you did start to find your way, at least in professionally.

[00:09:35] Lily Yeh:
Yes.

[00:09:36] Chris Anderson:
I mean, you, there was a pathway to becoming a successful, professional artists emerged.

[00:09:40] Lily Yeh:
Yeah. Yes, I was very lucky because America, uh, such wonderful openness and freedom and kindness among people. So, I felt welcomed and embraced and because I come, um, from such a different culture, you know, galleries were interested and I graduate because I have a master in fine arts, you know, from UPenn.

So, that gave me license to get a teaching job on the college level. Yeah. Externally I was successful, but not internally.

[00:10:19] Chris Anderson:
And, then something happened in in Philadelphia that, that really changed the trajectory of your life. And, I think in the process seems to have answered some of the questions you have. Talk about what happened.

[00:10:32] Lily Yeh:
Oh, well, I think I stumbled for quite a few years, really, from the work on paper, I began to work on canvas and I cut up my paper, my work, because I didn't know where to go. I start to do installation. Installation require space. So, I was constantly looking for a space and because I was searching so hard, I think life offered me an opportunity.
And, then Arthur Hall, very famed African American choreographer, dancer, he is stationed in North Philadelphia in Inner city. So, he said to me that I have an abandoned lot next to my headquarter. You do gardens, you know, interior gardens. Why don't you do a garden on my abandoned lot? And, I wasn't thinking, you know, being young and kind of so reckless and I said, oh yeah, why not? So, everybody was writing a proposal to get grant money. I said, man why don't I do that? So, I wrote the proposal to a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and low and behold, they gave me part of the money, but I was so, so stunned that somebody gave me money in doing something that I have no idea how to do.

You know, to create an art garden on an abandoned lot with children in inner city. So, I was totally scared and I said, well, I ask professionals, they say, no, you can't do it. You don't have enough money. It's a drop in the bucket. And, kids going destroy anything you built. And, I wanted to withdraw. And, then the voice in me said that, if you don't rise to the occasion, the best of you will die and the rest will not amount to anything. I said, let me try this. I think that was one brave thing I did, and then it changed my life.

[00:12:49] Chris Anderson:
I mean, that is one amazing internal voice you have going on there. I mean, you were in your forties at this point.

[00:12:55] Lily Yeh:
Yeah.

[00:12:56] Chris Anderson:
And, this garden that you'd been invited to do, I mean, we're not talking, planting some flowers here or something like that. Tell us what actually you had in mind here and what, tell us what happened.

[00:13:07] Lily Yeh:
I, I had no idea when I said, now I said yes. Now what? So, um, I don't think no amount of education prepared me for that. So, I said, well, let me go and look around. And, then, so I asked Arthur, I said, I can't do it alone. I need help.
And, then so he said, go and find Jo Jo. Jo Jo's name is Joseph Williams. And, he will help his, uh, jack of all trade, he'll help you. So, I went to his house right next to the abandoned lot, and then twice he already went somewhere. And, later he told me the word on the street is that there's this crazy Chinese lady who want to build a garden here and want to Jo Jo to help.

So, he wanted nothing to do with me. But, the third time I told, shared with him about building the garden with the children and he liked the idea. So, he came and helped me. So, we were just out, you know, poking around and putting the shovel here and there, and, uh, then I saw a branch on the ground and just an inspiration.

I pick up that branch right in the center of the abandoned lot. I drew a big circle, I said, “from here, we are going to start to build.” And, then so we got the shovel, we start to mark the circle, and then the kids in the neighborhood, they don't have place to go. They saw us plotting around doing this and that. Looks like fun.

They just say that, well, can we come and help? And, I was a little shrewd. I already had the shovels and spade and things kids like I said, “Yeah, come!” And, so we start building. That's how we start building. My first team was little children from three and a half to 13. That's my first team, power of children. I cannot thank them enough for guiding me.

[00:15:25] Chris Anderson:
But, what did you build?

[00:15:27] Lily Yeh:
We start to, uh, create the circle. We dug up a lot of bricks and rocks and so forth. Then we realized that this abandoned place actually has resources. So, then we start to build sculpture. We start to build column like trees. And, I was so naive. I never built anything, and so the convents were built, kind of collapsed. The things rusted and so forth. I said, oh, well, you know what we did build is not good enough. Let's ask how to properly build. That's how, eventually, we became good builders because we have expert builders to help us. And, then because our paints are peeled off. And, then so I said, well, we do Mosaic. My good friend Mosaic artist, Isaiah Zagar, you know, and he taught me, and eventually it became a mosaic sculptural garden.

[00:16:32] Chris Anderson:
So, you turned with the help of children and Jo Jo and a growing community, an abandoned lot of land into this, this sculpture garden. And, if, if someone looks at the images of this online, you just have to Google like the Village of Arts and Humanities in North Philadelphia, I mean, this place became beautiful and it started to attract visitors. Tell me a story of how something maybe that someone in that community said to you about what this new garden meant to them.

[00:17:14] Lily Yeh:
My work, I've realized that what you see is only 50%. 50% is the process, and through the process, life's been transformed. I often say that it is from the transformation. Through art is through environment to the, the spirit and the heart of the participants. And, I only started with children, but the park cannot be built by children. Actually, the people who help me to really build the park are the people from the community, jobless, often addicted to drug. Actually, when our parks are becoming more prominent, like meditation park, we get a first time national endowment. We are visible. And, so people say that you cannot, we work with your current crew because they're all addicted on drug. And, the funny thing is that when I invited them to join, I didn't know, but people came because they have something to do.

And, this is building. Building is very cleansing. And, then building something beautiful together for their community, there is just something deeply fulfilling. So, people would come. Then, the reporter came interview, and then they say they were all on drug. Then I realize, oh well, you know, a drug team helping me.

So, then people say, you cannot hire them. And, I say, well, if your family have a person addicted drug, do you abandon that person? You continue to help right? And, those people who want to help me then I want to provide an opportunity for them to step in to, to do something that fulfilling. And, so those are the people help me and through the process I have father came and observed the son working and told me that my son now works. I feel proud of him.

[00:19:33] Chris Anderson:
Yeah, that's beautiful. I mean this, so you say this building was a cleansing experience. That's, that's such a powerful concept, you know? So, we spend so much time today fighting each other and if you can flip that somehow to building something together, like it seems like everything, everything changes.

[00:19:53] Lily Yeh:
Think of Shakespeare's tragedy. Those are some of the most unsavory failure, darkness qualities in human nature. And, yet from those cracks, light come through. And, if you can transform that dark energy into creative energy, if you can show people a way out in honoring their talent, creativity, listening to them allow their voice to rise and collaborate together to create something that belonged to us, to all, to all. Nothing more powerful, more healing, than that. So, that's the transformation Yin and Yang, you know, the most ready for transformation is the darkest, darkest day is when we celebrate Christmas, the coming of the light.

[00:20:56] Chris Anderson:
The whole community was involved in doing these mosaics as well. How did that work? Did you teach people? How did you create this vast mosaic landscape?

[00:21:08] Lily Yeh:
They were so enthused. They cannot be taught. They just put up whatever they can. And, I learned because I was very upset that they didn't do things according to my design. And, I said, you know, I'm going to stop it again, scrape everything off, and so forth and life spoke to me through my wonderful volunteer, Carol Wiseman. She was a graduate student at PCA Arts, and she said, Ms. Lily, if you calm down and what better would you have other than those little hands blessing your tiles and making your tiles, and I understood. So, I let them do whatever. You know, when your art, when it's bigger and more structured, it absorbed disharmony and it adds fuel and richness. Yeah.

And, then we get better. We get better organized. I tell you a story of Big Man, I was doing Angel Alley and I, I want to do Ethiopian angel. I say it got to be angel from Africa for the people in this community, African American community. So, I made eight foot tall angel, ethiopian style and I painted, but I have to teach to earn a living.

So, Big Man, he was addicted to drug for 20 years and so, uh, quietly he came to Jo Jo for refuge and so I taught him the mosaic. I guided him with, he said, within your lines, I put the mosaics together and eventually piece by piece the broken mosaics, he found a way to heal himself. He thought he would die in the gutter somewhere. Eventually, he became a very well known and most beloved member in the community. We worked together for 16 years. A lot of mosaic is by him. And, then under him, he became the village managing director. He worked with the crew. He manages the crew drug problem. He set up the Narcotic Anonymous meetings. We collect those story. We turned them into theater pieces and he was the most beloved. People come in, want to take pictures with him. And, I said, why Big Man? Then I realized that because he had fallen so deep and when he rise up, he had infinite patience, compassion, understanding, and that is the power of the process.

[00:24:12] Chris Anderson:
This is amazing. Is his, his name is Big Man, like literally.

[00:24:17] Lily Yeh:
Six foot eight, James Maxton. Big Man.

[00:24:23] Chris Anderson:
So, wow. That, that is such a moving story and it goes to, I'm, I'm so interested, Lily, in how ripple effects happen through generosity. I mean, you dedicated so much of your time to this project. I dare say you could have been earning more money as an artist or as a teacher elsewhere perhaps, but you dedicated your time to this and gradually you involve children and then their families got engaged and then people like Big Man got involved, a life there gets transformed and he then with you spreads these ripple effects through the community so that this becomes one of the talking points of Philadelphia, a place that people would, tourists would come to visit. How incredible is that, that, that what can start so un-promisingly can create these ripple effects that, that really make an impact across the city?

[00:25:23] Lily Yeh:
I think the story is the broken places where North Philadelphia, I mean inner city, everywhere is usually a place of abandonment, oppression, anger, and so if you don't know, you go through the city, you roll up your window, you lock your door. It is that kind of fear. Yeah. But, when you go into it, when people realize that you are not doing it to take away from the community, but you're working with children and bringing joy, you know, anything, and then the beauty they have not seen, because I said I'm not a person, really, not with a lot of expertise or wealth, but what I can bring is what inspired me. Those are the Chinese garden, Islamic mosaics, mosque, and African architecture and the painting and whatever. And, I share that, bring my inspiration. And, because this place has no precedent, so anything we do is allowed.

We failed first four years. We were the laughing stock, but we didn't give up. And, when eventually we build something that is so unique that people have not seen before, and when you come, it's not just the beauty, it's the community. People come talk to you. It's like a family. They ask about each other. They welcome. It's like a nature. You have a fruit tree that grows so big and bear flowers, bear fruit, and then birds came. Insects came. Eventually it become a nurturing community. You know, in those places we have less to hide behind the veils of our wealth, our accomplishment. We are more naked. And, when you meet really heart to heart, nothing beats that. Eventually, I resigned from my tenure position and then become, you know, full-time throwing into community building. What I learned from the village, I took it all over the world.

[00:28:31] Chris Anderson:
I mean, so many people are probably, you know, middle of their lives. They're trying to do something hard and it's not going well. And, the truth is, some of the best things just do take time to build. They do and you were there in your forties embarking on this project. After four years of it, you felt you were still a laughing stock and yet you continued.

And, so right there that, that's amazing. I mean, every academic dreams of tenure, that is the goal. That is the end goal. You have that and then you are made, you are comfortable. You turn that down to do this. Amazing. But, I want to ask you a question because a lot of people would say, you know, you look at a beaten up community, most people would say what these community needs are investment in what, you know, in services and in healthcare and in education, housing. Beauty, I mean, come on, that, that's a luxury. Why would you invest in that? What would you say to that?

[00:29:37] Lily Yeh:
Such good question. I think human relationship, we look for, not superficially, but the bond, the depth. So, what I experienced at the beginning, you know, whatever I didn't know anybody. And, so we just come in. We all equal. Everyone contribute what they can, and then we have a vision. We didn't know, but we want to build a park that people can be happy there. And, the vision formed. As we get better, our vision become more, be more beautiful. And, what is beauty? It is not external.

It is not the value that you can own. It's not decorative. It is essential. It's essential to our life. It's not the luxury. And, we say this place has no resources. We do not see, we do not see the hidden treasure that needs an enlightened eye, a kinder pair of eye with compassion to discover the hidden treasure.

It's like mining. Who sees the diamonds and the gold and silver? It's all hidden in rocks. You know, the way we pollute our land, like a tar sand, do so much destruction to our land, but we do not see the hidden treasure in brokenness, broken places, broken people, broken places allow opportunity for totally new kind of thinking.

[00:31:25] Chris Anderson:
So, this is so powerful. You're, you're reminding me of something that another Ted speaker, uh, Theaster Gates once said because he, he's has built similar projects in Chicago and was challenged on this very question and said, no beauty is an essential public good. It is a core part of who we are to rebuild any kind of community that has to be part of it.

And, I just, I hear the passion there. Lily and I had something else as well where you said even if some people externally thought this project was going nowhere after four years, internally, this was already deeply meaningful to you. It was perhaps answering some of the questions, the lostness that you spoke about in your successful professional artistic career.

[00:32:12] Lily Yeh:
Think the brokenness, the opportunity, and the people, the depth of what they have experienced in darkness became my guide. It gave me an opportunity. I have fumbled so long to find myself and that through building garden park there, I found the entry to my life. Once you find your life, you don't want to fit in another life, that no matter how glorious it is, it's not yours.

[00:32:52] Chris Anderson:
So you took this amazing, idea this, this amazing vision to other places in the world.

[00:33:00] Lily Yeh:
Another experience that changed my life was in Kenya. I got the, uh, fellowship to be a cultural ambassador, I guess, and I just, good luck, life introduced me to Father Alex Zanotelli. He's a very famous kind of radical priest. He not only, help the poor. He lives among the poor. He is baptized by the poor. I talked about the poverty I have never seen, none of us have ever seen. It's in the pew community, live, recycle, a lot of the dump side, the dump from all over the world, you know, the dump side, and he lived there. And, he has a church. That's the place that has walls. All the other walls were, uh, assembled by, uh, scattered materials.

And, so I say as an artist to witness people constantly struggling on the border of life and death, what can I do? I said, I cannot bring wealth I, or solve problem. The only thing I can do is bring color. And, then so I start to what to draw paint and paint angels.

Eventually, we painted the huge angels and make angels up there to live with the people. And, and the second thing was, of course, Rwanda. I went to the genocide survivors village and I saw the bones were gathered in a unmarked graved cased in concrete, and the survivor said that every time we pass by, we, we suffered like we were killed twice because the bones were soaked in water, in, in season, so forth.

So, I decide to design a genocide memorial for them, and then they say that you cannot just decorate them. You have to dig into the ground to bury our bone properly. So, I was, of course, frightened because touching bones is con, con touching the wounded soul of the nation and gingerly. But, I said, you know, life calls, you have to venture. So, again, life prepares that. I had the opportunity to meet the China Road and Bridge building company. They were building roads and then they took sympathy to me and helped me to build the genocide memorial there and the whole community, I mobilized, taught them the art of mosaics and volunteers from this country.

12 people came. You know, so we mosaiced the place. The funny thing is that eventually they got so good, then they say why your tiles are not so even. The whole nation will come and witness this. Why don't you take the back seat? Let us finish it. Isn't that what I call success? And, then three years later, we have a huge ceremony. We dedicated this to the people for and the local community, the local government for their safekeeping. Thousands of people came after the dedication. They say our loved ones can come home now in dignity and rest in this beauty. And, so that was a part of The Rwanda Healing Project. It is still going on strong today, 20 years, I celebrate.

But, when you talk about healing, it is not just about the dead, it is about the living. And, when the people are so poor, no income, no water, no facility, no hope, no nothing, so, we started a, um, multifaceted project. First, we, um, gave them goats. And, the goats they can multiply and we've got land for them.

We have micro-lending and then we got, uh, water collecting tanks so they have water. And, we invited solar panel scientists and then, I, I, I heard message from the survivors. They say that, come and visit us. You don't need to worry. We are doing fine. They call me Mama Lily, and I call this everything local micro-lending, you know, husbandry, whatever, I call that a part of art. And, the way I define art is creativity in thinking, methodology, implementation. It's all art for life.

[00:38:16] Chris Anderson:
That's beautiful. So, Lily, right now I think about the landscape in the world, and in some ways, like, I see today's internet, today's online culture as a bit of a broken place. There is so much toxicity and anger and meanness and mistrust spreading. And, I've hoped, I've argued, I've believed that there is a role for artists of all kinds to play in this, to spread this gift of enchantment that you have so embodied your whole life. Do you have any advice for someone who is creative and who's trying to think about, is there something I could do here to engage in this form of generosity?

[00:39:06] Lily Yeh:
I think first, not to think of, of deficits, not to think about when you see poverty, not think that what can I bring to solve the problem? You know, and then maybe think about the, the hidden treasure when you think about, oh, they, this community, like the survivors, you know, they have nothing. What can I bring to them?

Um, you know, not in terms of, um, money and problem solving. You know, what I learned in university, experts and so forth, the solution problem. But, be with them. Listen to their story. And, hear their voices and be present and then create a new space. The reason we have so much conflict means that we do not have enough space, so we are fighting each other for the little resources or space.

Create the new space where everybody can come in and bring in not just money, material things, or what we already know. But, bring something unknown and invite everybody to join in a mutual journey to discover and to bring enchantment, enchantment, sense of joy, sense of appreciation, something mysterious.

And, through that, create something, making music together. Say story, sing together, beat drums together, rhythm. Right away that create a different space and then you invite people to come in to join you and then you teach them the skill. When they learn that, they continue to, to do. For me, is painting, you know, the survivor's village, which transform their village by painting simple designs. Then, they continued paint their dream. Their dream is helicopters, and then computers, all kinds of wonderful things. They continued and eventually this space belonged to them. What is more democratic than this process? It's the natural way to spread democracy, but not from doctrine, from top down if from bottom up.

All participants, including the one who initiates, in my case, the reason I can go on because I get so much contentment, fulfillment, nurturement, um, in my life and my nothing better, happy, content.

[00:42:02] Chris Anderson:
You are proving, by the way, one of the things that I, I think not many people realize, which is that the consequence of being willing to follow this journey and to immerse yourself with people to then give what you can give, This is what your witness is, that you've, you've found yourself, you find meaning, you found happiness and whoof, you know, that's an amazing trade off. I'm thinking, Lily, about how many places there are in the world today still that are just full of, you know, broken places. I mean, every city has broken places. This is something that a group of people, a group of friends could embark on, could team up together and kind of make happen.

I mean, you're an amazing artist, but these projects can bring together creativity from the community and probably get something to work. Do you wish that this type of project was prioritized and was allowed to flourish and blossom and grow in every broken place out there?

[00:43:07] Lily Yeh:
I am looking to you to organize to make it happen. The entry is inside ourself. We always look outside for approval. Once you find your own life, you don't need approval. And, so we need to look internally and we look externally for approval because we want to find happiness and we want money to ensure that we are happy, you know the material. But, I feel that the deep contentment, its wealth beyond description, and it, it anchors one in one's wellbeing, one gets happiness and one find joy. And, then I remember, I, there was a project in South Sudan years ago, very, very dangerous. I have a dear friend in cultural, uh, dump side community, and she said, uh, would you come, we have teachers. We want to make this, uh, school beautiful. I said, I cannot. Um, also Corona just broke out and he said, “Oh, too bad I couldn't, then we couldn't do it.”

I said, “No, you absolutely can do it.” It doesn't take an artist. We all are artists in a different way, in our own way, and I just showed her, I inspired her what could be done, you know, the, uh, the process, I work with survivors. None of, uh, them are painters, but we just simply draw, design, and paint and eventually, the teacher, the trainers took over. You know, you open the doorway to their own creativity. They transform their school yard. What it takes is that don't go to very precious real estate because you do not have the freedom. Go to an ignored place and then what you need to do is just you go there. If you paint, you buy the paints, you make things available. You listen to people. You talk to people, you start to play your drum and have fun, joy…

[00:45:25] Chris Anderson:
I love this.

[00:45:25] Lily Yeh:
…and happiness naturally draw people in.

[00:45:30] Chris Anderson:
So, I love this. So look, anyone listening to this. Here's a what if for you. What if you were inspired by Lily as I have been and what if you were to invite a few friends for a meal? It's another form of infectious generosity, hospitality. And, what if you were to do a little bit of dreaming about is there a place locally that may be, could be put to better use where something could happen. Do you know anyone who could act as a creative spark to help?

It might not take that much funding to get going. That's what I'm hearing. That's what's been her experience. This is about enabling art created by a community and that by building something like this, we can discover, you know, so many new things about our, our, our ourselves, and our, our capability. Lily, these are the untold stories that the world needs to be telling and celebrating because it changes how we think of each other and how we think about human possibility. And, so I just want to thank you truly, Lily, for certainly spending this time, but much more than that for just all that you've done. You're an absolute inspiration.

[00:46:46] Lily Yeh:
Thank you. Thank you for this opportunity to share my story and hopefully people take action. So simple.

[00:46:59] Chris Anderson:
Well that’s it for now. If you'd like to dig deeper into this conversation about the power of generosity, please consider reading my book, Infectious Generosity, or listening to it. We are able to offer it for free to all TED Interview listeners thanks to a generous donor. You just have to head over to ted.com/generosity and you can redeem either the Ebook or the audiobook right there from that page.

Next week we're speaking with a key figure in the effective altruism movement, Scottish philosopher Will MacAskill. I'll be asking him about the recent controversy in the effective altruism movement and the ethical urgency to extend generosity to future generations.

So, The TED Interview is part of the TED Audio Collective, a collection of podcasts dedicated to sparking curiosity and sharing ideas that matter.

This episode was produced by Jess Shane. Our team includes Constanza Gallardo, Grace Rubenstein, Banban Cheng, Michelle Quint, Roxanne Hai Lash, and Daniella Balarezo. This show is mixed by Sarah Bruguiere.

If you like the show, do please leave us a review. It really helps others find us. It really helps the podcast. We read every one of those reviews. Thanks so much for listening. Catch you next time.