Speech Critique: Majora Carter – Greening the Ghetto (Flashback Friday #26)

On Fridays, we dip into the Six Minutes article archive in search of one of the most memorable articles. We’ll dust it off, shine a light on it, and consider it from a new perspective.

Today’s Flashback Article

This week, we’re reaching back to February 2008 to learn from the excellent TED talk by Majora Carter titled “Greening the Ghetto”.

In my speech critique a decade ago, I wrote:

Majora Carter’s TED talk has both incredible strengths — passion, energy, authenticity — and one unfortunate weakness — rapid speaking rate. Both extremes are worthy of public speaking analysis.

When I watch the video again today, I have essentially the same opinion of her strengths, but I am a little more forgiving of her weakness. Perhaps I’ve become more conditioned to a faster speaking rate, or perhaps I’ve started weighing content much greater than delivery.

Ultimately, my opinion isn’t what matters most. What do you think? The mission behind the speech critiques on Six Minutes is to share excellent presentations with you, and start a dialogue about what works and how we can raise the quality of presentations everywhere.

Having said that, please watch her speech, read the accompanying analysis, and share your insights about this popular TED talk:

• Video Critique: Majora Carter – Greening the Ghetto (TED 2006)