[Music]
as I was an introduce my name is Amy
Karl and I am the proud found founder of
Detroit soup which is a micro granting
dinner that funds projects that are
looking to make a city or community
better I wish I could tell you that I
started this project with all these
amazing intentions to change the world
and to make Detroit better none of those
things are true I come from a city that
the language of our town looked a lot
like this building it was vacant it was
empty
no one was there it does have its
problems of poverty lack of access to
the Internet
lack of access to jobs lack of it no
functional public transportation system
and so there are real problems that are
often really stemmed from our problems
of segregation and so soup is a micro
granting dinner where you hear from four
presenters who have four minutes to
share their idea for questions back from
the diners and then the diners get a
chance to eat share connect and vote on
what project they think should win the
five dollar suggested door donation so
we started this dinner in 2010 with an
amazing group of women who had worked on
a women’s event in Detroit celebrating
arts and culture and so our friend Kate
this beautiful woman in the middle said
hey I experienced this dinner around
Chicago our friend Jessica just to the
left of her said well I have it a vacant
space above this bakery that my parents
own let’s just shove all the stuff into
the corner and let’s create this dinner
and so we took empty milk crates we took
old doors we took old wine bottles that
we put water into and we invited our
friends on a snowy Superbowl Sunday to
come and hear from ideas that did not
show up that day
and to hear from ways that we can make
artist lives better and what happened
was as that Detroiters came back and
said well can I pitch any idea and it’s
moves and it’s transformed into a
movement we’re now on any given Sunday
there’s two to three hundred people in
the room who are gathering together
connecting and sharing about ways that
we can communally make Detroit better
not from the top down but from the
bottom up so what is soup other than
just a food well it’s a public dinner
it’s a chance to say all are welcome if
you live in the suburbs if you live in
the city if you’re just traveling coming
through you were welcome to participate
you don’t have to be a resident but we
want to hear and and and hear about
ideas that are making this better
it’s an ethos of community and civic
engagement we need to start with us a
lot of times I always think like there’s
all these other people or other things
that will make me better but really I
have to start with myself and I need to
know who my neighbors are so soup starts
with a way of understanding who my
neighbor is who lives around the corner
and the way that we can civically act
and communicate and talk with one
another because it really is a safe
space it’s not very often I get to sit
in a room with people that look so
different than me that have completely
different values than me I actually have
my master’s degree in theology with an
emphasis in pop culture oftentimes
people ask me what is that and really
it’s about if the church didn’t exist
could we still do we still want to
connect and do we still need to know who
each other are and how do we support the
doers or of our community and that to me
was the answer with what soup is it’s a
practice in democracy I come to you as
an American who’s not very proud of my
president at this moment who thank you
yeah something – yes it’s disgraceful
his ability to hate and for me democracy
is something that is not something you
inherently know but it’s something you
have to practice
this so democracy for me is hearing and
it’s listening and it’s sharing it’s
walking into a voting booth making a
decision and being confident in it this
democratic process means after we hear
from these four presenters we get to
talk with strangers who now have had a
shared experience and ask each other
well what idea are you gonna vote for
and be challenged by people’s
experiences people’s values people’s
beliefs of why this is the right project
it’s also an entry point into the local
entrepreneurship ecosystem oftentimes we
have a million reasons why we shouldn’t
do something why why I’m not ready why
I’m not the right person and really
often times soup is this entry point
because soup says yes and not no soup
allows any idea at any place of ideation
to have four minutes to share with you
and to share their thoughts how they’re
thinking about it and honestly hoping
for feedback and because of what we’ve
learned with doing soup we’ve actually
helped put ideas into an entrepreneurial
ecosystem getting the support and help
that they need to continue to grow the
thing that they’re trying to do another
big thing that I really believe in is
that soup reveals gaps and strengths of
a community here are what people are
capable of doing how they’re willing to
spend their time a lot of these people
have a full-time job that this is just
something they’re trying to do as a side
hustle as a way that you’re trying to
solve for problem x trying to bring
together people in their community or
just solve something and so for me as
I’ve been doing it every year I like to
say take a step back and go whoa there’s
a lot of people pitching about wanting
to start a charity oh you know why
there’s no education in the ecosystem
around how to do it and so all these
people are just trying to do it on their
own rather than being doing it together
as a way of collaborative response and I
love that this is of a relational hub
bringing together various community
so this is about not just about art I
always joked that this is if this is
about urban agriculture I certainly
would not be standing here I don’t know
if you can see it but I have a hot dog
tattooed on my leg I know nothing about
it I’m not spending my free time in the
garden but a lot of people have and a
lot of people do and they’ve learned
more about urban farming and gardening
because of this program because we don’t
say only only art ideas pitch this month
it’s art and entrepreneurs and social
ideas Park cleanups education
initiatives I love that this practice is
built in art and philosophy which means
there’s a lot more unknowns than there
is notes which is someone who’s trying
to really build a non-profit really
frustrates people who love boxes and so
it doesn’t fit in just one box it fits
in many boxes and that the outcomes that
happen at the dinner happened not just
in that moment but it ripples out that
affects things over time and my favorite
thing about soup is that it empowers
women women we do a really bad job of
permitting ourselves to go out and do
something and we’re always looking for
permission myself included I am NOT not
just because I’m on the stage doesn’t
mean that I haven’t gone through it but
we asked for permission from each other
from ourselves and so this dinner gives
women this empowerment that their voice
matters that they matter that their idea
matters and that they are the right
people right here right now to make this
idea happen in their community and
they’ve now heard from 150 to 200 people
that yes we believe in you in 85% of our
winners at soup
are women so what makes suits unique one
is that the presenting idea has to
benefit the city or the community that
it’s in so in Detroit we didn’t say
anyone in aw in the area could pitch it
was just those that are in the city and
not the suburbs and that you don’t use
technology to present so for us we
didn’t have a
projector when we first started but
really what it does is it shows race it
shows class it shows gender it shows how
tech-savvy you are also if I don’t know
how many of you guys have tried to
accept other people’s technologies but I
don’t really want to take someone’s
windows 97 PowerPoint and try to
implement it into Mac 2015 and that it’s
about place place is so important to
this I get a lot of people saying where
did you start a soup Detroit 175 to 180
cities around the world said I want to
do this model and so it takes on a form
that takes on a local personality so
soups impact that’s me at the White
House that was a good day like I shared
yeah thank you thank you one of the best
days of my life to be acknowledged as a
as someone who was a champion for change
and that’s absolutely what I am but
really that 175 people around the world
heard about this story said I want to do
this and does the really hard work of
organizing a very simple dinner that’s
very complex to make happen happen in a
community without you don’t need to ask
permission for it you just download a
guide off of our internet and like I
said it’s all over the worlds and every
continent except Antarctica and it takes
on a personality so close to home at
home the things that I can share is that
there’s two couples who have met and
gotten married that’s one of them right
behind me people have received have
gotten jobs after meeting it’s people
who’ve just moved into town who are
looking for their friend group was able
to meet their friends by by joining a
soup people have changed their
perspective on the city they’ve bought
houses over hundreds of artists have
presented at the dinner showcasing their
work over a thousand ideas have been
submitted to soup for 450 of them have
been able to share I can go on and on
and I’m so proud of this work because
it’s less about me and more about us
what is the soup thing and how has it
really impacted so other than I’ve
shared well the biggest story that’s
ever come out of Detroit soup was our
friend Veronica she makes a coat that
turns into a sleeping bag and hands
these coats out to those who are
homeless while hiring homeless people to
make the coats transitioning them out of
homelessness this inspired my friend Amy
to create a jewelry company called rebel
now as you can see these are jewelry
pieces made out of graffiti that’s
fallen off of buildings which is a an
abundant resource in the city figures
out – melting process well and they also
hire women from these shelters and
transistor’s them out of homelessness by
giving them access to education
financial literacy health and nutrition
training and some of the women with
rebel now have even gone on to help them
buy a home it’s also inspired my friend
David to build a group called Detroit
house horsepower he’s attempting to buy
an old abandoned golf course turn it in
the first urban horse farm and doing
after school and summer programs to help
empower children in Detroit my friend
Michelle saw that there was houses being
foreclosed on it’s a huge problem in
Detroit and for five hundred dollars you
can buy a house in the city and what
happens is is if a family is already
living in it that house these people
could be kicked out of their homes and
so if she saw she started this thing
called the tricycle collective with all
the money that she she helps raise she’s
able to buy these houses back for the
families that live in them but these
ideas translate even now around the
world in Birmingham they’ve created this
gentleman has been able to create
cardboard beds that homeless folks can
sleep on using abundant materials often
in the city spaces in Berlin this
beautiful woman takes clothes that had
been donated to her and repairs clothes
for others in Perth they even do urban
farming there so these ideas translate
not just because Detroit’s so decimated
it’s awful therefore it only can work
there no these ideas are translated
around the world as a way to grow our
ideas and in Sistrunk florida these this
beautiful woman has caught girls how to
create a film from the script to
production and the best thing is is I
didn’t know that this soup existed until
a few months ago where my friend Chad
and I find ourselves in the same program
he’s like I run a soup and I was like
excuse me he said I run a soup and I
thought holy I don’t even understand I
don’t understand what’s happening and
how long and how far this projects is
gonna go and so this is where I’m at
right now is the unknown the future I’m
not quite sure I’m still scared I’ve
done this thing that I did not expect to
do all I wanted was a few people in
Detroit to have access to one another to
know their neighbor and now all over the
world these people are like I want to do
this too and I’ve said oh okay
so now I’m tacit this model of trying to
provide access to resources and doing a
global storytelling platform if you guys
want to help me do that or start your
own man I will help you in a heartbeat
you are the most important person in
starting this soup I always think that
in Detroit we have this perspective that
if another large corporation would come
in would be okay and what we found is
that we needed to be okay we needed to
be the global changemakers because we
would just change our neighborhood we
would change ourselves we would change
our homes and I think as I’ve been able
to travel the more I’m realizing is that
we have to pick a place and when we’re
there we need to dive in we need to dig
in and we need to root ourselves I don’t
do this alone this is my tribe these are
my people some of them it’s my family as
these little cute little girls at the
bottom some of our interns who I coerce
them to help me by drinking beer and
eating pizza my best friends are the
most important people in the world to me
and now I’ve been other fellow
entrepreneurs like this the bottom
corner who we text all the time I
believe in you you can do this and I’m
also part of this Red Bull Academy that
blew my mind is like okay you want to
really help me really take my idea and
move it to the next level and I realized
that it’s not just about me but it’s
about us and these wonderful humans are
doing really impossibly hard things and
very hard places and are excelling and
exceeding and their success helps push
me to do the right thing so if you want
to start a soup you can go on this fancy
Internet we’ve all heard about and you
can go to Detroit soup calm there’s a
little button that says start a soup
click on that a big orange button will
show up and says download the why and
the how download that read through it
and you can make your community better
cuz it’s not gonna take me to do it it’s
gonna take you to do it so really thank
you for your time and enjoy the rest of
this beautiful evening and I know only
one more person stands between you and a
cocktail so enjoy [Applause]
as I was an introduce my name is Amy
Karl and I am the proud found founder of
Detroit soup which is a micro granting
dinner that funds projects that are
looking to make a city or community
better I wish I could tell you that I
started this project with all these
amazing intentions to change the world
and to make Detroit better none of those
things are true I come from a city that
the language of our town looked a lot
like this building it was vacant it was
empty
no one was there it does have its
problems of poverty lack of access to
the Internet
lack of access to jobs lack of it no
functional public transportation system
and so there are real problems that are
often really stemmed from our problems
of segregation and so soup is a micro
granting dinner where you hear from four
presenters who have four minutes to
share their idea for questions back from
the diners and then the diners get a
chance to eat share connect and vote on
what project they think should win the
five dollar suggested door donation so
we started this dinner in 2010 with an
amazing group of women who had worked on
a women’s event in Detroit celebrating
arts and culture and so our friend Kate
this beautiful woman in the middle said
hey I experienced this dinner around
Chicago our friend Jessica just to the
left of her said well I have it a vacant
space above this bakery that my parents
own let’s just shove all the stuff into
the corner and let’s create this dinner
and so we took empty milk crates we took
old doors we took old wine bottles that
we put water into and we invited our
friends on a snowy Superbowl Sunday to
come and hear from ideas that did not
show up that day
and to hear from ways that we can make
artist lives better and what happened
was as that Detroiters came back and
said well can I pitch any idea and it’s
moves and it’s transformed into a
movement we’re now on any given Sunday
there’s two to three hundred people in
the room who are gathering together
connecting and sharing about ways that
we can communally make Detroit better
not from the top down but from the
bottom up so what is soup other than
just a food well it’s a public dinner
it’s a chance to say all are welcome if
you live in the suburbs if you live in
the city if you’re just traveling coming
through you were welcome to participate
you don’t have to be a resident but we
want to hear and and and hear about
ideas that are making this better
it’s an ethos of community and civic
engagement we need to start with us a
lot of times I always think like there’s
all these other people or other things
that will make me better but really I
have to start with myself and I need to
know who my neighbors are so soup starts
with a way of understanding who my
neighbor is who lives around the corner
and the way that we can civically act
and communicate and talk with one
another because it really is a safe
space it’s not very often I get to sit
in a room with people that look so
different than me that have completely
different values than me I actually have
my master’s degree in theology with an
emphasis in pop culture oftentimes
people ask me what is that and really
it’s about if the church didn’t exist
could we still do we still want to
connect and do we still need to know who
each other are and how do we support the
doers or of our community and that to me
was the answer with what soup is it’s a
practice in democracy I come to you as
an American who’s not very proud of my
president at this moment who thank you
yeah something – yes it’s disgraceful
his ability to hate and for me democracy
is something that is not something you
inherently know but it’s something you
have to practice
this so democracy for me is hearing and
it’s listening and it’s sharing it’s
walking into a voting booth making a
decision and being confident in it this
democratic process means after we hear
from these four presenters we get to
talk with strangers who now have had a
shared experience and ask each other
well what idea are you gonna vote for
and be challenged by people’s
experiences people’s values people’s
beliefs of why this is the right project
it’s also an entry point into the local
entrepreneurship ecosystem oftentimes we
have a million reasons why we shouldn’t
do something why why I’m not ready why
I’m not the right person and really
often times soup is this entry point
because soup says yes and not no soup
allows any idea at any place of ideation
to have four minutes to share with you
and to share their thoughts how they’re
thinking about it and honestly hoping
for feedback and because of what we’ve
learned with doing soup we’ve actually
helped put ideas into an entrepreneurial
ecosystem getting the support and help
that they need to continue to grow the
thing that they’re trying to do another
big thing that I really believe in is
that soup reveals gaps and strengths of
a community here are what people are
capable of doing how they’re willing to
spend their time a lot of these people
have a full-time job that this is just
something they’re trying to do as a side
hustle as a way that you’re trying to
solve for problem x trying to bring
together people in their community or
just solve something and so for me as
I’ve been doing it every year I like to
say take a step back and go whoa there’s
a lot of people pitching about wanting
to start a charity oh you know why
there’s no education in the ecosystem
around how to do it and so all these
people are just trying to do it on their
own rather than being doing it together
as a way of collaborative response and I
love that this is of a relational hub
bringing together various community
so this is about not just about art I
always joked that this is if this is
about urban agriculture I certainly
would not be standing here I don’t know
if you can see it but I have a hot dog
tattooed on my leg I know nothing about
it I’m not spending my free time in the
garden but a lot of people have and a
lot of people do and they’ve learned
more about urban farming and gardening
because of this program because we don’t
say only only art ideas pitch this month
it’s art and entrepreneurs and social
ideas Park cleanups education
initiatives I love that this practice is
built in art and philosophy which means
there’s a lot more unknowns than there
is notes which is someone who’s trying
to really build a non-profit really
frustrates people who love boxes and so
it doesn’t fit in just one box it fits
in many boxes and that the outcomes that
happen at the dinner happened not just
in that moment but it ripples out that
affects things over time and my favorite
thing about soup is that it empowers
women women we do a really bad job of
permitting ourselves to go out and do
something and we’re always looking for
permission myself included I am NOT not
just because I’m on the stage doesn’t
mean that I haven’t gone through it but
we asked for permission from each other
from ourselves and so this dinner gives
women this empowerment that their voice
matters that they matter that their idea
matters and that they are the right
people right here right now to make this
idea happen in their community and
they’ve now heard from 150 to 200 people
that yes we believe in you in 85% of our
winners at soup
are women so what makes suits unique one
is that the presenting idea has to
benefit the city or the community that
it’s in so in Detroit we didn’t say
anyone in aw in the area could pitch it
was just those that are in the city and
not the suburbs and that you don’t use
technology to present so for us we
didn’t have a
projector when we first started but
really what it does is it shows race it
shows class it shows gender it shows how
tech-savvy you are also if I don’t know
how many of you guys have tried to
accept other people’s technologies but I
don’t really want to take someone’s
windows 97 PowerPoint and try to
implement it into Mac 2015 and that it’s
about place place is so important to
this I get a lot of people saying where
did you start a soup Detroit 175 to 180
cities around the world said I want to
do this model and so it takes on a form
that takes on a local personality so
soups impact that’s me at the White
House that was a good day like I shared
yeah thank you thank you one of the best
days of my life to be acknowledged as a
as someone who was a champion for change
and that’s absolutely what I am but
really that 175 people around the world
heard about this story said I want to do
this and does the really hard work of
organizing a very simple dinner that’s
very complex to make happen happen in a
community without you don’t need to ask
permission for it you just download a
guide off of our internet and like I
said it’s all over the worlds and every
continent except Antarctica and it takes
on a personality so close to home at
home the things that I can share is that
there’s two couples who have met and
gotten married that’s one of them right
behind me people have received have
gotten jobs after meeting it’s people
who’ve just moved into town who are
looking for their friend group was able
to meet their friends by by joining a
soup people have changed their
perspective on the city they’ve bought
houses over hundreds of artists have
presented at the dinner showcasing their
work over a thousand ideas have been
submitted to soup for 450 of them have
been able to share I can go on and on
and I’m so proud of this work because
it’s less about me and more about us
what is the soup thing and how has it
really impacted so other than I’ve
shared well the biggest story that’s
ever come out of Detroit soup was our
friend Veronica she makes a coat that
turns into a sleeping bag and hands
these coats out to those who are
homeless while hiring homeless people to
make the coats transitioning them out of
homelessness this inspired my friend Amy
to create a jewelry company called rebel
now as you can see these are jewelry
pieces made out of graffiti that’s
fallen off of buildings which is a an
abundant resource in the city figures
out – melting process well and they also
hire women from these shelters and
transistor’s them out of homelessness by
giving them access to education
financial literacy health and nutrition
training and some of the women with
rebel now have even gone on to help them
buy a home it’s also inspired my friend
David to build a group called Detroit
house horsepower he’s attempting to buy
an old abandoned golf course turn it in
the first urban horse farm and doing
after school and summer programs to help
empower children in Detroit my friend
Michelle saw that there was houses being
foreclosed on it’s a huge problem in
Detroit and for five hundred dollars you
can buy a house in the city and what
happens is is if a family is already
living in it that house these people
could be kicked out of their homes and
so if she saw she started this thing
called the tricycle collective with all
the money that she she helps raise she’s
able to buy these houses back for the
families that live in them but these
ideas translate even now around the
world in Birmingham they’ve created this
gentleman has been able to create
cardboard beds that homeless folks can
sleep on using abundant materials often
in the city spaces in Berlin this
beautiful woman takes clothes that had
been donated to her and repairs clothes
for others in Perth they even do urban
farming there so these ideas translate
not just because Detroit’s so decimated
it’s awful therefore it only can work
there no these ideas are translated
around the world as a way to grow our
ideas and in Sistrunk florida these this
beautiful woman has caught girls how to
create a film from the script to
production and the best thing is is I
didn’t know that this soup existed until
a few months ago where my friend Chad
and I find ourselves in the same program
he’s like I run a soup and I was like
excuse me he said I run a soup and I
thought holy I don’t even understand I
don’t understand what’s happening and
how long and how far this projects is
gonna go and so this is where I’m at
right now is the unknown the future I’m
not quite sure I’m still scared I’ve
done this thing that I did not expect to
do all I wanted was a few people in
Detroit to have access to one another to
know their neighbor and now all over the
world these people are like I want to do
this too and I’ve said oh okay
so now I’m tacit this model of trying to
provide access to resources and doing a
global storytelling platform if you guys
want to help me do that or start your
own man I will help you in a heartbeat
you are the most important person in
starting this soup I always think that
in Detroit we have this perspective that
if another large corporation would come
in would be okay and what we found is
that we needed to be okay we needed to
be the global changemakers because we
would just change our neighborhood we
would change ourselves we would change
our homes and I think as I’ve been able
to travel the more I’m realizing is that
we have to pick a place and when we’re
there we need to dive in we need to dig
in and we need to root ourselves I don’t
do this alone this is my tribe these are
my people some of them it’s my family as
these little cute little girls at the
bottom some of our interns who I coerce
them to help me by drinking beer and
eating pizza my best friends are the
most important people in the world to me
and now I’ve been other fellow
entrepreneurs like this the bottom
corner who we text all the time I
believe in you you can do this and I’m
also part of this Red Bull Academy that
blew my mind is like okay you want to
really help me really take my idea and
move it to the next level and I realized
that it’s not just about me but it’s
about us and these wonderful humans are
doing really impossibly hard things and
very hard places and are excelling and
exceeding and their success helps push
me to do the right thing so if you want
to start a soup you can go on this fancy
Internet we’ve all heard about and you
can go to Detroit soup calm there’s a
little button that says start a soup
click on that a big orange button will
show up and says download the why and
the how download that read through it
and you can make your community better
cuz it’s not gonna take me to do it it’s
gonna take you to do it so really thank
you for your time and enjoy the rest of
this beautiful evening and I know only
one more person stands between you and a
cocktail so enjoy [Applause]
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