Sara Sibai

Activist, Artist, Connector, Educator/Teacher, Event planner, Performer

In 2017, Sara co-founded L3b, which is dedicated to leveraging the power of play in groups, organizations and companies to unlock human potential for resilience, creativity and innovation. Over the years, her work has spanned education, teaching drama and leadership and coordinating community service projects at an IB World School in Beirut. She curated TEDxYouth@WellspringLC, the first TEDxYouth event (2014) to take place at a school in Lebanon. She is currently on the board to support the building of the first Montessori School in Beirut (K-12). She has also worked with community spaces, organized and hosted events, and facilitated group workshops for professionals around decision-making, conflict transformation, and group wisdom. She co-founded Lamba Labs-- Beirut's first hackerspace, where people share skills, tinker, make, experiment, and collaborate in unlikely ways. As a spoken word poet, shs co-founded Raw Voices and the Beirut Poetry Slam, supporting emergent poets to find their voice and grow their skill-set. Since completing her MSc in Comparative and International Education at the University of Oxford in 2011, she has been exploring ways to playfully empower others and create more magic in the world.

play, education, art--spoken word poetry, dance, song.

Education, MC/Host, Play, Spoken word poetry

While pursuing my Master's degree in Education in the UK (2011), a friend sent me Ken Robinson's 'Schools Kill Creativity' talk. That was my window into the world of TED. I was so overwhelmed, I wanted to watch everything at once! Soon after, I came to know of TEDx from TEDxOxford, while studying. I got excited about the idea of organizing one in Lebanon. Little did I know that this was already in the making! A few months before returning home for my fieldwork, a friend invited me to TEDxBeirut's first Salon. That friend was William Choukeir, the co-curator of TEDxBeirut 2011. I attended the salon and committed to helping once I returned from grad school. I returned weeks before the main event. I attended my first meeting. 4 hours. I was overwhelmed and unsure I could meaningfully contribute. But co-curator Patricia Zougheib added me to Basecamp anyway. I ended up training a couple of speakers one-on-one, and being the host/mc at the main event. After being on the organizing team for the following two other TEDxBeirut events and a speaker at TEDxLAU 2012, I decided to host the first TEDxYouth event to take place in a school in Lebanon. The experience was phenomenal. Inspired by Patricia's weekly salons at her home outside of the city and because there were only so many friends I could bring along, in 2013, I decided to start TEDxHamraSalon, a bimonthly salon in the heart of the city, a bit bigger than Patsy's and yet more intimate than a main event.

making crazy dance moves.