A platform for interaction
with some really interesting people
from the audience, staff, and speakers.
at the American School of Kosova
Auditorium
// MAP
By Zach Yentzer
Albana Shala is a poet, a writer, and a mother – a collective experience that has put her on an incredible journey both privately and publicly. Privately, she knows better than anyone the challenges and joys of living with a family member with special needs, inspiring her to combine her writing with motherhood and a wonder for the human condition. This unique optimism, based in tangible reality while simultaneously reevaluating obsolete values, has earned her public acclaim. But it’s not just the private joys or the public successes that inspire Albana to be passionate: it is life itself. “I can’t but be passionate about what I do and create, maybe now more than before,” she says. “Life is just too short to not be passionate.”
It’s this passion that Albana plans to bring to TEDxPrishtina in a two weeks’ time. What that will look like exactly, she’s keeping a surprise. “I can’t say that the presentation will be art, but maybe a story that will create an understanding of children and families of people with special needs.” Albana is also excited that TEDxPrishtina harnesses the power of technology and people to create a platform with global influence to tell stories like hers. “Technology in the internet age enables the word and image to be shared with the entire world at lightning speeds. What is special is that I am able to share this story with people who speak my native language.”
While many see “realization” as an effort aimed towards the future, Albana emphasizes the beginnings as being of equal importance. “Kosovo after 1999 is often compared to a newborn. Although each comparison is not absolute, the birth of Kosovo has been a difficult one, and in this sense Kosovo is still an uncoordinated child, with special needs. She has an Albanian sister, an American godmother, and an old, sophisticated European family.” Continuing in her signature way, Albana tied statehood with motherhood, describing Kosovo today as that newborn child growing older, with a future yet to be formed. “Today Kosovo is a state, with its own flag, its own capital city. These are all notions, words; a birth certificate that will help this child to be registered in kindergarten, in school, in university.”
So what will it take now for this young child to become an adult and realize its full potential? Albana’s answer is straightforward: the story of a people who, together, create a realization from a passionate idea. “The realization of Kosovo is a reality we create from an idea in development. But Kosovo as an idea isn’t the same for everyone that lives there. Some are tied spiritually or economically, while others know where Kosovo is on a map but don’t know that Prishtina is the capital city. Some dream about Kosovo, love her; some use her. Others want Kosovo as a place, but don’t want to recognize her people. But Kosovo’s future depends on its people, on their capacity, on their ability to be happy, to do and to think ahead of time, to reflect, to be at peace with themselves and others.”
And it’s the ability of TEDxPrishtina to give people a voice to tell this story that provides Albana with optimism for the future. “The fact that a group of young Kosovars want to create a tradition, a platform to address issues such as the environment, genetics, and art in both Kosovo and in our globalized world is a step forward in the realization of the idea that is Kosovo.”