Stephanie Gerson is a new media experience designer who recently moved to Providence from San Francisco. She has quickly made her mark on the city with the creation of Providence’s own series of Pecha Kucha nights, the third of which will be held Wednesday, May 13 at 7:20 p.m. at Bravo Brasserie, 123 Empire St., Providence. Gerson talked with Providence Business News recently about what exactly Pecha Kucha is, why Providence is a good place for it, and what she has seen and heard so far .

PBN: Let’s start with the basics. What is Pecha Kucha? How does it work?

GERSON: Pecha Kucha is a monthly format for sharing ideas and networking in which presenters are allotted 20 PowerPoint slides and 20 seconds per slide. Put simply: it’s six minutes and 40 seconds of adult-style show and tell. (Or what I cheekily refer to as “PowerPoint performance art.”)

It originated with architects and other visual designers, and has expanded to attract presenters from all domains of creative activity – activists, animators, arbiters, artists, chefs, cool-hunters, critics, curators, dreamers, entrepreneurs, fabricators, fashionistas, historians, makers, rabble-rousers, scientists – but the experience remains primarily visual. Pecha Kucha began in Tokyo in 2003, has since spread to 180 cities worldwide, and I recently brought it to divine Providence, R.I.

And finally, what you’re most curious about: the word itself. “Pecha Kucha” is a Japanese word for the sound of conversation, equivalent to the English word “chit chat.” Meaning, we characterize the sound of English speaking as “chit chat,” and the Japanese characterize the sound of Japanese speaking as “pecha kucha.” It’s pronounced in three syllables – “pe-chak-cha.” Try it out loud!

PBN: I’ll have to keep trying. Where did you get the idea for Pecha Kucha?

GERSON: I certainly cannot take credit for the idea – ’twas two architects, Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham of Tokyo’s Klein-Dytham Architecture, who conceived of Pecha Kucha as a way to give budding designers a public venue in which to meet, network and show their work. They were clearly onto something, because it grew swiftly in Japan, and within the last six years has spread to 180 cities worldwide – from São Paulo, Brazil, and Budapest, Hungary, to Chattanooga, Tenn., and our very own Providence.

PBN: So why bring Pecha Kucha to Providence?

GERSON: In January, I moved to Providence from San Francisco, where I’d been participating in Pecha Kucha for years. When I decided to make the move, I figured Pecha Kucha would already be here – considering that Providence is home to RISD, and that Pecha Kucha was already hanging out in cities considerably more far-flung.

When I discovered, to my surprise, that there was no Pecha Kucha here, I got the urge to instigate it. That was back in December, before I’d even moved. But it took moving to Providence, meeting people, noticing that everyone has some creative side venture or community service project or Peruvian tea company up their sleeve, realizing that there are more community arts organizations per capita here than anywhere I’ve ever lived, wondering whether it might be Little Rhody’s high unemployment rate that inspires such experimental approaches at economic development, et cetera – it took all of that to actualize the urge.

And clearly Providence was overripe for it: by the time of our first event in March, the lineup of presenters for our second event in April was already full, and May was already filling up! Our first two events have drawn large crowds; we have 163 members in our Pecha Kucha Providence Facebook group (hi – please join), and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.

Besides providing value to the community as a venue for sharing ideas and networking, Pecha Kucha teaches us about our place and cultivates local pride; I think everyone who’s participated – whether as a presenter or an audience member – has been amazed to discover the kinds of things going on right in our hometown. Even the attention from the local media (like this PBN piece right here) bears testament to how Pecha Kucha found fertile soil in Providence.

PBN: How did the first two events go? Which presentations were highlights?

GERSON: The first two events have been a gorgeous success. All the presentations at the first one on March 11th were a highlight: I mean, hey, these folks stepped up to present at a first-time event without knowing what it would be like or how to pronounce its name!

But if I must single out a few highlights: Maia Small and Andrew Thurlow of Thurlow Small Architecture were the only presenters who explicitly went with the theme of the night – which was, fittingly, beginnings – by presenting original sources of inspiration for a few of their projects. In designing a space that would enable different functions in different areas, they looked to the branching structure of chives, and for a space that lured people off of a main thoroughfare and into an enclosed location, they looked to whirlpools. Maia and Andrew are able to reduce an intended design to its most basic function and then find a suitable source of inspiration, oftentimes by “biomimicking.”

The most pleasantly surprising presentation of the night went to John Speck, and I say pleasantly surprising because when I saw his slides – 20 views of the DMV in downtown Pawtucket, better known as the Apex building – I definitely wondered how he’d have something fresh to say for each one. But oh he did. He took us from sunrise to sunset, showing how the Apex building is at times a bothersome eyesore, at times a solemn temple, but always a forceful presence in the visual landscape. John treated his presentation as a performance, which is something I’d love to see more of at Pecha Kucha.

The second event was on Earth Day, April 22nd, and the theme was (also fittingly) green. Sami Nerenberg, the youngest adjunct faculty at RISD and teacher of Design for Social Entrepreneurship, showed her work with local communities to design more beautiful and healthy living environments. Taking inspiration from Obama, she imported the field of community organizing into design, describing her work as “community designing.”

Offering a different, though no less meaningful, interpretation of the night’s theme was Brown Master’s in Public Health student Nathaniel Lepp, presenting “Triboluminescence, Marijuana, and the Future of American Democracy.” A grandiose title, but he lived up to it – taking us on a ride through the physical, psychological and spiritual health benefits of marijuana, its ambiguity vis-à-vis established scientific categories, and the history of its illegalization to the point of militarization (yes, men in fatigues go after the plant). But he ended on a hopeful note, describing the work of the Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition, an organization he co-founded which successfully helped Rhode Island legalize the medical use of marijuana. Changing our relationship with this plant, Nathaniel proposed, is a microcosm for broader democratic change.

PBN: What’s on tap for tonight?

GERSON: The theme for tonight is stimulus. Details can be found on the global Pecha Kucha site, so the only thing I’ll say here is that one of the presentations, which I’m orchestrating, will be a 20-person presentation – still 20 slides, but one person per slide. I’ve never heard of anything like this before and I’m not going to tell you what the presentation is about, save to say that it will certainly be, well, stimulating.

Oh, and I definitely hope to have Mayor Cicilline present at a Pecha Kucha night in the future.•