OUR STORY
Why Unity Park.
A park built by its neighbors, and the event that carries its name.
Read the storyGet Multiply ticketsTHE NAME
A name we carry with care.
When we applied for our TEDx license in 2023, TED asked us to take the name of Unity Park. That name belongs to the neighbors who fought for this park, and we work to honor it every year.
WHAT CAME BEFORE
From throwaway zone to the people's park.
For generations, this stretch of the Reedy River held what the city didn't want: a women's prison, trash incinerators, a police shooting range, and a public works yard in a flood zone, right beside the Southernside neighborhood.
When the city first showed neighbors a plan for a new park, Mary Duckett, president of the Southernside Neighborhood Association, stood up and asked where her neighbors were in it. The plan was torn up. They started over, together.
BUILT AT THE TABLE
A park designed by its neighbors.
Development began in 2013. Years of front porch interviews and community planning sessions shaped what you see today, down to the spray park.
“So when you invite people into a cultivated space, then you've created a new lived experience.”
From the Unity Park short film
THE FILM
Told by the people who lived it.
In 2025, we partnered with VisitGreenvilleSC on a short documentary about Unity Park. It features Mayor Knox White, Rev. Stacey Mills, the Legendary James Brothers, and the Southernside neighbors who waited generations for this park.
“How you see Unity Park may just reflect the way you see the world. What you take away from the story may help you change it for the better.”
Closing words of the film
WHAT UNITY MEANS TO US
The park is our blueprint.
Unity Park exists because people who saw things differently kept coming back to the same table until they built something together. That's the room we try to build every year: different voices, one stage, and a shared conversation about what Greenville can become.
Greenville voices, a global stage.
The best ideas from right here, alongside voices from beyond the Upstate, on a stage the whole world knows.
Everyone at the table.
Students, neighbors, founders, and newcomers. All ages, the same seats, the same ideas.
A new theme every year.
Every event builds on the last, with one theme running through every talk.
THE NEXT CHAPTER
Come be in the room.
TEDxUnityPark Multiply. Saturday, November 21, 2026, at Roam Greenville ONE.
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