Edward Stinson III describes his invitation to speak at last November’s TEDx Delray Beach event as “one of the very few ‘like a dream come true’ moments of my life.” And he didn’t waste a second of his time on the Old School Square stage.
Using the 1922 arrival of pioneering educator Solomon D. Spady to Delray as a pivot point, Stinson’s talk explored a half-century of racial discrimination both preceding and following that eventful year. In a brisk, enlightening and sobering 15 minutes, Stinson addressed what he called the failures of Reconstruction, vagrancy and redlining laws targeting Black Americans, the inequities of separate-but-equal legislation, racist propaganda in popular entertainment, and the construction of Confederate monuments, among other flashpoints.
And he ended with a plea, in the spirit of the conference’s overarching theme of “Ripple Effects”: “This is when I call on you to be an advocate, like Solomon D. Spady. Fight for the priorities of freedom, lest they be usurped by the forces of injustice. Work to preserve history so that we do not unwittingly repeat it or allow it to be erased. Ensure that you learn how to educate others so that we do not allow others to demean our collective potential.”
Stinson’s treatise did not go unnoticed. It even caught the attention of the influential lawyer Benjamin Crump, known colloquially as “Black America’s attorney general,” who represented the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. “In his TEDx Talk, Edward Stinson III talks about the laws passed by wealthy white landowners that were meant to disenfranchise minorities, immigrants, and women,” Crump posted on X. “As he runs down this dark history, it reminds us how much work we have to do to achieve true equity in this country!”
“It was phenomenal” to be recognized by Crump, Stinson says. “I am eternally grateful for that.”
As his name indicates, Stinson, 30, is a third-generation Delray resident. He attended public, elementary and high school here, and remains embedded in several of the city’s institutions. He sees his talk as an extension of his passion for storytelling, which manifests in all areas of his life, whether it’s at the Spady Museum, where he serves as a docent; at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County, where he works as a teen development specialist; at his parents’ publishing company, Visual Adjectives, which offers writing and art classes; and at the Florida Renaissance Festival, in which he has been a performer for the past 13 years.
“In all aspects of my life, I’m a storyteller, and that’s what guides me and drives me,” he says. “Why are stories important? What do they do for us? What lessons do they teach us? As a historian, I tell the stories of history that can connect us all. As an art and writing teacher, I tell people how to create stories. As an actor at the Ren Fest, I act out stories, then teach the stories of history, then bring the patrons into the story.”
The latter stemmed from the Stinsons’ longtime love of fantasy and geek culture; a rewatch of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy is an annual tradition in the Stinson household. His mother has been attending the Florida Renaissance Festival since its inception, more than 30 years ago. At 14, Stinson auditioned for a role in the festival. It began inauspiciously.
“After the whole rehearsal of me attempting to sing ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ and forgetting it after the first verse, and also forgetting my entire monologue, I just started saying [in a low, movie-trailer voice], ‘In a world of one man named Edward, who was once a lifeguard … and also a man …’ I told my whole life story. They said, ‘we love you. Improv is stronger than remembering everything; please join!’”
When Stinson started at the festival, “I had never seen anyone there working who was Black or brown that was above the rank of peasant, vendor or servant,” he recalls. “It blew my mind. I was like, ‘I’m captain of the king’s guard.’ My third year, my mom joined as lady of the queen’s bedchamber, which is right hand to the queen. We were awesomely royal.”
These days, Stinson leads his own encampment at the festival, which completed its 32nd year in March, in Deerfield Beach. Costumed in period pants, shirts, armor, belts and shoulder pads, Stinson represents the Ottoman Empire during the reign of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, a role he takes as seriously as that of his educational contributions to the Spady.
“I continue to be better and better at teaching the history, and connecting history,” he says. “Now, anyone and everyone from all of Africa, the Middle East and Europe can come talk to me and realize how connected they are to the Ottoman Empire.”
Further burnishing his fantasy bona fides, Stinson is the inventor of Cathedr’l, a role-playing game played on a chessboard—and another example of his overlapping interests. “You use 20-sided dice to attack, defend, cause damage, cast spells,” he says. “It’s a lot of storytelling—the accumulation of everything I do.”
This article is from the Summer 2024 issue of Delray magazine. For more like this, click here to subscribe to the magazine.
