How to Lose Everything: Making Sense of What We’ve All Lost, and Found.
This week we are proud to introduce our newest exclusive speaker: award-winning musician, author, and broadcaster Christa Couture.
As a queer Indigenous woman and mother, and a self-described “cyborg” with a high-tech robotic leg, Christa has experienced life in all its extremes. She once thought she had lost it all: two children, a marriage, and even her leg. But when she moved across the country to start again, she eventually made a new life for herself—one that now includes a book deal, a beautiful and healthy child, and a loving partner. She has been widely published and acclaimed for her writing and her music, and her memoir, How to Lose Everything.
Christa shares her story in a keynote that shares two inexorably linked themes: hopefulness and hopelessness, and how they make life meaningful.
Watch her onstage at IdeaCity to hear a bit more about her life, listen to her gorgeous music, and catch her Walrus Talk about living better from a position of loss. “What I want from you, from us, is to start saying different, not better,” she says from the stage. “When it comes to grief, injury, or great loss—we don’t have to get better.”
Speech Topics:
How to Lose Everything: The Story of a Cyborg Chanteuse
Musician and author Christa Couture has seen her fair share of hardship. Through her son’s heart transplant, his death, his brother’s single day of life, the amputation of her leg as a cure for bone cancer, abortion, divorce, and a move across the country to start over after it all, she has come to know every corner of grief — especially the bittersweet truth that resilience is borne of suffering.
In this keynote-slash-musical performance, Christa shares her remarkable life in story and song. She’s funny, she’s raw, she’s passionate, she’s authentic—she holds nothing back in her inspiring, soul-stirring talks. And she teaches us a fundamental lesson: “There is not always hope,” she says. “There is often hope.” A small but critical distinction that helps us live a more meaningful life.
Never Leave Home Without Your Dancing Leg: Mental Health, Resilience, and Joy
When life feels overwhelming, where do we turn? Award-winning performer, recording artist, and musician Christa Couture thought she had lost it all: two children, a marriage, and even a leg (seriously). When she moved across the country to start again, she eventually made a new life for herself—one that includes a book deal, a beautiful and healthy child, and a loving partner. But this isn’t your typical turnaround story. This is a real life, real-time reflection on mental health, hope, and resilience. Christa reveals how every moment of her past still affects where she is now, and how grief and mental wellness are an ongoing, daily effort. We don’t simply “get over” mental health issues; we must find a way to live harmoniously with our past and allow darkness and light to each have their own rightful place in our lives. We must allow life to disappoint us; to surprise us; to delight us. Like when Christa had her first slow dance at age 35, and she finally learned: “It turns out the robot leg can totally dance—and I can too.”
To book Christa Couture to speak at your event, contact us.
“A remarkable chanteuse, singing superb material.”— Roots Music Canada
