Nine East End Students Featured In Inaugural Hamptons Teen PechaKucha Night

On Friday, February 27th, the Parrish Art Museum is handing over its popular PechaKucha Night Hamptons to local youth for the Museum’s inaugural program led by solely teens. Throughout the evening, accomplished middle and high school students from across the East End will be featured in the rapid-fire lecture series curated and hosted by the Parrish four times per year. Each presenter will have 6-minutes and 40-seconds to cover 20 slides that depict their passions and the ideas that inspire them.

Speakers will include Indivi Bacon, Karen Blandon, Sophia Botero, Tycho Burwell, Nina Damiecki, Claire Kunzeman, Chandler Littleford, Leyla Dorph Lowrie, and Lily McGintee.

“We wanted to host a Teen PechaKucha Night to highlight the energy and ideas of the young people in our community,” explained series organizer Andrea Grover, who is the Century Arts Foundation Curator of Special Projects at the Parrish. “These students are millennials and digital natives, and we all can learn from hearing their perspectives on the world.”

Indivi is a sophomore at Southampton High School that is passionate about spreading a feeling of cheer and love to those around her. Along with her peers, Indivi built a school in the secluded mountain agricultural village of Constanza in the Dominican Republic and is planning her third trip there this year.

East Hampton is well represented, with three students from the district speaking. Karen is a junior at East Hampton High School who uses Renaissance period works by Leonardo Da Vinci, Caravaggio, and Botticelli as her muse. “That type of art inspires me to be the artist I want to be and to express my emotions through my art,” she noted. Tycho, an eighth grader at East Hampton Middle School, discovered his love for photography at a young age and even has his own website that showcases his point of view. “My photographs represent a different perspective than what any average person would see,” he explained. Lily McGintee, a junior at the High School, finds the psychology of teenagers fascinating, especially when it comes to ones reliance on electronic devices. “I think some of us have forgotten how to have face-to- face, real conversations with each other,” she said. “Some of my peers hide behind their cell phones, and when they text or use social media they are portraying a completely different person than who they show to the outside world.”

Montauk Public School’s Sophia will speak about her passion for singing. A highlight of the eighth grader’s budding career includes a performance at the Apollo Theater’s “Amateur Night.”

Claire, a senior at Pierson High School, started practicing her comedy skills with Upright Citizen’s Brigade (UCB), the New York City sketch comedy and improv school that counts Amy Poehler as a founder, at just 16. Pierson will also be represented by Leyla, a freshman at the High School, who competes in gymnastic tournaments throughout New York.

Ross School’s Chandler is a bookworm. The eighth grader will talk about the role local bookstores have played in her life.

Admission is $10.

Parrish Art Museum is located at 279 Montauk Highway in Water Mill. For more information, call 631-283-2118 or visit parrishart.org.