Meet UNIFY, a group of high school students from Prospect Hill Academy Charter School who have partnered with Together to put on an event this Sunday at the Middle East in order to raise money for the One Fund. The show, also dubbed UNIFY, will feature a diverse collection of artists including Gibby Dance Smack, Code Red the TrendSetter, Lawrence Tiki, and GEO Belizaire. To find out a bit more, we chatted with Shannon Curtin, a student and member of UNIFY.
AP: So tell me about UNIFY. What kinds of things do you guys do? How did you personally decide to join the group?
Shannon: I’m part of a group of high school students from Prospect Hill Academy Charter School in Cambridge Massachusetts. We have the wonderful opportunity during fourth quarter to participate in a service learning project. My group, UNIFY, consists of twelve tenth grade students who partnered up with Together Boston which is held in the MMMMaven studio to learn how to organize a fundraiser event.
How did you guys come up with the idea for this benefit show?
This is our first event as a team and we chose the One Fund because we feel a strong tie to the recent events on marathon Monday (given we have all grown up in the Boston area).
Tell me a bit about the acts who will be performing. How did you go about selecting the lineup? Do any of the acts go to your school?
Some of the artists that are performing are Letia Larok who is a young vocalist, songwriter, and a mother from Boston, Massachusetts. Next, Code Red the TrendSetter is a DJ, Videographer, Designer, Radio Personality, Producer, Entrepreneur & TrendSetter. He also currently interns at Hot 94.5, check out his mix called ‘Enchantment’. Also Lawrence Tiki who is a talented M.C making his debut at the Middle East Lounge. Another is Gibby Dance Smack who is a talented DJ and producer. Lastly we have one of our own named GEO Belizaire, who is a talented young Hip Hop contortionist dancer. We chose local artists that members of the UNIFY team listen to on a regular basis.
UNIFY seems to be very music-centered in a bunch of different ways. What kinds of music do you and your friends listen to?
The UNIFY team and I listen and enjoy all types of music but our favorite genres are Progressive Metal, Hip Hop/Rap, R&B, Synth Pop, Electric, Dance, Alternative, Indie Pop and Top 40.
It seems to me like you have put together a really cool show with some great artists, BUT, if you could put together an event with your dream lineup, who would be on it?
Our favorite artists and dream line up would be Tesserac T, Drake, Holy Ghost, Jennifer Hudson, Bodaga Bamz, Alicia Keys, Beyonce, the Jackson 5 and Doom. As you can see we are a very diverse group of teens musically.