Date: June 14, 2025

Location: First Church in Boston, MA

Respondents: Rev. Elizabeth Carrier-Ladd

This lecture highlights discussion and clips from the feature documentary Why Are You You? about the Young Religious Unitarian Universalists program where adolescents discovered their true selves and were empowered to inspire positive change in the world. Forty years later, those former participants reflect on how being a part of the program shaped them and still informs their lives today.

Watch full lecture here

Lindsay Caddle LaPointe — connective director, executive producer, and editor of Why Are You You? as well as a former YRUU participant — is a dancer, teacher, choreographer, videographer and an award-winning filmmaker. Her documentary Making Mill Town was awarded a gold award from Spotlight Documentary Film Awards and second place in editing from the Utah Dance Film Festival.  

Dawn MacKechnie — executive producer of Why Are You You? and a former participant in YRUU — is an artist who has had a career in graphic design since 2005. She is an active UU and the Director of Children and Youth Ministry at the Unitarian Church of Barnstable on Cape Cod.

Naomi Kooker — producer of Why Are You You? — is a multimedia award-winning journalist and producer whose eye for detail and truth-seeking cut to the core to tell compelling stories. Naomi’s stories have appeared in The Boston Globe, Boston magazine, Bon Appetit, TimeOut Boston travel guide, Yankee Magazine, and Wine Spectator.

The respondent is Rev. Elka Carrier-Ladd, minister of First Parish in Waltham, Massachusetts.