Association’s „Brunch“
Starting in 2022, the Board of the association regularly invites members of “Jaunimo debatai” to meet in the context of a “brunch” – more precisely, to meet in various cafés around the country and, in this informal setting, to talk about interesting – yet lighter, less stressful – topics with an invited socially active or creative person.
So far, members of our association have had brunch meetings with the entrepreneur Eskedar Tilahun (Vilnius, “Eskedar Coffee Bar”, 19th of June 2022), with whom they talked – over cups of Ethiopian coffee – about her arrival in Lithuania, her challenges and the life lessons she has formulated. There was also a meeting with the journalist Mindaugas Aušra (Vilnius, “Huracán Coffee”, 24th of July 2022), during which they chatted about (investigative) journalism in Lithuania, the public broadcaster, and communication of politicians and of journalists. The third brunch of the association was organised in cooperation with a friend organisation at Vilnius University (the VU Debate Society), to which Algirdas Kumža was invited – signatory, lawyer and former ambassador of Lithuania to Ukraine (Vilnius, “Huracán Coffee Pirkliai”, 4th of September 2022). Over cups of coffee, members of both associations talked to Kumža about his path to politics, Eastern philosophy, diplomacy and the complexity of Ukraine’s political situation in the last decade. We were also delighted to have a brunch meeting with Migle Anušauskaitė, a comics and book author, as well as semiotician (Vilnius, “Demoloftas”, 23rd of October 2022), who we thanked for a very informative conversation about her work, science, book publishing, humour, feminism, Yiddish and the promotion of Jewish culture in Lithuania.
We are very excited about a new initiative launched in 2023 by the members of the association, which aims to take the brunch concept from the capital to other Lithuanian cities. Indeed, the meeting in Šiauliai with the photographer and writer Rolandas Parafinavičius (in Šiauliai, “Valerijonas”, 15th of April 2023) was a great success: During the conversation, the guest talked about his career path, his art, the importance of originality, emotionality and journalistic ethics.
