Pharrell, Feeling Happy and Hopeful at Parsons Benefit

“Could you imagine every seed that trees leave behind?” said Pharrell, shortly after walking into the Parsons School of Art benefit at Pier Sixty Monday night. “If Mother Nature made the decision for the seed-bearing trees to no longer bear seeds, if we’d have those trees?” It was a metaphorical response to a question about the importance of giving back, a concept that was pivotal to the recent creation of his Something in the Water music festival in his hometown of Virginia Beach, and which the creative multihyphenate touched upon over the weekend in his commencement speech for the University of Virginia; on Sunday, billionaire Robert K. Smith doubled down on the idea and pledged to pay off the student loans for Morehouse College’s class of 2019. If there’s something in the water, keep it coming. The metaphors didn’t stop with trees, though. The dress code was “creative black tie,” and Pharrell showed up wearing a green hoodie bearing a phrase plucked from the Bible: “Ye must be born again.” Pharrell had more to say later in the evening, but first: dinner. Fellow Parsons Table Award honorees Julie Wainwright, Katrina Lake, and Michael Preysman took the stage to discuss their approach to entrepreneurship and

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