Andromeda'S Sisters
Andromeda's Sisters
Gail PelletT,
Honorary Chairwoman and 2024 Andromeda's Sisters Award Recipient
Gail Pellett is an award-winning writer, director and producer of TV documentaries and public affairs programs for PBS, many of them in collaboration with Bill Moyers. She has also reported on TV and radio for NBC, CBC (Canada), NPR, Pacifica Radio & WBCN (Boston). Her articles have appeared in the Washington Post Magazine, Mother Jones, the Village Voice, New Age and webzines. Her subject matter has addressed a broad spectrum of issues and ideas ranging from justice, mercy and reconciliation in South Africa to love and romance in 1980 Beijing; from human rights trials involving Salvadoran Generals to religious approaches to the global environmental crisis. In 2016, she published Forbidden Fruit, a memoir about working at Radio Beijing in 1980. Recently her articles, like “Our Lawns are Killing Us,” have been published on the Medium platform.
She began her environmental activism in 1968 working at Barry Commoner’s Environment Magazine in St Louis. As a co-founder of ChangeHampton in 2022, she works with a group of citizen activists to promote and educate our community about restorative landscaping—the creation of healthy, non-toxic, bio-diverse, resilient and sustainable yards and landscapes— through an educational website and the creation of a model Community Pollinator Garden at East Hampton Town Hall.
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She has lived part-time in East Hampton for more than 35 years. She divides her time and activism between East Hampton and Oaxaca, Mexico.
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*Performers and Panelists will be updated on a regular basis.
Champagne Reception With Light Catering
INTRO TO OUR PANELISTS
AM HOMES – Panel Moderator
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A.M. Homes most recent book is The Unfolding. Her previous work includes, This Book Will Save Your Life, which won the 2013 Orange/Women’s Prize for Fiction, Music For Torching, The End of Alice, In a Country of Mothers, and Jack, as well as the short-story collections, Days of Awe, Things You Should Know and The Safety of Objects, the best selling memoir, The Mistress’s Daughter along with a travel memoir, Los Angeles: People, Places and The Castle on the Hill, and the artist’s book Appendix A:
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She is also Chair and Co-Founder of Level Forward, an ecosystem of storytellers, entrepreneurs, and social change-makers dedicated to balancing artistic vision, social impact, and stakeholder return. She also created the nonprofit Peace is Loud, which uses storytelling to advance social movements and the Daphne Foundation, which supports organizations working for a more equitable, fair and peaceful New York City.
Abigail Disney – Panelist
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Abigail E. Disney advocates for real changes to the way capitalism operates in today's world. As a philanthropist and social activist, she has worked with organizations supporting peacebuilding, gender justice, and systemic cultural change. She is a documentary filmmaker who won an Emmy for “The Armor of Light.” Her latest film, “The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales,” which she co-directed with Kathleen Hughes, made its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. The film screened in select theaters and is available on-demand. In Season 4 of the podcast “All Ears,” Abigail used the film as a jumping-off point to ask big-thinking business leaders, union organizers, economists, and others how they would fix our broken economy.
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She is also Chair and Co-Founder of Level Forward, an ecosystem of storytellers, entrepreneurs, and social change-makers dedicated to balancing artistic vision, social impact, and stakeholder return. She also created the nonprofit Peace is Loud, which uses storytelling to advance social movements and the Daphne Foundation, which supports organizations working for a more equitable, fair and peaceful New York City.
Lucy Sexton – Panelist
Lucy Sexton is a Brooklyn-born choreographer, producer, administrator, and performing artist who works in the fields of dance, performance, film, and public advocacy. She is the Executive Director of the cultural advocacy coalition New Yorkers for Culture & Arts which works with a wide range of artists and cultural groups from across NYC to strengthen the sector and advocate for policy and funding to support culture. Prior to that, she served as Executive Director of the NY Dance and Performance Awards, The Bessies, where she worked for ten years with Heather Robles to build The Bessies into an independent organization. From 2013-16 she served as a Consulting Associate Artistic Director of the planned performing arts center at the World Trade Center. As a dance artist she works with Anne Iobst creating and performing the dance performance duo DANCENOISE which was founded in 1983, had a retrospective exhibit and performance at the Whitney Museum in 2015, and premiered a new piece at NY Live Arts in 2018. She has also directed and dramaturged plays by Spalding Gray, Tom Murrin, Nora Burns, and Heather Litteer; and produced documentaries by Charles Atlas for the BBC and Arte.
Minerva Perez – Panelist
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As executive director OLA, she centers her work on the protection, empowerment, and celebration of our Latino community through OLA’s mission to create a safer, healthier, and more equitable East End region for all. Her leadership of OLA spans initiatives related to adolescent mental health, immigration pro bono services, health equity and access, services for elder community members of color, public education with a focus on special needs and enrollment policy across 24 districts, community based collaborations across north and south folks, Latino diversity training offered and administered to 10 East End police departments on a rolling basis, court observation, engagement with all levels of law enforcement to seek clarity of protocols and to create better access regardless of language or country of origin.
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Before joining OLA as executive director in 2016, she was the Director of Residential and Transitional Services for six years at The Retreat, where she ran a 24-hour crisis shelter for adults andchildren fleeing domestic abuse. Minerva holds a theater arts degree from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and founded and ran a nonprofit theater company for eight years in New York City. She continues to work in film and theater. Notably, as featured actress in Soft Voice, an Iranian independent film, as director and producer of Soy María, soy Mujer, her original series of monologues focused on domestic violence, as well as twice directing and producing The Vagina Monologues in English (with cast members Brooke Shields, Blythe Danner, and Julie White) and once in Spanish. She has curated nine OLA Latino Film Festivals which feature Spanish language films and English subtitles meant to bridge cultural interests and create harmony and understanding. She has created and produces two OLA shows on LTV meant to highlight community members and guests of all backgrounds and disciplines: “Conversations with OLA” and “Sabor con OLA”.
Jennifer Ferrin – Performer
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Jennifer Ferrin is an accomplished actor known for her versatile talent and compelling performances in both television, film and theatre. She made her Broadway debut in the award winning comedy The 39 Steps. Some notable on screen projects include Stephen Soderbergh’s The Knick opposite Clive Owen and Mosaic opposite Sharon Stone, AMC’s Hell on Wheels, The Following opposite Kevin Bacon, The Blacklist, Sneaky Pete, The Equalizer, Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin, and American Horror Stories among many others. Her most rewarding role to date is that of mother to her wondrous child River. Jennifer resides in Springs and is honored to be lending voice to NPC: a powerful movement of women, storytellers, and change-makers.
Emma Tattenbaum-Fine – Performer
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Emma Tattenbaum-Fine is a comedy-leaning writer, performer, and producer who appeared as host of HQ Trivia, improvising live in front of a million viewers internationally. She can be seen in Netflix’s “Explained” and has written for Comedy Central (both sketch comedy for live events and stand-up, which she performed as a “Comic to Watch” at Carolines) and New York Theatre Workshop (penning gala scenes and jokes performed by Heidi Schreck, Tituss Burgess, Rachel Dratch, Lea DeLaria, Jeff Hiller, Jeremy O. Harris). As a musical theatre actor, she's appeared in various productions at A Contemporary Theatre of CT (nominated “Best Ensemble” by BroadwayWorld when she played “Schwarzy” in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. She has performed her political sketch comedy and comedic musical compositions at Ars Nova, Joe's Pub, and Upright Citizens Brigade Theater.
Read Emma’s latest stories & essays at EmmaTattenbaumFine.Substack.com, named a “Featured
Substack of 2022.”
Emma has written extensively about growing up raised by two moms, in outlets such as Huffpost’s “Queer Voices” and in the books, The Kids and If These Ovaries Could Talk, as well as appearing on the popular podcast of the same name. Emma is the author of Trash Mermaid, an illustrated book of poems & stories. In 2023, she co-created, produced and performed “The Mister Rogers Variety Hour,” a show that Time Out NY listed as among the weekend’s best NYC happenings. Say hello on Instagram: @emmatattenbaumfine
Starr BUSBY – Performer
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S T A R R Busby (they/she/he/we - all pronouns said with respect) is a Black experimental artist who sings, acts, composes, educates, and is committed to the liberation of all people. A recent recipient of a NYSCA grant, S T A R R leads a music project under their name which will release a debut project in August 2024 - Working Up A Surrender. She is also the lead singer of dance&b band People's Champs (www.peopleschampsnyc.com) which released their latest project, Show Up, in the Fall of 2023. S T A R R has also supported and collaborated with artists such as The Gorillaz, Esperanza Spalding, Son Lux, X Ambassadors, Kimbra, Alice Smith, and Quelle Chris. Selected credits: Rest Within the Wake (James Allister Sprang, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Featured Soloist); (pray) (Ars Nova and National Black Theatre, A Singer, Composer, and Music Director)*Lucille Lortel Award Winner; The Beautiful Lady (La Mama, Boris); On Sugarland (NYTW, co-composer); Octet (Signature Theatre, Paula) *Drama Desk Award Winner; Mikrokosmos, Sterischer Herbst (Graz), Nottingham Contemporary; The Girl with the Incredible Feeling, Spoleto Festival dei Due Mondi. All music available via Bandcamp and all streaming services. Love, gratitude and ashé to my blessed honorable ancestors, especially MME. www.https://linktr.ee/S_T_A_R_R