Organizational Staff
John Wyszniewski, Director of External Affairs
John is proud to have over 20+ years of experience working directly with artists in multiple capacities. Following a brief career as a performance artist and curator, he focused his attention on marketing and communication in the arts with senior positions at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, School of Visual Arts, Dance Theater Workshop, and Blake Zidell & Associates. In 2017, he founded Everyman Agency, a communications firm promoting complex ideas, mostly in the arts. Their work builds awareness and provokes action for cultural organizations and individual artists by putting impactful storytelling, strategic thinking, and meaningful relationships at the heart of their work. They believe in the power of the media to shine a spotlight on new and underrepresented voices. Everyman Agency specializes in dance, theater, music, visual art, and the compelling work in between.
John is proud to have over 20+ years of experience working directly with artists in multiple capacities. Following a brief career as a performance artist and curator, he focused his attention on marketing and communication in the arts with senior positions at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, School of Visual Arts, Dance Theater Workshop, and Blake Zidell & Associates. In 2017, he founded Everyman Agency, a communications firm promoting complex ideas, mostly in the arts. Their work builds awareness and provokes action for cultural organizations and individual artists by putting impactful storytelling, strategic thinking, and meaningful relationships at the heart of their work. They believe in the power of the media to shine a spotlight on new and underrepresented voices. Everyman Agency specializes in dance, theater, music, visual art, and the compelling work in between.
Dan O'Neil, Director of Program Initiatives
Dan is a New York based writer & theatermaker who grew up on a farm in northwestern Minnesota, where he learned to drive a tractor, use a chainsaw, and identify various star constellations. In addition to supporting AKF, he may also be encountered at the Farmer's Museum in Cooperstown where he works as a historical interpreter and makes brooms. Dan was a member of the 2018-19 Art House Productions writing group, a Playwrights’ Center Core Apprentice and Affiliated Artist, a 2014 member of Bookshop Workshops Playwriting Group, two-time winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Screenwriting Award, and winner of the Mary Marlin Fisher Playwriting Award. Education: BA in performance from the University of Minnesota, MFA in Dramatic Writing from Carnegie Mellon University.
Dan is a New York based writer & theatermaker who grew up on a farm in northwestern Minnesota, where he learned to drive a tractor, use a chainsaw, and identify various star constellations. In addition to supporting AKF, he may also be encountered at the Farmer's Museum in Cooperstown where he works as a historical interpreter and makes brooms. Dan was a member of the 2018-19 Art House Productions writing group, a Playwrights’ Center Core Apprentice and Affiliated Artist, a 2014 member of Bookshop Workshops Playwriting Group, two-time winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Screenwriting Award, and winner of the Mary Marlin Fisher Playwriting Award. Education: BA in performance from the University of Minnesota, MFA in Dramatic Writing from Carnegie Mellon University.
Gerald Fierst, Programming Consultant
Gerald is a performer, writer, and teacher who has appeared throughout the US, England, and Asia telling original stories, stories from his own Jewish tradition, and stories from world folklore as well as leading workshops for teachers and students in writing and performance. He has been featured at numerous festivals around the world including the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesboro, TN. He has served as Artistic Director of the Jewish Storytelling Center at the 92nd Street Y in NYC and as a member of the board of The New York Storytelling Center. He received the JustStories Fellowship to create an original performance piece on the stories of the Abrahamic Tradition for national touring. His book The Heart of the Wedding was released in May, 2011. His audio recordings Monstrous Mischief and Tikun Olam: Stories to Heal the World are Parents Choice Award winners. He is online with scholastic.com inaugurating their storytelling web page Meet the Storyteller. His children's books Imagine the Moon and Bye, Bye, Big will be released by Plum Street Press in spring and fall, 2017, respectively.
Gerald is a performer, writer, and teacher who has appeared throughout the US, England, and Asia telling original stories, stories from his own Jewish tradition, and stories from world folklore as well as leading workshops for teachers and students in writing and performance. He has been featured at numerous festivals around the world including the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesboro, TN. He has served as Artistic Director of the Jewish Storytelling Center at the 92nd Street Y in NYC and as a member of the board of The New York Storytelling Center. He received the JustStories Fellowship to create an original performance piece on the stories of the Abrahamic Tradition for national touring. His book The Heart of the Wedding was released in May, 2011. His audio recordings Monstrous Mischief and Tikun Olam: Stories to Heal the World are Parents Choice Award winners. He is online with scholastic.com inaugurating their storytelling web page Meet the Storyteller. His children's books Imagine the Moon and Bye, Bye, Big will be released by Plum Street Press in spring and fall, 2017, respectively.
Sara Jensen, Tech Support
Sara has been helping Aunt Karen with various technical endeavors since they worked together at Jazz at Lincoln Center in the early 2000's. Sara is currently based in Minneapolis, MN and works in product development for a medical device company that supports patients with Parkinson's Disease. As a longtime lover of the arts in all its forms and environmental causes, she is happy to support Aunt Karen's Farm with technical administrative tasks and help with the website.
Sara has been helping Aunt Karen with various technical endeavors since they worked together at Jazz at Lincoln Center in the early 2000's. Sara is currently based in Minneapolis, MN and works in product development for a medical device company that supports patients with Parkinson's Disease. As a longtime lover of the arts in all its forms and environmental causes, she is happy to support Aunt Karen's Farm with technical administrative tasks and help with the website.
Leadership Team
The leadership team at Aunt Karen's Farm includes an array of artistic and art-loving professionals
who come from a variety of backgrounds to build this ecologically sustainable incubator for art
who come from a variety of backgrounds to build this ecologically sustainable incubator for art
Roger Bartlett is the original guitarist of Jimmy Buffett’s Coral Reefer band. In the early days it was just Jimmy and Roger. After a year as a duo they added a band. Roger is also infamous as the singer and writer of the song "Fool for a Blonde" from the classic horror movie The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. He appears as the leader of his own band doing his original music and as a sideman playing guitar for many other artists. He is currently a member of the rising artist retreat Aunt Karen’s Farm, helping to create a haven for writers, composers, dancers, actors, artisans and storytellers. Roger has shared the stage with many artists over the years. Some of the most notable are: The Eagles, James Taylor, Lightnin' Hopkins, Jackie Wilson, Heart, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, The Doobie Brothers, Jerry Jeff Walker, Charlie Daniels Band, Count Basie, Three Dog Night, the Drifters, Little Feat, and many more.
Seth Bauer (Playwright) was named one of the “People of the Year” for making a significant impact on the New York theatre scene. His plays have been performed throughout the US and in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. They are published by Dramatists Play Service, Samuel French, and Smith & Krause. He holds an MFA in Playwriting from University of Texas at Austin where he was a James A. Michener fellow. He lives in New York City with his partner, Elysa Marden. And when he can get away to rejuvenate and re-charge his creative spirit, he does so at Aunt Karen’s Farm.
Chris Bloom — A contemporary dancer currently living in NYC and working full-time with Ballet Hispánico, Chris is passionate about being on the forefront of the contemporary dance world. As an artist, Chris hopes to create and be a part of work that is bravely truthful and revealing. Since graduating from the Ailey/Fordham BFA Dance Program in 2012, Chris has worked and toured with Parsons Dance, The Peridance Contemporary Dance Company, and Ballet Hispánico (among others) and has grown a deep appreciation for the quite spaces in life. Dance Magazine featured Chris in an August 2017 article, where he discussed finding balance in his artistic life. He is so proud to be an active participant at Aunt Karen’s Farm.
Adele Fournet is a multi-instrumentalist, music producer and video director based in Brooklyn, NY. She is also a music scholar and holds a PhD in Ethnomusicology from New York University. She writes about the intersections of gender, technology, labor, and aesthetics in popular music production. Adele has received support for her research from Fulbright, the NYU McCracken Foundation, and Humanities New York. She has completed artist residencies at Aunt Karen’s Farm and at the Centro Cultural de España - Lima (Peru). Her films have been screened on PBS New York, the NYC Independent Film Festival, and Cine Las Americas Film Festival. Adele’s women-led nonprofit media organization, Bit Rosie, supports the work of female and gender nonconforming artists. Bit Rosie has been written about in Tom Tom Magazine and was a winner of the Humanities New York (HNY) public humanities fellowship in 2018.
Ri Lindegren (Elind Dance Videography) is a freelance videographer and dance artist who collaborates with numerous multimedia, movement, visual, and sound artists and supports social justice and community building endeavors. In the videography and administrative worlds, Ri has worked alongside numerous organizations including Aubin Pictures, Dance Enthusiast Magazine, Hunter College, Americorps, Gibney Dance Center, The Yard, The Renaissance Women Project, Urban Bush Women, BODYART Dance Company, Sarasota Contemporary Dance Company, and indie-rock band The Soon-Another. Ri’s choreographic solo and collaborative work has premiered at Abrons Arts Center, Triskelion Arts Center, Biomorphic Dance Festival, New College of Florida, and Realize Bradenton’s ArtSlam.
G. Neri, is the Coretta Scott King honor-winning author of Yummy: the Last Days of a Southside Shorty and the recipient of the Lee Bennett Hopkins Promising Poet Award for his free-verse novella, Chess Rumble. His books have been translated into multiple languages in over 25 countries. They include the novels Tru & Nelle, Knockout Games, Grand Theft Horse, and Ghetto Cowboy, which was made into a movie starring Idris Elba. In 2017, he was awarded a National Science Foundation grant that sent him to Antarctica to research several upcoming projects. He is a founding member of the Antarctic Artists and Writers Collective. Prior to becoming a writer, Neri was a filmmaker, an animator/illustrator, a digital media producer. Neri currently writes full-time and lives on the Gulf Coast of Florida with his wife and daughter. You can find him online at www.gneri.com.
Madeline Rhodes is a New York-based actor/musician/writer/activist. Favorite theatre credits include Fun Home (The Public), The Country House (Manhattan Theatre Club). Film/TV credits include Not Fade Away, Law and Order SVU, Nurse Jackie. Madeline is the co-founder of Globerollers, a blog that chronicles traveling the world on wheels. The aim of Globerollers is to emphasize the necessity of accessibility while bringing humor and light to the chaos of rolling in a walking world. While at Aunt Karen's Farm, Madeline has collaborated on various writing projects, composed music, and prepared for acting roles. She finds great inspiration in the hay barrels on the open fields, the cuddly goose named Pip, and the continuous flow of artists with various disciplines in and out of AKF. She hopes to be a part of this community for the rest of her life.
Rosey Strub is Director of Programs for the Thornton Wilder Estate, Manager for playwrights Paula Vogel and Ken Ludwig, and Producer of Paula Vogel’s Bard at the Gate reading series. She has worked in stage production, marketing, development and project management for a range of organizations including the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, Ars Nova, National Theatre Workshop for the Handicapped, Summer Play Festival (SPF), Soho Rep, Yale University, and The Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, Greece. She has produced the Kurdish Film Festival at NYU's Kevorkian Center and an international human rights and arts festival with Grupo Cultural Yuyachkani and Yale Repertory Theatre. Rosey holds a BFA in Single Honours Drama and Theatre Studies from University of Kent at Canterbury, UK, and an MFA in Theatre Management from Yale School of Drama
Emily Trower-Young is the founder of Em & El Organics, a handcrafted organic skin care company, and a professionally trained wooden boat builder. Born and raised in Manhattan, she has been involved with Aunt Karen's Farm for most of her life and has been working with Northeast American farming communities for over a decade. She sources all of her ingredients from small family businesses and farms, including raw honey and beeswax locally from upstate New York. Emily speaks frequently on business and gender issues, and still builds wooden boats with youth in the South Bronx.
