AEA tag line here

 Onilaja Waters (Speaker). Onilaja Waters began her study of Aesthetic Realism in 1983 in individual consultations, based on this principle stated by Eli Siegel: “The world, art, and self explain each other: each is the aesthetic oneness of opposites.” And she attends many classes at the not-for-profit Aesthetic Realism Foundation, including the Visual Arts and the Opposites, Education Workshop, Drawing: Surface and Depth, Music, and Anthropology. These classes, she says, “have added so much to my understanding of the world, myself, and people of all races.” Ms. Waters is a technical designer for the fashion industry with a wide interest in African and African American history. A subject close to her heart is the village of Weeksville, established in Brooklyn in the 19th century by free men and women, which she has studied in relation to the history of African Americans in Brooklyn. Weeksville became a self-sufficient village of laborers, laundresses, craftsmen, doctors, entrepreneurs and professionals. They were active in anti-slavery, and worked and thrived until the early 20th century, during which time they established schools, an orphanage, elderly home, churches, benevolent associations, newspapers. Ms. Waters is proud that her paternal grandparents were born in Plymouth and in Washington, North Carolina.

Dr. Jaime R. Torres (Speaker). Jaime Torres is an Aesthetic Realism Associate, founder and president of the national coalition Latinos for National Health Insurance, and a frequent speaker on health matters affecting the Latino community. He is a 1999 graduate of the National Hispanic Medical Association (NHMA) Leadership Fellowship, a recipient of the 2006 NHMA Health Leadership Award, and the Dr. Helen Rodriguez Trias National Latino Leadership Award. Hispanic Business magazine selected Dr. Torres as one of “The 100 Most Influential Hispanics in 2009.” He is co-author of Aesthetic Realism and the Answer to Racism (Orange Angle Press, 2004) and a frequent speaker on racism, including its effect on healthcare. His articles in newspapers and professional journals appear nationally in Spanish and English, and address questions of men about love, economics, depression, and racism.

Steve Weiner  (Project Manager).  Steve Weiner earned a BS degree from Hunter College with a major in Communications. He was a Computer Specialist for 30 years with the NYC Department of Education. There he represented workers in disputes with management and was on the Executive Board of Local 2627, part of District Council-37 of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). He has hosted scores of international travelers visiting New York, and delights in sharing the cultural riches of this diverse city.  An Aesthetic Realism Associate, Mr. Weiner takes part in public seminars at the not-for-profit Aesthetic Realism Foundation, discussing the questions of men. Some papers are: “A Man’s Imagination: What Kind is Good?” about the Mexican painter Diego Rivera; “We’re Determined but Are We Right?--The Criteria for Good Determination,” about the Italian artist Alberto Giacometti; “What Do Fathers and Sons Really Want from Each Other?” with a discussion of Rembrandt; and papers on the attorney Clarence Darrow; the novelist Henry James; the sculptor Louise Nevelson.  His art talk on Roy Lichtenstein’s painting, “Stepping Out”, was presented in the Terrain Gallery series, “Art Answers the Questions of Your Life,” and his paper on the “Flower Due,” from the French opera Lakmé was part of the seminar, "We Want to Be Like Music!" In 2009, Mr. Weiner became a coordinator of the international periodical, The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known.

Miriam Weiss (Project Coordinator). Miriam Weiss is an Aesthetic Realism associate, writer and translator. She graduated from C.C.N.Y. with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature.  She has an extensive background in Japanese language and culture, having studied at The New School, Middlebury College, and The Japan American Language Foundation.  She began her study of Aesthetic Realism with its founder, Eli Siegel, in 1975 and currently attends professional classes taught by Chairman of Education, Ellen Reiss.
Ms. Weiss participates in public seminars and dramatic presentations at the not-for-profit Aesthetic Realism Foundation. Her papers on the abolitionist Lydia Maria Child, the writer and educator Kate Douglas Wiggin and such noted American women as the diarist Alice James and Sophia Peabody Hawthorne, demonstrate the unquenchable need in every person to be just. She has discussed current authors as well as works by Dorothy Parker, Arnold Bennett, Anthony Trollope. In "Despite Cell Phones and Email, Why Can't People Really Communicate?" her critique of the popular film set in Tokyo, “Lost in Translation,” made clear the necessity for honest cross-cultural communication. In her talk, “I Learned about Sincerity from Utamaro,” she discusses a wood block print by the 18th century artist Utamaro Kitagawa, and a groundbreaking article—published in many Asian American newspapers--“Japanese and Chinese Characters Show the Beauty of Language,” describes the ethics in Kanji as explained by the Siegel Theory of Opposites.
She is married to Joseph Spetly, data systems manager and sound engineer, and they often collaborate on articles showing how Aesthetic Realism explains the cause and solution to economic injustice and what is necessary for world peace. These articles have appeared in newspapers across America. Subjects include the organizing efforts of apple workers in Washington state, the effect of income on life expectancy, the inhuman working conditions at DeCoster Egg Farms in Turner, Maine; and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and the means to nuclear disarmament.

Monique Michael (Speaker). Monique Michael was born in Haiti. She has an MS in Education from Hunter College (NYC), where she studied with historian John Henrik Clarke and majored in Black and Puerto Rican Studies. An elementary school educator since 1992, she has given papers and conducted workshops on the Aesthetic Realism Teaching Method for the National Council of Teachers of English and National Science Teachers Association. She taught for seven years in East Harlem public schools, and is a Reading Recovery/ Academic Intervention teacher at P.S. 184 on New York's Lower East Side. Mrs. Michael is the author of the groundbreaking article "Children Learn to Read through the Aesthetic Realism Teaching Method." She is a contributor to the books: Aesthetic Realism and the Answer to Racism, and to "The People of Clarendon County"—A Play by Ossie Davis, and the Answer to Racism.

Mugga (Performer - Mary Ragin). Mugga's career in Acting, Stand-up Comedy and Voice Overs began in the 1990's. She can currently be seen in Lee Daniels' Academy Award-winning film, "Precious." Mugga has traveled the world performing Stand-up Comedy for American troops in Germany, Italy, and South Korea. She has also performed at colleges, universities and civic organizations nationwide. She's had the great fortune to work with many great actors and comedians including Chris Rock and Paul Mooney, and has been a featured comedian on BET's Comic View, Russell Simmons' Def Comedy Jam, and HBO's Chris Rock Show. She has appeared in stage productions that include Neil Simon's "Last of the Red Hot Lovers" and August Wilsons' "Fences." 2010 is the second year that Mugga has been working with the Alliance of Ethics & Art's productions of Ossie Davis' "The People Of Clarendon County," directed by Anne Fielding of the Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company. She can currently be seen in a Macys'.com commercial and heard on several Burger King commercials. She hopes for a long, healthy career in film and television and making a positive difference in the world.

Arnold Perey, Ph.D. (Speaker - Aesthetic Realism Teaching Method). Arnold Perey, anthropologist and teacher educator, earned his BA in anthropology from the University of Chicago and his doctorate from Columbia University. His field research was with the Paiute-Shoshone nation in Nevada and the Mountain Oksapmin people of Papua New Guinea, the latter sponsored by the National Science Foundation. His doctoral dissertation, based on Aesthetic Realism, was sponsored by Margaret Mead. He taught at Brooklyn College and Queensborough Community College (CUNY), Seton Hall University, and Drew University. He is on the Aesthetic Realism Foundation faculty where he teaches "Anthropology Is about You and Everyone." His articles include "A New Perspective for American Anthropology: The Philosophy of Aesthetic Realism" (presented at the American Anthropological Association) and "The Real Opposition to Racism." Dr. Perey is in Who's Who in American Education, is a contributor to Aesthetic Realism and the Answer to Racism, and author of Gwe, Young Man of New Guinea: A Novel against Racism, and Were They Equal? an African story for children which he also illustrated.

Zvia Ratz (Production Associate). Zvia Ratz, educator and Aesthetic Realism Associate, was born in Israel.  In 1981, after graduating from Zinman College of Physical Education, she came to the United States. She began her study of Aesthetic Realism in 1982 in individual consultations and in the Aesthetic Realism Teaching Method workshop.  What she learned renewed her love of teaching and after working for many years in the private sector, she returned to college.  In 2008 she graduated from the City University of New York with a BS in mathematics.  In September of that year she began teaching in New York City public schools.  She earned an MA in mathematics education from Brooklyn College in 2010. Ms. Ratz has presented seminar papers on what she has learned from Aesthetic Realism on the subjects of music and education. Articles she wrote and co-authored about the solution to the turmoil in the Middle East have been published in the USA and abroad, and in the book Aesthetic Realism and the Answer to Racism.  She is an Aesthetic Realism Associate and is very grateful to study in professional classes taught by the Chairman of Education Ellen Reiss.

David Bernstein (Director of Photography and Videography). David Bernstein is a noted photographer whose work is exhibited around the country in galleries and museums—including one-man shows in Pamplona, Spain; New York World’s Fair, and more—and is in permanent museum collections. His photographs also appear in newspapers and magazines nationwide. He earned a BPA degree from Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California, and a BA from University of Alaska and the New School in New York, and went on to teach photography for many years. He began his study of Aesthetic Realism with its founder Eli Siegel in 1962, and continues his studies with Ellen Reiss, the Aesthetic Realism Chairman of Education. He is a founding member of the Aesthetic Realism Photographers. His writings on the oneness of opposites in photography and in life are published in newspapers, professional journals, and in books, including Aesthetic Realism: We Have Been There (Definition Press). His  essays on photography in relation to Native Americans, Bronzeville in Chicago, the African Burial Ground, and more, appear in Aesthetic Realism and the Answer to Racism (Orange Angle Press). As director of photography and videography for the nonprofit Alliance of Ethics & Art he has videotaped hundreds of interviews for “The Force of Ethics in Civil Rights” oral history project and educational performance events.

Mary Fagan (Production Associate). Mary Fagan has a BA in English from Radcliffe College and an MA in Education from Teachers College - Columbia University. After working for two years as an NYC elementary school teacher, she went on to study anthropology in a doctoral program at Columbia. She did her fieldwork in Samaná, the Dominican Republic. She worked for two years on a study of community organization among people of African American descent, a deep experience she is still learning about through the principle: “All beauty is a making one of opposites, and the making one of opposites is what we are going after in ourselves." She began her study of Aesthetic Realism in 1980 in consultations and classes at the Aesthetic Realism Foundation, including in the beautiful anthropology class that Dr. Arnold Perey teaches. Her interest in language learning and literacy intensified during her fieldwork, and she has taught ESL for a year in a Bronx elementary school, worked as an adult literacy volunteer for the Queens Public Library, and completed a post-masters certificate in Bilingual Education at Queens College, CUNY. Her passion for photography, which began in Samaná, continues, and her work as an artist now includes printmaking and painting, encouraged by her study in the visual arts classes taught by Nancy Starrels, Chaim Koppelman, Dorothy Koppelman and Marcia Rackow of the Aesthetic Realism Faculty. Ms. Fagan's work has been exhibited at WAHCenter and BWAC, Brooklyn, NY; Cambridge, MA; the People's Republic of China; and in New York City, at the Ceres Gallery, the Art Students League and at the Terrain Gallery. Her letters on the opposition to racism, the anthropological study of the human self, and the economic justice that people deserve have appeared in Long Island newspapers. Ms. Fagan is a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, and her career includes eleven years supporting computer users at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. She provides web and computer support to AEA.

Glenn Mariano (Performer - Rev. DeLaine). Glenn Mariano discovered his love of acting on his native island of Guam. He moved stateside to attend college, where he earned a BA with a major in Theatre Arts from Seattle University. He currently works as a paralegal at a New York City law firm and has a 100-ton Coast Guard Master’s License and pilots a 19th century sailing schooner in New York Harbor. He says, “I am proud to be part of this important presentation. Playing Reverend DeLaine, a man of great faith and strength, has been an honor and I am grateful for the direction of Anne Fielding. Understanding that my purpose as an actor is to see and present the depths of another person, a character, has made me a deeper person. There is nothing more important than learning from Aesthetic Realism how to see people aesthetically, as being both the same and different from ourselves, and learning that contempt is the beginning cause of injustice.”

Allan Michael (Speaker and Performer - William Ragin). Allan Michael is a photographer, an Aesthetic Realism Associate, and one of the first African American maritime captains in the New York harbor. His photographs have appeared in Essence magazine and in gallery exhibitions in New York, including the Terrain Gallery in SoHo and BWAC in Brooklyn, and in Martha’s Vineyard. His photographs also appeared in "Art against Apartheid," the traveling exhibition at major progressive colleges and universities. He is a contributor to Aesthetic Realism and the Answer to Racism. Mr. Michael studies in the class “Acting, Life, and the Opposites,” taught by Anne Fielding, the director of the Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company. He made his acting debut in 2009 as William Ragin in the presentation of The People of Clarendon County and the Answer to Racism at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Jersey City, NJ, and repeated this role at the event took in the Congressional Auditorium in Washington, DC.