Ted Kennedy is an artist originally from Michigan and now based in the Hudson Valley. His work has screened at the Art of the Real, Microscope Gallery, VISIONS, Onion City Film Festival, BAM, Media City Film Festival, Orphans, MoMA, and various psychology conferences.

He currently serves on the board of The Flaherty.

Ted received a BA in Economics from the University of Michigan and an MFA from Bard College.

Shane Herron is an independent scholar whose academic work focuses on eighteenth-century literature, irony, and popular fiction. His book, Irony and Earnestness in Eighteenth-Century Literature, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2022. He has served as a contributing editor for The Scriberlian, and his work has appeared in Theory & Event, SEL, and Eighteenth-Century Fiction, among other venues. His current writing projects examine the rise of humor as a distinct cultural category in the eighteenth century.

Dessane Lopez Cassell is a New York-based critic, curator, and producer. Her work spans the intersections of film and visual art, with a particular interest in artist’s moving image, documentary, and experimental film. Dessane has organized exhibitions, performances, and screenings at MoMA, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Metrograph, Anthology Film Archives, and Bartram’s Garden, among others, and has produced podcasts, campaigns and content for brands including Microsoft, Roskilde Festival, Armani, and Hourglass. Dessane programmed for BlackStar Film Festival from 2018 to 2023, and her writing and cultural criticism has been published in outlets, journals, and books, including the Los Angeles Times, Film Comment, MUBI Notebook, The Criterion Collection’s Current, and Hyperallergic.

Bobby Bingle is an independent scholar whose academic work centers on ethics, philosophy of mind, and Theravada Buddhist philosophy. He is the co-author of Against Happiness (Columbia University Press, 2023), and his research has appeared in respected journals such as Sophia. Bobby earned his PhD in Philosophy from Duke University, an MA in Neurophilosophy from Georgia State University, and a BA in Mathematics from Saginaw Valley State University. Before turning to philosophy, he taught high school mathematics. Currently based in Michigan, he works professionally in data analysis, database management, process improvement, and learning and development, while continuing to pursue his philosophical interests.

Chandra Knotts is a New York–based producer and arts administrator specializing in artist relations, project management, and live events across music and film. Her recent work includes collaborations with Doc Fortnight at The Museum of Modern Art, the New York Film Festival at Film at Lincoln Center, the Tribeca Festival, DOC NYC, the Montclair Jazz Festival, the Saratoga Jazz Festival, and B Natural Management, Inc.

Chandra holds a BA from SUNY Geneseo, where she majored in English Literature and minored in Psychology and Film Studies.

Max Pinson is a musician and arts administrator based in New York City. He was most recently seen as Art Garfunkel on the North American tour of The Simon & Garfunkel Story. He is also a producer for the Cape Cod-based a cappella group, Hyannis Sound, of which he was formerly the business manager.

Max studied at Otterbein University and Southern New Hampshire University earning degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science with a minor in Music.