Kenny Mann was born in Kenya in 1946 and lived there until she graduated from the University of Nairobi in 1968, when she “left Kenya for good,” according to her website. If you read only that statement, you might not realize that the filmmaker and writer has never really left, at least not in the ways that really matter.

“My brother Oscar lives there, and I try to go back every year,” she said during a recent conversation at her house in Sag Harbor. Not only was her brother there for a visit, so was Nickson Parmisa, a Maasai chief from Kitengela, a village approximately 20 miles from Nairobi and close by the farm on which Ms. Mann grew up.

Her many projects on Africa include documentary films and a series of books on African history. She speaks Swahili, “better than most white people, but not very well. None of us speak it very well.” Several years ago, she taught film at schools in Kenya.

Her most recent project is “Naisula — A Prayer for a White Woman, Her African Servant, a Shaman, and a Spirit Child,” an epic poem she wrote and has now staged for a performance at Guild Hall on Oct. 3 at 7:30 p.m. as part of the venue’s JDT Lab, which is devoted to works in progress.

“ ‘Naisula’ grew organically out of my lifetime of experiences in Africa,” she said. “Growing up during the colonial period in Kenya, I witnessed some very ugly scenes between white women and their African servants, whom they often treated with utter disdain and cruelty. ‘Naisula’ is based on such a relationship.” 

In the mythical tale, set in Kenya in the late 1950s among the Maasai in the landscape where Ms. Mann grew up, a shaman finds ways to heal the wounded souls of a white woman and her African servant, in part through the intercession of a spirit child named Naisula, a common Maasai name that means “woman of power.”

“For me, that name is a dedication to women, especially to Maasai women, because that’s who I feel most connected to, but also to women everywhere. Women are rising, and women are extremely important in Africa.” 

While Ms. Mann has written poetry before, “I wouldn’t call myself a poet. I just sat down and wrote it. It came very quickly, and I haven’t had to revise it a great deal.” After giving a reading for some friends and realizing it was very visual, she submitted it to Josh Gladstone, the artistic director of Guild Hall’s John Drew Theater.

“I don’t think they knew what they were getting into when they accepted it,” she said, “because many of the JDT Lab shows are staged readings. Mine is almost a full production. I want people to see it, and I want to take it further.”

Ms. Mann has established a page on gofundme.com that will not only help fund the project but will also help Maasai girls in Mr. Parmisa’s village. “I’ve known Kenny for six years now,” he said, “and Oscar for 20. When she comes to Kenya we share with her what we’re going through.” 

One of the challenges he faces is “rescuing” teenage Maasai girls from homes where they may be forced to marry much older men, undergo female genital mutilation, or even be sold off in exchange for livestock. 

“We talk to the girl and tell her it is better for her to go to school and graduate and then be married when she is in a position to support herself in a sustainable way,” he said. In addition, the law stipulates that any girl below the statutory age must be given the opportunity attend school. 

“So when you bring all these things together, we get support from the mother, support from the girl, support from the government and me as a chief, and then in the end we convince the old man that this girl should go back to school.”

“We started Empakasi High School three years ago on village land set aside by our fathers as a site for a local church,” Mr. Parmisa said. “At first a politician wanted to subdivide the land and share it with his friends. I told them no, this land is public, and we must build a school. Then I spoke to a member of parliament, and we were allowed to proceed.”

Opened with two girl students, the school now has 250 girls and 100 boys in attendance and serves as a sanctuary where Maasai girls are relatively safe and can complete their education. A portion of every donation to the project goes to the women of Kitengela and their daughters.

Casting for “Naisula” was done in New York City by Ms. Mann and Sue Crystal, a casting director, who selected 10 actors from almost 200 applicants. The story is narrated by Maria Bacardi, who lives in Springs, and Ms. Mann. There are several monologues but only a few occasions when the characters speak to one another. 

In addition to the white woman (Bevin Bell-Hall), the servant (Lambert Tamin), the shaman (Dianne Nixon), and the spirit child (Adrienne Hardin), six other actors portray ancestors and, in a few cases, double as animals. 

“And then you have these creatures we don’t actually see, including the praying mantis, the hummingbird, the chameleon, and the yellow dog. You hear music, and as I talk about them the stage goes dark so everyone must listen for a moment before the action starts again. Those creatures, especially the praying mantis and the chameleon, always play a big role in African mythology.”

There is also dance, choreographed by Marcea Daiter, that is based on the Katherine Dunham technique and on traditional dances from Rwanda. Lutz Rath (cello) and Tyler Sussman (did­geridoo, flute) composed and will perform the original music.

Sophie Howell of Sag Harbor made baboon masks based on drawings by the Southampton artist Paton Miller and headdresses based on those of the Omo River tribes in Ethiopia. “It has been an extraordinary collaboration between talented local and Manhattan people who are interested in this project,” said Ms. Mann.

The program is free, but advance reservations are required and can be made on Guild Hall’s website.

Music will fill the air starting tonight and going though Sunday as the Sag Harbor American Music Festival celebrates seven years of presenting established and up-and-coming artists to residents and visitors to the village. 

More than 30 free performances will take place on Saturday and Sunday at sites including Windmill Beach, Marine Park, Harbor Books, GeekHampton, the Breakwater Yacht Club, the Whaling Museum, the American Hotel, and the Sotheby’s International Realty stage in the alley adjacent to the hotel. 

The festival starts tonight at 7 at Bay Street Theater with a screening of “Legends of American Music,” a compilation of performances assembled by Joe Lauro of Historic Films Archive of Greenport. Mr. Lauro’s “legends” films showcase past masters of American Music, he said on Friday, this year including “great clips of everyone from Frank Zappa to Otis Redding to Louis Armstrong, great American performers in various genres,” such as those involved in the festival. 

This year, the festival will offer a compilation CD of performances at past festivals and recordings given by participating artists. A release party for the CD will follow the screening of “Legends of American Music” in the theater’s lobby, with a performance by Inda Eaton. Tickets are $20 at the door, $15 in advance at sagharbormusic.org. 

Tomorrow night at 8, Jon Cleary, a New Orleans pianist who won a Grammy Award last year in the Best Regional Roots Album category, will perform at the Old Whalers Church. Tickets are $30. 

Another concert at Old Whalers happens on Saturday at 7 p.m., featuring the Nancy Atlas Project and Hopefully Forgiven, both based on the South Fork. Tickets are $30. All other performances are free and will take place rain or shine. The complete schedule is at sagharbormusic.org. 

“This is a great festival,” said Michael Weiskopf, who will perform with his band on Saturday at 11:30 a.m. on the Sotheby’s stage, “because it always brings out a big, enthusiastic crowd. There are so many locally based East End bands and solo acts, but also established musicians that come out to play because it has become such a popular event.” 

Mr. Weiskopf fronts the Complete Unknowns, a band that performs the music of Bob Dylan and has played at the festival in past years. This year, however, the artist, who has released three albums of original songs, will perform his own music. 

“The festival is wonderful,” agreed Mr. Lauro, who will perform with his group, the HooDoo Loungers, on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. in Marine Park. “It’s a totally grassroots, wonderful event that takes over the entire village.”

If the Environmental Protection Agency gave awards to artists, Ryan Wallace would be on the short list. He has fashioned a career out of using byproducts and remnants from his studio to inspire paintings, sculptures, and other mixed-media works of art in an infinite cycle of re-cycling.

The evidence can be seen at the Elaine de Kooning House in Northwest Woods, where he has tiled the floor with the sides of the molds he uses to cast concrete and plaster cubes. “I stuff the cube with things that don’t make it into my paintings,” he said during a tour of the de Kooning installation and in his studio. The “waste products of one system become the building blocks of another.”

He uses them as “a time capsule,” and a way of letting go from his composition-based approach to painting. “There’s no way to predict how they will come out,” he said.

Mr. Wallace is sharing the de Kooning space with John Riepenhoff, who brought “The John Riepenhoff Experience” and “Handler” series straight from the Whitney Biennial after it closed in June. Like Mr. Wallace, who is an owner of the Halsey Mckay Gallery in East Hampton, Mr. Riepenhoff also owns a gallery, in Wisconsin. The two met when they served on a panel at the Dallas Art Fair.

“The John Riepenhofff Experience” is an ironic take on the grandiose gestures and self-importance rampant in the art world. A wooden box just large enough to accommodate a hole cut out of the bottom for a head and a miniaturized work of art is hung from the ceiling, requiring a ladder to view it. At the Biennial the box was lined in mirrors, in a small version of Yayoi Kusama’s “Infinity Mirror Rooms,” shown there previously. Here, he has showcased a small sculpture by Jerry Torre, made famous by the “Grey Gardens” documentary as the Beales’ “marble faun.” Mr. Torre had been working at the de Kooning house over the past few months.

“Handler” is a clothed, life-size and life-like papier-maché form of a male‚ from the legs up to his waist. It acts as a pedestal for a painting by another artist, in this case Mr. Wallace, who assembled 36 of his tiles into a stand-alone composition. “This is the first time the tiles have been shown as a painting,” he said. With the entire floor covered by the tiles, it looks as if a group of them spontaneously jumped up to form the arrangement. It has a surreal effect, and can seem menacing, as if the tiles were taking over the space.

On the floor, there is no escaping the echoes of Carl Andre and other masters of Minimalist seriality such as Sol LeWitt, but the surface is far from pristine. There might not be a painterly “hand” in the marks on the tiles, which started out as found Plexiglas and have evolved into Masonite over time, but there is no question that the marks have something to do with the artist. Some tiles came to him that way; others bear the splotches and scars of their use as molds for other materials. Still more drips and spatters are collected on the floor of the studio from whatever drops on them.

Regarding them as individual pieces as well as parts of a whole, Mr. Wallace arranges them differently, depending on the space, in a multicolored patchwork. In a tiny gallery in Manhattan, he lined the walls and ceiling with them, creating an immersive environment. “It was oddly sinister. It had a hell-raiser vibe.”

In his studio, he had set out a configuration for an upcoming show at the Institute of Contemporary Art at the Maine College of Art in Portland, along with several paintings he is reworking or considering for the show. “I’m pretty much a cliché,” he said with a smile — “painter in the studio, sitting and staring.”

The gallery —- as well as his young family —- is a way out of the studio and into a more collaborative way of working, typically with friends. Mr. Wallace views it as separate from his own art. “As a person, I’m interested in markets and commerce,” he said. But art summons up a “different part of my personality, involved with beauty and aesthetics. I do not want the gallery to interfere with that.” His sales experience, he said, has helped him realize that there is “no way of knowing when the market will react or what collectors will like.” It has reinforced the notion that chasing a trend is not a good way to pursue making art. 

His paintings are amalgamations. Any one of them cites a laundry list of mediums: oil, enamel, acrylic, pigment, cold wax, canvas, linen, rubber, aluminum, and fiberglass, etc. He has an indirect way of including painting in the work. He might place found material, such as dropcloths or old curtains from his house, on the floor of his studio to collect drops and splatters from work in progress on the wall, or find other ways of introducing it. 

Holding up a piece of fabric streaked with various specks, he explained that “I ran gold through vinyl screens for dottiness, then folded it up so it was crumpled.” He will then cut the material and incorporate it into a composition, where it might be further manipulated, painted, or coated with cold wax.

Mr. Wallace is a composite of art school (Rhode Island School of Design), erudition, and the New York City version of “D.I.Y. skate punk and zine-making culture.” He said he was “never a draftsman, always a painter,” but wanted a way to remove his “very specific hand.” While some artists use silk-screen or photo processes to accomplish this, “I can collect marks but they can go here and there, they become arbitrary, and then I can assemble them into a painting.”

Partially in the lineage of Abstract Expressionism, he sees his work not as assemblage but as paintings that buck “the dogma of medium-specificity.” For artists like Clyfford Still, whose work Mr. Wallace’s can sometimes resemble, “if it wasn’t oil on canvas, it didn’t count . . . he would hate my paintings because of that dogma.” Old-school approaches may “inform them, but at end of day, I’m just trying to make an interesting object.”

The Elaine de Kooning House is open by appointment. Visitors can email [email protected] or call 631-604-5882 to arrange a visit.

When the curtain falls on the 25th Hamptons International Film Festival on Columbus Day, it will have screened 65 features and 50 shorts, hosted several conversations with actors and filmmakers, toasted Julie Andrews, and much more. 

After weeks of offering glimpses of highlights in scattered press releases, the festival announced its full schedule on Monday, including its closing night film, "I, Tonya," about Tonya Harding, the notorious figure skater who was involved in a plot to break the leg of Nancy Kerrigan, one of her 1994 Olympics teammates. The film stars Margot Robbie and Allison Janney and was directed by Craig Gillespie. 

The previously announced opening night film is Allison Chernick's "Itzhak," a documentary on the life and music of Itzhak Perlman, who has a house in East Hampton. The festival's three centerpiece films are "Goodbye Christopher Robin," about A.A. Milne's relationship with his son, by Simon Curtis; "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri," about a mother's unusual reaction to her daughter's murder, by Martin McDonagh, and "Breathe" by Andy Serkis, inspired by the true story of a couple fighting for disability rights after the husband contracts polio.

The festival's spotlight films, those that have distribution or are likely to get it, feature directorial work by Noah Baumbach, Guillermo del Toro, Todd Haynes, Rob Reiner, Joe Wright, and others in entries that are already attracting awards season attention.

"Darkest Hour," Mr. Wright's treatment of the life of Winston Churchill, with Gary Oldman as Churchill, is "played as a 'House of Cards' style thriller‚" with best actor Oscar buzz already in the air, according to The Guardian. Mr. Reiner, who will participate in the festival's A Conversation With series, is also going back into history for "LBJ," in which Lyndon Baines Johnson, as played by Woody Harrelson, rises from senator to president. Reginald Hudlin looks at the early career of Thurgood Marshall, played by Chadwick Boseman, in "Marshall."

Returning to the festival after "Carol" screened in 2015, Mr. Haynes has submitted his new film, "Wonderstruck," based on Brian Selznick's book about two runaway deaf children separated by time and place but strangely interconnected.

Mr. Baumbach joins forces again with Ben Stiller for their third joint venture, "The Meyerowitz Stories," about an extended family with "big questions, richly explored," according to Variety's review of the film's Cannes screening. It also stars Dustin Hoffman and Adam Sandler.

A monster is at the center of Mr. del Toro's "The Shape of Water," which takes place in a government facility during the Cold War.

The other spotlight films are "After Louie" by Vincent Gagliostro, "Call Me by Your Name" by Luca Guadagnino, "Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool" by Paul McGuigan, "In the Fade" by Fatih Akin, "The Yellow Birds" by Alexandre Moors, and "The Tribes of Palos Verdes" by Emmett Malloy and Brendan Malloy.

Among those attending events and screenings will be Julie Andrews, Jamie Bell, Annette Bening, Carter Burwell, Alan Cumming, Josh Gad, Jennifer Garner, Mariska Hargitay, Armie Hammer, Richard Jenkins, Daniel Kaluuya, Diane Kruger, Jordan Peele, Mr. Perlman, Mr. Reiner, Ms. Robbie, Sam Rockwell, Mr. Serkis, and Allison Williams.

Ms. Williams and Mr. Kaluuya will be among the participants in a panel for "Get Out," a breakout film by Mr. Peele, who will attend, that touches on themes evoked by the current political and cultural climate pertaining to race. Eric Kohn, the deputy editor for IndieWire and the chairman of the New York Film Critics Circle, will moderate.

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The festival will have in its Views From Long Island section Ben and Orson Cummings's "Killer Bees," about the Bridgehampton High School basketball team, and Yance Ford's "Strong Island," about the death of his brother in 1992 and a judicial system that failed his family. Josh Klausner's "Wanderland" is set on the South Fork. Another film with local ties is a documentary by Susan Lacy, who has a house in Noyac, on Steven Spielberg, who lives part time in East Hampton. 

Ms. Andrews, who will be presented with a lifetime achievement award at a dinner during the festival, has been involved with the theater community here for decades. A screening of "Victor/Victoria" on Oct. 7, with a discussion following between Ms. Andrews and Alec Baldwin, will be part of the festivities.

The Compassion, Justice, and Animal Rights program will include a presentation of Brett Morgan's "Jane," a documentary about the beginning of Jane Goodall's career as a primatologist and anthropologist, including archival footage recently discovered. Also to be screened in this section is Allison Argo's "The Last Pig."

Films to be shown as part of the Conflict and Resolution program include Rina Castelnuovo and Tamir Elterman's "Muhi -- Generally Temporary," the story of a young boy in Gaza, and Aki Kaurismaki's "The Other Side of Hope," about the intertwining of two individuals at a crossroads in their lives. Ai Weiwei's "Human Flow" and Greg Campbell's "Hondros" were previously announced.

The festival's Air, Land, and Sea program will present Richard Dale, Lixin Fan, and Peter Webber's "Earth: One Amazing Day," narrated by Robert Redford, which follows the natural wonders and creatures of the world over the course of one day. Michael Bonfiglio's "From the Ashes" examines the coal and mining industry and its effect on the economy, health, and climate of the country.

Among the feature films competing this year for HIFF Awards are "11/8/16," a combined effort of several filmmakers compiled by Jeff Deutchman to document last year's Election Day. "Mountain," narrated by Willem Dafoe, is Jennifer Peedom's examination of the world's most impressive peaks. The narrative films include Ali Asgari's "Disappearance‚" about the inherent conflicts between tradition and modernity in Iran, Carla Simon's "Summer 1993," a coming-of-age tale set in Spain, and "Thoroughbreds," Cory Finley's neo-noir thriller about two wealthy but disturbed teenage girls.

In the World Cinema section are a documentary on Kevin Aucoin by Tiffany Bartok and Ruben Ostlund's "The Square," which won the Palme d'Or prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

HIFF will present nine programs of short films this year, including its competition films, New York Women in Film and Television: Women Calling the Shots; Soar! Shorts for All Ages; Student Short Films Showcase; Twist and Shout; I'll Be On My Way; Come Together; and two short films that will play before features.

As usual, there are too many events and films to go into all of them. Each, however, will be listed on the HIFF website and in The Star's annual festival guide, available in the Sept. 21 issue. The festival will take place from Oct. 5 to Oct. 9, and individual tickets will go on sale on Sept. 25.

The intersection of Mary Ellen Bartley, known for her long engagement with the quiet formal qualities of books, and Grey Gardens, a continual source of curiosity and prurient interest, makes no sense in any obvious way. Yet, it has resulted in an unexpected and knockout exhibition at the Drawing Room gallery in East Hampton.

Although the East Hampton property has been owned for decades by the Washington, D.C., media elites Sally Quinn and her late husband, Ben Bradlee, it is famous primarily as the former residence of Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale and Edie Bouvier Beale, the abandoned wife and daughter of Phelan Beale. The pair lived in abject conditions in what had been a well-appointed house in Georgica.

The mother and daughter, known informally as Big Edie and Little Edie, became the subjects of the documentary “Grey Gardens,” by Albert and David Maysles. A fascinating and touching bit of cinéma vérité on its own, it gained traction and rocket fuel from the fact that these women were close relations to the former first lady of the United States, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, who was still married to Aristotle Onassis, one of the richest men in the world, when the film came out in 1975.

In the early ’70s, the Suffolk County Health Department threatened the women with eviction. The house had no running water and was filled with cats, wild animals, and garbage. By the time the filmmakers arrived, however, Grey Gardens had been brought up to code with funds from Mrs. Onassis and Lee Radziwill, her sister. Still, the documentary showed a house rife with decay.

After they bought the house in 1979, Ms. Quinn and Mr. Bradlee fully restored it, and it is now for sale. They found the Beales’ books in a Dumpster and rescued them, according to the gallery. Ms. Bartley, who is based in Wainscott, received access to the books, and has created a body of work from the titles before they likely disappear from their original home.

The books appear to have so taken Ms. Bartley that she has adapted her process to them. Traditionally she has been concerned with the object-ness of books, the way they stack, how the pages subtly reveal themselves when they are cracked open just so, how the bound cloth covers‚ often blue‚ look when placed together in a composition.

There is some of that here, but many of the books come to us in a more traditional way, placed flat on a gray ground, cover up, embossed title exposed, looking much like specimens. The images she has posted on Instagram over the past several months give a false sense of familiarity. These look very little like the small, flat images there. The photos in person seem to breathe and rise off their plain backgrounds as if they are floating slightly above. It is imperative to see them this way to truly experience them.

The grouping of these cover shots in the gallery is skillful and knowing. The titles, which can be witty and poignant, seem to echo certain repeating themes in the story of the women’s lives, which have been reimagined in recent years as a narrative film and as a stage musical.

With the show’s title, “Reading Grey Gardens,” as a guide, the words Ms. Bartley captures either on the front, spines, or frontispieces, matter. Titles are part of the piece. “Cats,” by Ylla, near the very beginning of the show, establishes the tie, and an image of a book plate, “Ex Libris Edith Beale,” along with Little Edie’s signature, adds a personal touch.

There are classics, such as “Mutiny on the Bounty” and “Frankenstein,” and a number of what would be categorized these days as self-help books: “Why Men Like Us,” “The Truth About Beauty,” “Look Younger, Live Longer,” and “Release From Nervous Tension” are some of them. Then there are the signifiers that these women, despite their later circumstances, came from one of the most prominent families in the area, such as “The Riding Club of East Hampton” and the membership rules of “The Maidstone Club.”

Some book bindings are so damaged that no title is left on the covers, which are torn, abraded, or even rotting, with pits and discoloration. Yet the way they are photographed, they could be precious artifacts from a ship’s cargo left exposed to the elements, sea spray, and salt air.

Further on in the gallery is evidence that Ms. Bartley maintains some formalist concerns with these volumes. “Flat Red Book” is precisely that, but “Memoirs of Barras” is a stack of three faded and cantilevered hardcovers. In “This Bright Summer,” she lines up the books by their spines, but the writing on most of them, except for the one used in the titles of the photo, is incomprehensible or torn. The faded spines offer a delightful, but also sad, irony.

There are also a few book “Stacks,” which are like pretty macarons in their gently faded colors of pink, orange, green, and turquoise. This is the Bartley we know better, but the books still look different from what has come before. When she trained her lens on these volumes, she imbued them with consequence and dignity, transforming them from mere ob­jects to relics, and she may have been transformed herself in the process.

The exhibition remains on view through Oct. 15.

Jeremy Dennis at Guild Hall

“Jeremy Dennis: East Hampton Indigenous” will be on view at Guild Hall from Friday, Sept. 29, through Dec. 12. The exhibition features photographs of East Hampton landscapes that have significant archeological, historical, and sacred meaning to the Shinnecock and Montaukett tribes native to the East End.

The photos have been selected from Mr. Dennis’s “On This Site,” a broader project presented in part at the Shinnecock Cultural Center and Museum and at the Suffolk County Historical Society. Mr. Dennis, who lives and works on the Shinnecock Reservation in Southampton, has a B.A. in studio art from Stony Brook University and an M.F.A. from Penn State. His work has been exhibited throughout the United States.

A members-only reception will take place on Oct. 21 from 5 to 7 p.m. In addition, Mr. Dennis will conduct a free digital photography workshop for teenagers on Nov. 7 from 4 to 5 p.m., and will be one of four speakers at Guild Gathering, the cultural center’s creative networking night, on Nov. 16 at 7.

Hamptons Project 

Next up at Ashawagh Hall in Springs is the fourth exhibition by Hamptons Project, a group consisting of Dennis Bontempo, Brian Monahan, Michael Monahan, Christina Friscia, Raul Lagos, and Richard Mothes. 

On view Saturday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., including a reception from 4 to 7, and on Sunday from 9 to 5, the show features oil and acrylic paintings, reclaimed wood furniture and accent pieces, photographs, ink and graphite drawings, and digital artwork. 

New at Tripoli

“Afterlife,” a solo show of works by Angelbert Metoyer, will open at the Tripoli Gallery in Southampton with a reception Saturday from 7 to 9 p.m. and remain on view through Oct. 23.

Mr. Metoyer, who divides his time between Houston and the Netherlands, has said of his work, “Referencing ancient and modern mythologies from all over the world, I explore memory, moment, and social changes in human history. . . . The materials I employ include ‘excrements of industry,’ such as coal, glass, oil, tar, mirrors, and gold dust. With these tools I explore themes of waste and destruction, and existential issues of life and death.”

Cindy Pease Roe Installation

“Beauty and the Beast,” an installation by Cindy Pease Roe, will be on view at the Sag Harbor Whaling and Historical Museum from tomorrow through Oct. 31. A reception will be held on Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m.

The exhibition focuses on whales, the oceans and coastlines, and the threat facing them from plastic litter. It will include paintings and three-dimensional whales and other creations fashioned from discarded objects or materials, including marine plastics, into environmentally conscious art. 

A Greenport resident, Ms. Roe has lived in seaside communities for 30 years. She uses a variety of materials to draw attention to endangered waterfronts and seascapes.

Workshop at Warhol Preserve

Nancy Friese will teach an open-air painting workshop on Monday from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Nature Conservancy’s Andy Warhol Preserve for the Visual Arts in Montauk. Ms. Friese, an artist-in-residence at the preserve, helps artists to translate nature’s textures, colors, movement, and light into works on canvas or paper.

Participants have been asked to bring their own easels, canvas, paints and brushes, or drawing supplies. Reservations are required at 631-329-7689. 

Last week Roisin Bateman, another conservancy artist-in-residence, conducted a workshop in which natural materials found on the shoreline were used to create individual sculptures and group installations. Ms. Bateman will also lead a five-session art workshop for adults at the John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor starting Tuesday morning at 10:30. Registration is required.

Correction

 An email address mentioned in the Sept. 14 profile of Ryan Wallace was incorrect. The correct email is [email protected].

“What if the Victorians had access to digital technology? What would it look like? It certainly wouldn’t look like anything we see today, all of our digital devices wrapped in generic plastic. . . . It would be done in beautiful wood, brass, rivets, and there would be an exposed mechanical element to all of the devices.”

Thus spoke Art Donovan, an artist and designer, on the occasion of the world’s first museum exhibition of Steampunk art at the Museum of History and Science in Oxford, England, in 2010. Mr. Donovan, who lives in Southampton, was the curator of that exhibition, and now he has organized “Odd Beauty: The Techno-Eccentric World of Steampunk,” which will open tomorrow at the Southampton Arts Center and remain on view through Nov. 12. A reception will take place Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m.

Steampunk is often defined as a subgenre of science fiction or science fantasy that began in the 1980s, although its sources range from the mechanical drawings of Leonardo da Vinci to the writings of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne to the streamlined locomotives of Raymond Loewy, among many others.

“Essentially it is a celebration of the art and sciences of the Victorian era turned into physical form,” according to Mr. Donovan. He has noted that some Steampunk artists create devices such as clocks or lamps that work as they should, while others make fantasy devices without practical function.

“This unique exhibition,” he said, “gives me the opportunity to feature true Steampunk art by . . . those artists who invented and continue to define the style with their unique vision.” 

A lighting designer, Mr. Donovan uses a variety of materials in his Steampunk creations, among them solid mahogany and solid brass, but all of them incorporate “some sort of strange illumination or strange light bulbs.” He noted that his Siddhartha Pod Steampunk Lantern, inspired by Wells and Verne, resembles a time travel device.

Participating artists include Tom Banwell, David Barnett, Mike Cochran, Ian Crichton, Mr. Donovan, Dave Duros, Steve Erenberg, Cameron Forrest, Paige Gardner, Eric Freitas, Vianney Halter, Steve La Riccia, Vincent Mattina, Sam van Olffen, Clayton Orehek, Daniel Proulx, Saxon Reynolds, Filip Sawczuk, Todd Sloane, and Stephan J. Smith.

The exhibition’s public programs will feature a day with Paige Gardener, a Steampunk costume maker, on Oct. 7 from noon to 5; a gallery tour with Mr. Donovan on Oct. 8 at 1 p.m.; a documentary about the inventor Nikola Tesla and his ill-fated Wardenclyffe complex in Shoreham on Oct. 13 at 7 p.m., and “She Blinded Me With Science,” a talk and musical performance by Thomas Dolby on Oct. 15 at 6 p.m.

After a three-year hiatus, the 11th annual Artist Birdhouse Auction will take place on Saturday from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Union Cantina in Southampton. It will benefit Lucia’s Angels and the Coalition for Women’s Cancers at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital in their fight against breast cancer. The event is being held in memory of Don Saco, a sculptor, clinical psychologist, and longtime supporter of the breast cancer awareness movement on the East End.

The auction, with tickets priced at $40 in advance and $50 at the door, will include passed hors d’oeuvres, a full bar, and live and silent auctions of one-of-a-kind birdhouses designed by approximately 50 artists, among them Stephanie Brody-Lederman, Arlene Bujese, Eric Ernst, Camille Perrottet, Gabriele Raacke, and Dan Welden.

The birdhouses can be previewed at karynmannixcontemporary. com. Absentee bids can be emailed to [email protected].

The ninth annual Save the Waves film festival, an evening of surf, adventure, and documentary films, will take place tonight at Atlantic Terrace in Montauk. Doors will open at 7, and a program of short films will run from 7:30 to 9.

After an hourlong intermission featuring a band and a raffle, Taylor Steele’s new feature film, “Proximity,” a visceral portrait of modern surfing, will be shown. A cash bar, absent single-use plastic cups, will be open. Guests can provide their own reusable cups or buy a Klean Kanteen pint cup for $10, one drink included.

General admission is $21.99. A V.I.P. reception with filmmakers, for which tickets are $63.99, will take place at 6 p.m. The evening will benefit the coastal conservation programs of the Save the Waves Coalition and World Surfing Reserves.

After graduating from high school, Queen Esther Marrow moved from Virginia to New York City, where she lived with an aunt and worked in the garment district. Three years later, at 22, she found herself in Duke Ellington’s living room, auditioning for him. 

Recalling that day in her blog, Ms. Marrow said, “I was a bag of nerves from the time I started to the time I closed my mouth with the last word.” Though he maintained a poker face while she sang, it wasn’t long before the Duke asked her to perform “Come Sunday” and “The 23rd Psalm” during his 1965 Sacred Concert at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. 

A singular career followed. Ms. Marrow has performed for Presidents Reagan, Bush Sr., and Clinton; Pope John Paul II, and in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s World Crusade, a series of civil rights rallies that also included Jesse Jackson, Sidney Poirier, and Dr. Ralph Abernathy. Her next stop is the Southampton Cultural Center, where she will launch her “Here’s to Life” tour tomorrow evening at 7.

Ms. Marrow has spent much of the last 25 years performing with the Harlem Gospel Singers, a group she formed in 1992 in concert with BB Productions, a German concert producer. The group performed primarily in Europe and recently concluded its farewell tour. Of one of its final shows, in Luxembourg at the Grand Theatre, the reviewer Erik Abbott wrote, “And my-oh-my, did the stately hall swing and rock.”

“Going forward I will be doing solo performances,” she said during a recent telephone conversation. “Southampton is the first stop on the tour, and I’m also in the studio recording, so I’ve got a lot of things I’m doing and want to do. Don’t get me wrong. I love working in Europe, and I love the people there, they are really so warm and kind. But I haven’t been working and singing to the people here in the United States. It is my home, so I want to do that.”

The show will reflect the entire range of her music, with gospel, blues, soul, and jazz, including “Here’s to Life,” “Nice and Easy,” and “Bright Side of the Road,” among many other songs. She will be accompanied on saxophone, bass, and drums.

Before the Harlem Gospel Singers formed, Ms. Marrow worked in concerts, clubs, and on Broadway, where, in 1990, she wrote and starred in “Truly Blessed,” a musical about Mahalia Jackson, her idol and one of the many iconic figures with whom she has shared the stage. Others include Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald, Harry Belafonte, and Lena Horne. 

While Ms. Marrow works out of New York City, she recently moved back to her home in Virginia, where, she said, she can experience “a quietness, compared to New York” and a break from the tour, which will span the United States.

Almost two years ago to the day, she experienced “one of my most memorable moments,” participating in the re-making of the Sacred Concert on its 50th anniversary. “That was a full-circle moment for me, as I was able to stand in the Grace Cathedral and reflect on how far God has brought me since I stood in that very spot 50 years ago.”

Tickets to the concert are $25, $15 for students under 21, and can be purchased at scc-arts.org.