Terry Marone
for keeping alive the tradition of the Gypsy Robe

Terry Marone and the Actors’ Equity’s Advisory Committee on Chorus Affairs, for keeping alive the tradition of the gypsy robe, a good luck charm for countless Broadway chorus lines for more than 40 years. Freighted with good luck mementos, the robe is passed from one chorine to the next each time a new musical opens.

Aurelia Fernández and Margarita Larios
for preserving traditional Mexican culture in New York City

Aurelia Fernández and Margarita Larios, two vibrant grandmothers and activists, for working vigilantly for decades to preserve traditional Mexican cuisine, music, dance, craftwork, and art in New York. Their work is part of the Mano a Mano program of the Center for Traditional Music and Dance.

Reverend Deacon Edgar W. Hopper
for saving the ‘Slave Gallery’

Reverend Deacon Edgar W. Hopper, for saving the ‘Slave Gallery,’ a racially segregated area of seating behind the balcony of St. Augustine’s Church on the Lower East Side. Today the Gallery serves as a potent reminder of how entrenched racism was in the fabric of everyday life in New York, both for the present congregation, largely African American, and all New Yorkers who visit there.

Jim Power
for beautifying the City with distinctive, artful mosaics

Jim Power, New York’s “Mosaic Man,” for beautifying the City with distinctive, artful mosaics for almost 20 years. The artist and Vietnam vet is now at work on what may be his pièce de résistance, a portrait of Abraham Lincoln applied to a lamppost in front of Cooper-Union.

Tina Pratt and the Swinging Seniors
for brightening the world with their shim sham shimmy

Tina Pratt and the Swinging Seniors, for continuing to brighten the world with their shim sham shimmy, even at ages 82 to 93. Ms. Pratt and her group of veteran pros remember the Cotton Club, Apollo Theatre, and the TOBA (“Tough on Black Actors”) circuit of road shows – and more, much more – in careers stretching back more than a half-century.