More interesting and stimulating events are planned as part of the Anne Hutchinson Year in August.
A canoe trip on the Hutchinson River on Sunday, August 7 and the 2nd Annual Anne Hutchinson Birthday brunch and lunch at Bistro SK at 273 City Island Avenue on Saturday, August 13, will pay tribute to the 17th century colonist and advocate for religious and political freedom.
Local women’s rights activist Toby Leiderman is the coordinator of the year, which celebrates the 420th anniversary of the colonial icon’s birth.
“We are having a brunch and lunch at Bistro SK that will include a presentation by historian Tom Vasti, and feature his unique insights into this heroic pioneer, followed by a question and answer session.” Leiderman said.
The program at the restaurant will also feature historians Bill Twomey and Tom Casey, Leiderman said.
The lecture at the brunch and lunch will focus on the uniqueness of Anne Hutchinson as being a woman who made a major impact in the short time she was a colonist in the Bronx. She is believed to have lived somewhere between the Hutchinson and Bronx rivers on a 300-acre plot of land at a location that has never been exactly determined by historians, Vasti said.
“Until recently, she is the first woman to have a river and parkway named after her, I think that shows how important a personage she is in terms of Bronx history,” Vasti said. “She was able to put her name on the map in the short time that she was here.”
The trip up the Hutchinson River, held in conjunction with the Hutchinson River Restoration Project and the Bronx River Alliance, will feature a new boat that has been purchased by the alliance and one of its members, said Eleanor Rae, the organization’s co-founder.
Christened the Anne Hutchinson, the craft will also feature a woman dressed in the kind of clothing Anne would have worn in the 17th century riding along with canoes into Westchester County.
“The purpose of having the woman in thecolonial dress that Anne Hutchinson would have wore is to draw attention to the event and to the river,” Rae said.
Seating for the canoe trip is limited. Reservations for the brunch on August 13 from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. costs $25 and needs to be made in advance. If you are one of the first 15 reservations you will be eligible to win an autographed copy of “Troubles Daughter” autographed by the author, Katherine Kirkpatrick, a former City Island resident.
For further information contact Leiderman at (718) 885-3423.
