The Anne Hutchinson Year is winding down, but organizers of events commemorating a colonial woman who has three schools, a highway, and river named after her is not over.
Organizers and supporters of the Anne Hutchinson Year, a project that is designed to remember the 420th anniversary of the birth of an early settler of the northeast Bronx who many regard as a feminist and free-speech hero, had it final organizational meeting at Community Board 10’s office on Thursday, October 20.
Lead organizer Toby Liederman, who joined Community Board 10 district manager Kenneth Kearns and historians and history buffs, said that a number of events are upcoming to close out the celebration, which began in February.
“I thought that it was especially important to note that we are also looking forward to her 425th anniversary, and hope that people will step up and volunteer for that celebration,” Liederman said.
The Year has reached out to Congressman Joseph Crowley’s office to see if the Untied States Postal Service would be interested in commemorating Anne Hutchinson with a postage stamp, a process that could take as many as seven years, Liederman said.
Upcoming events that will close the Year includes a roundtable discussion on the life of Hutchinson at Lehman College on Tuesday, November 29 at the rotunda at the College’s Art Gallery, time TBA.
The City Island Theater Group’s production of Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible, which opens on Friday, November 4, also is an appropriate celebration of Hutchinson’s life because the colonial character portrayed in the play, John Proctor, has many of the same experiences that Hutchinson had when she was banished from Massachusetts and settled in what is now the Bronx, Liederman said.
“The play has close similarities to the excommunication and banishment trials of Anne Hutchinson, who stood up for her beliefs and her truths in 1637 and 1638, as did John Proctor in 1692, with both facing tragic consequences,” Liederman said.
The play will be staged through Saturday, November 19 with both matinée and evening performances on weekends, Liederman said. For specifics on when the performances will take place, please call the City Island Theater Group at (718) 885-3066. Productions will take place at Grace Episcopal Church, 116 City Island Avenue.
The Year will also be holding tree planting that will commemorate Anne Hutchinson at the Bartow-Pell Mansion and Museum at 895 Shore Road on Saturday, November 12 at 11 a.m.
A final year-end brunch that remembers Hutchinson will also take place on Thursday, December 1 at 11 a.m. at Arties Restaurant at 394 City Island Avenue. Tickets are $30, and there should be an informal discussion.
For more information on these events, as well as others in Westchester County, please call Liederman at (718) 885-3423.
