Bowne House Historical Society Proudly Presents: Going Dutch: A Recipe for Freedom in Peter Stuyvesant's New Amsterdam - A Dramatic Journey through the historic roots of our shared religious freedom and cultural heritage.
Saturday, November 18, 2006, 3pm-4pm at St. Mark's Church 131 East 10th Street at 2nd Avenue, NYC. 6 Train to Astor Place.
Reservations Are Recommended: dcartelli@bownehouse.org; Admission: $10, students and seniors $5.
In September 1662, the autocratic Director General Peter Stuyvesant ordered his sheriff, Waldron, to arrest Bowne for violating the ban against citizens entertaining Quakers in their homes. Stuyvesant's law ran counter to the "liberty of conscience" that had been promised under the Flushing Patent, granted by Stuyvesant's predecessor, Governor Willem Kieft in October 1645.
Bowne's refusal to comply with Stuyvesant's law landed him in prison and finally on a ship, in 1663, to The Netherlands for a hearing before the colony's governing body, The Dutch West India Company, which eventually sided with Bowne. Bowne returned to New Amsterdam in 1664, and lived in Flushing until he died in 1695. His success on behalf of the Quakers laid the foundation for the right to religious freedom as codified in the Bill of Rights.
GOING DUTCH weaves together the work of two contemporary writers, Playwright Susan Kathryn Hefti and Novelist Gloria Waldron Hukle, both of whom descend from the historic figures, Hefti from John Bowne and Hukle from Resolved Waldron, whose intersecting stories form the basis of the literary works that will be explored.
GOING DUTCH features a dramatic reading of Hefti's one-act play, A Defiant Soul, which brings to life John Bowne's historic act of civil disobedience in response to Stuyvesant's ban against Quakers from practicing their faith. While the play is set in 1662, the battle of wills that ensues, along with the political freedoms it spawns, resonates, uncannily, in the current global dialogue on civil liberties and individual rights.
Hukle will read from her historical novel Manhattan: Seeds of the Big Apple, which imagines the harrowing life and times of Resolved Waldron, Stuyvesant's trusted sheriff. Manhattan gives voice to the lives of New York's first immigrants who, not only wanted to survive, but thrive in an unfamiliar and often hostile environment.
As New Amsterdam Governor Stuyvesant, the lightning rod that binds these two stories together, is buried in the cold catacombs just beneath St. Mark's Church, the setting for this very special event, there's just no telling what 350 year old issues might be awakened on this daring ride through history.
This special event is sponsored by the John L. Loeb, Jr. Foundation.
Proceeds benefit historic Bowne House.
GOING DUTCH is part of the Second Annual Five Dutch Days in the Five Boroughs: Dutch Art and Culture Past and Present. The City-wide collaboration marks Dutch-American Heritage Day and the continuous influence of Dutch arts and culture in New York City. http://www.5dutchdaysnyc.org/
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Playwright Susan Kathryn Hefti is an active member of the Dramatists Guild of America. Her latest full-length play, Keepin' Cool, was selected as a semi-finalist for the 2004 Princess Grace Award. Her screenplay, Bad Dates, is currently under consideration in Hollywood. Meanwhile, her debut play, Dear Prudence, (2003) has been translated into French for an upcoming Paris production. Hefti is also the recipient of a 2004 PEN American Center Writers Grant.
Novelist Gloria Waldron Hukle is an 11th -generation American in the line of the Dutch Waldron family. Hukle hails from Upstate New York where she lives with her husband, a retired nuclear engineer, and their two dogs. With a keen interest in history, Hukle highlights the character and lives of the immigrants responsible for laying the foundation of America a century before the American Revolution. She is at work on three more novels. For more information please contact www.gloriawaldronhukle.name
The Bowne House Historical Society is a 501 ( c ) 3 non-profit organization, which owns and operates the Bowne House in Flushing, New York . The Society's mission includes the preservation of the house, its collections and grounds for its historical and educational interest, for its significance to the history of New York City and for its importance in the establishment of the fundamental principles of freedom of conscience and religious liberty. Bowne House was built in 1661 by John Bowne, whose courageous stand in defense of religious freedom, resulting in his arrest and imprisonment by Governor Peter Stuyvesant, helped establish the principles later codified in the Bill of Rights.
The Bowne House and its message are quite possibly unique in America. There are few house museums which date from the seventeenth century. The house itself is the best-preserved example of Anglo-Dutch residential architecture in the country and it continues to occupy its original site. The museum is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a designated New York City Landmark.
A microcosm of 300 years of social, cultural and political history, Bowne House is the oldest house in Queens (one of the most diverse counties in the nation) and one of the oldest houses in the NYC. Bowne House was occupied by nine generations of the same family, whose offspring included prominent businessmen, politicians, educators, abolitionists and horticulturalists. http://bownehouse.org/
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