Spring Speaker Series Announced By New Hope Historians

NEW HOPE, PA — Native Americans in New Hope, covered bridges, postcard collections and premiered one-act plays will provide a wide variety of topics for the New Hope Historical Society’s twenty-second annual Speaker Series each Monday in April at 5 p.m., when the Logan Inn will generously provide its comfortable, modern Logan Theater for the series.

The April Speaker Series, created by longtime board member Lynn Stoner, kicks off on April 1 when Chief Blue Jay, Barbara Michalski, who was given the name by her grandfather, Bill Thompson, late Chief Whippoorwill of the Unalachtigo (people near the ocean) Tribe of the Turkey Clan. She is a member of Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania (LNPA), and she has immersed herself in the activities of the Nation.

Chief Blue Jay serves on the Tribal Council; and is Tribal Secretary and one of the Storytellers of the Nation. Last year she was appointed Chief of Culture. She has been participating in educating the public by attending events or festivals in the Lenapehokink (Homeland of the Lenape). Blue Jay will present an intimate portrait of Lenni-Lenape life and culture in Bucks County dating back more than eight centuries.

On April 8, R. Scott Bomboy, author, and historian who has frequently written about local history. He is the author of "The Lost Covered Bridges of Montgomery County" and “Wooden Treasures: The Story of Bucks County’s Covered Bridges." Bomboy is also chair of the Bucks County Covered Bridge Society. In his journalism career, Bomboy has received five Edward R. Murrow awards in television, and he currently is the editor-in-chief of the National Constitution Center. Scott will present an in-depth look at the birth, demolition, and preservation of these beloved Bucks County covered bridges.

Postcard collectors and postcrossers are certain to be delighted by Michael Miciak’s presentation on April 15, “Wish You Were Here: New Hope Goes Global with Postcrossing.” It will take a look at New Hope through postcards, past and present and how Michael has shared them around the world through Postcrossing.

Michael Miciak's life-long adventure with postcards began when he was a young boy growing up in Cuba and South Florida. Everyone in his extended family shared their travels by classic picture postcards from Boston to Borneo (His Uncle Henry's being a merchant mariner certainly helped). Later, Michael learned patience by playing international correspondence chess using multilingual form postcards, long before computers and email, a game could last three to five years to countries that do not even exist anymore.

In early 2019, when a chance encounter brought him to Postcrossing, the world-wide postcard exchange phenomenon which led to a series of Serendipitous ( a capital "S" for emphasis!) explorations of the Delaware Valley before, during, and after the pandemic.

There will be no presentation on April 22nd due to the Passover holiday.

The Speaker Series concludes on April 29th with Susan Sandor, award winning advertising copywriter, published writer, playwright, and founder of Playmate Playwrights, who found her “genre groove” in today’s popular ten-minute plays. She has written twenty-four plays to date and has had her plays staged at the Amphitheater at Paxson Hill Farm in New Hope and Hopewell Theater in Hopewell, NJ.

During the height of the pandemic, several of Susan’s plays were read on Zoom with the Fly Eyes Group and Princeton TV. Also, during the pandemic, three of her plays appeared on Zoom for the New Hope Historical Society’s April Speaker Series. Her mission is to bring her works of art to life and make them memorable for the audience.

Susan will present a reading of three plays in person, read by talented, local actors. The first titled, Sallie’s Baby, is about a woman whose biological clock is ticking away and decides to have a baby with the help of her best friend who hooks her up with a man willing to donate sperm only if he is intimate with Sallie.

The second play is a monologue (mostly) titled, Beaten, where an adult talks about domestic and child abuse in a psychiatrist’s office. The third is a two-character play about a woman in her fifties who is recruited to work for the FBI by her younger shooting instructor and SWAT Team Leader.

A reception after each talk will enable participants to meet the speakers and discuss the topics. Admission is free to members of the New Hope Historical Society, and $10 for non-members. Reserve at newhopehistorical.org.