Bordentown Series Celebrates Art and Music

Winter-spring gatherings are an amalgamation of poetry, history and performances that emphasize the cultural heritage of Bordentown.

A winter and spring series of cultural raves around the Old City Hall of Bordentown honors art and music, poetry, and "conversation," commencing the first of February. The program is organized by the Old City Hall Restoration Committee and it features the heritage of the town during the Revolutionary War and bases the spotlight on the voices of regional and international arts.

The first episode of the series is the annual Fanny Parnell Poetry Reading, which indicates the links of the Irish poet to Bordentown and connects it to Beltane and the Day of St. Brigid. Readings will be hosted by local writer Dan Aubrey and another poet, Dan Zibman, from New Jersey, whose works have themes of love, loss, and suspension in their use of poetry, art, and music.

The opening event ends with a performative reading of an adaptation of one act of Ivy Day in the Committee Room by James Joyce that connects once again with historical accounts surrounding the relationship between Irish politics and literature.

These will be followed by three Sunday Soirees with a series of discussions by artists and cultural leaders about the subject of public art, the history of experimental music, and the core New Jersey creative community. These discussions will encourage the discussion of art and music in the past and the present.

The series also ends April 25, the Francis Hopkinson Day, which is part of the America 250 celebration. The program pays tribute to the Hopkinson-America pioneer composer through performances, poetry readings, and creations by New Jersey performers, which strengthens the long tradition of art and music in Bordentown.