New Series! Join us as local authors serve up a bite of their new works while enjoying a bagel brunch! Bagels served at 1:00 pm, with author presentations beginning at 1:30 pm. Books will also be available for purchase.
Mace Bugen might have been an achondroplastic dwarf—forty-three inches tall with an average-sized head and a torso set on small, twisted legs—but that didn’t mean he was an idiot or a pushover. In truth, he was smarter than most; over the years, he learned to effectively turn what society in those days called a handicap into a powerful tool he could use to his advantage.
Join author Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer as she traces the life of her amazing uncle Mace Bugen through his journey as a first-generation Jewish-American kid in working class Philipsburg, NJ to become the first celebrity selfie-artists – way ahead of his time. Featuring vintage photos of Mace with his exploits, The Little Gate Crasher captures three decades of American pop culture, seen through the unique lens of Mace and his gate-crashing exploits.
Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer is a freelance writer and educator based in Philadelphia. In addition to The Little Gate Crasher, Kaplan-Mayer’s recent works include The Creative Jewish Wedding Book and The Kitchen Classroom. Kaplan-Mayer is a featured blogger for WHYY Philly Parenting and is a writer and editor for The New Normal: Blogging Disability. As the director of “Whole Community Inclusion” at Jewish Learning Venture, Kaplan-Mayer leads various disability awareness trainings across the Philadelphia Jewish Community.
