Newtown Gallery Brings Notorious Doan Gang To Life In Art, Poetry, And Music

NEWTOWN, PA — ArtWRKD presents “Spirits of the Outlaws: The Doan Gang and Bucks County,” part of its Show and Tell History Series where local history is brought back to life through storytelling, poetry, and original music.

Beginning at 7 p.m. on Saturday, the program revisits the story of the Doan Outlaws, the infamous Bucks County Loyalists whose exploits during the American Revolution became part history, part folklore, and part local legend.

The Doan Gang was composed of approximately 30 members, with its most notorious figures being five brothers and a cousin from the Doan family of Plumstead. Loyal to the British Crown during the Revolution, members of the group were accused of treason, horse theft, robbery, aiding British prisoners of war, and other crimes. Their most famous act occurred close to home: the 1781 robbery of the Bucks County treasury in Newtown.

Rather than presenting that history as a traditional lecture, Show and Tell asks what happens when history is handed back to artists and storytellers.

“Spirits of the Outlaws” brings together three different forms of interpretation — poetry, historical storytelling, and original music — allowing audiences to encounter the Doan story through both documented history and contemporary creative response.

Poetry

Philadelphia poet and fiction writer Michele Townsend will present poetry inspired by the Doan Outlaws and the history surrounding them.

Townsend earned her MFA in fiction from Temple University, where her work explored Bethlehem Steel and the people who helped shape its history. Her published work often draws from the strange, resilient, and sometimes forgotten stories of Pennsylvania. She is currently developing Psalms By Heart, an independent album planned for release in 2027.

Storytelling

Clint Flack, Exhibit Specialist at the Mercer Museum and one of the region’s foremost experts on the Doan Outlaws, will tell the stories behind the legend.

A historian, collector, conservator, fabricator, and researcher, Flack served as chief curator of the Mercer Museum exhibition The Doan Gang: Outlaws of the Revolution. His expertise spans local history, patent research, farming implements, historic artifacts, and conservation, including work at Fonthill Castle.

Flack has also contributed his expertise to local and national documentary productions, including an appearance on Discovery Channel’s Expedition Unknown discussing the Doan Outlaws.

(Clint Flack)

Original Music

The evening will also feature Ben Drake and the Instant Bingo Family Band, a Philadelphia-area folk-rock family band fronted by married couple Ben and Sarah Drake, both Doylestown natives.

Drawing from folk, rock, history, and storytelling traditions, the group has transformed the Doan story into music. Their recent project, Moses Doan, draws its lyrics from H.K. Brooke’s 1843 Annals of the Revolution: Or, A History of the Doans. The band is currently featured as part of the Mercer Museum’s exploration of the Doan Gang.

Ben and Sarah Drake.

History Retold

ArtWRKD’s Show and Tell History Series is built around a simple premise: history should not only be preserved — it should be experienced.

By placing historians in conversation with poets, musicians, storytellers, performers, and other creative voices, the series explores how the stories of Bucks County can be interpreted for contemporary audiences while maintaining a connection to the people, places, and events that shaped the region.

For ArtWRKD, located just steps from where the Doan Gang’s most famous robbery occurred nearly 245 years ago, Spirits of the Outlaws brings that idea particularly close to home.

The evening invites audiences to hear the history, the mythology, and the creative work it continues to inspire — all in the community where part of the story unfolded.

Event Details

What: “Spirits of the Outlaws: The Doan Gang"

When: Saturday, September 19 from 7 to 9:30 p.m.
Where: ArtWRKD, 126 S. State Street, Newtown 18940

Tickets: Tickets are available at artwrkd.com/whats-on