Author: florianduijsens

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Dead Ladies Show NYC #27

It was wonderful seeing so many of your shining faces at the last DLS NYC in January! We are pleased to announce that we’ll be back in the Red Room on TUESDAY, March 19 from 7–9pm.

TLDR: TUESDAY, March 19, 7–9pm at the Red Room at KGB Bar! (85 E 4th St, New York, NY 10003, Third Floor.)

BUY TICKETS HERE!

We are charging a $10 cover to defray costs of the event—if this presents any issue, please contact us and we can absolutely work something out.

At this, our twenty-seventh show, be regaled with the tales of a long-lashed puppeteer televangelist; fashion and media maven who helped build a publishing empire; and a Black American activist who spent her life fighting for racial justice. Presented by three women with a deep love for literature, with a smattering of commentary by your devoted hosts.

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TAMMY FAYE BAKKER (1942-2007) was an entertainer, puppeteer, and activist best known for building a televangelism empire and theme park alongside her husband, Jim Bakker, in the 1980s. At four feet eleven, Tammy became known for her heavy makeup and emotive televised appeals, which helped to fund the Bakkers’ lavish spending. After a series of sex and money scandals capsized the ministry, Bakker divorced Jim, battled a drug addiction, and became an unlikely gay icon whose advocacy for AIDS patients broke from Americans’ and conservative Christians’ attitudes of the time.

EUNICE W. JOHNSON (1916-2010) was an African American publisher and fashion icon. Along with her husband, she founded Ebony and Jet magazines. She started the Ebony Fashion Fair fundraiser as a favor for a friend, and then grew it into a traveling fashion show, showcasing black designers as well as haute couture. The Ebony Fashion Fair launched the careers of famous models like Pat Cleveland, and led to the creation of the Fashion Fair cosmetics line, the first makeup line for women of color to be carried in department stores.

BETTY SHABAZZ (1936-1997) was an American educator and civil rights advocate. She is perhaps best known as the wife of the slain Black nationalist leader Malcolm X. Shabazz grew up in Detroit, Michigan, where her foster parents provided shelter from racism. After attending the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, she moved to New York City, becoming a nurse. There, she met Malcolm X and joined the Nation of Islam in 1956. Following Malcolm X’s assassination in 1965, Shabazz raised their six daughters as a widow, pursued higher education, and worked at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, New York.

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Your presenters:

KATELYN BEATY is a book editor who has written for several outlets about religion and gender. She lives in Fort Greene and enjoys birdwatching and karaoke.

CANDACE MUNROE is a retail industry veteran (and looking for a new job, if you have any leads!) She loves food, fashion, and Formula 1, and can be found creating content around all three as @thesinglepantry on TikTok and Instagram.

AMANDA GARRETT is a Brooklyn resident who loves baking, exercise sometimes, and reality TV. She’s currently in a reading era so any book recs are welcomed.

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Dead Ladies Show #35: Phoolan Devi & Therese Giehse!

We’re back! (And welcome to our new newsletter platform! We’ve taken the liberty of keeping you on our mailing list – but let us know or unsubscribe if you’d like to leave the party.) Can this really be our 35th live show in Berlin? That’s crazy! To mark the occasion, we’re teaming up with the very-much-alive presenters of Ms Informed – “the podcast for smart but lazy people” covering feminist news and culture straight from (you guessed it) Berlin.

Our funding woes continue, alas, so both talks will be in English – by your beloved co-host KATY DERBYSHIRE, plus a joint presentation by Ms Informed’s RINA GROB and MADHVI RAMANI, more on whom below! All held together by our passionate podcast producer SUSAN STONE. Learn all about two impressive women who overcame obstacles, pushed boundaries and inspired generations. The aim of the show is to raise money for more podcasts, so we’ve adjusted the non-reduced price to €10, but reduced tickets still cost €4, get them here. Doors open 7.30 pm – come on time to get a good seat!

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PHOOLAN DEVI was an Indian politician and former dacoit, a Robin Hood figure revered as the “Bandit Queen”. Her childhood in late-1960s rural Uttar Pradesh was a time of poverty, caste discrimination and sexualized violence, which continued during her bandit years from the age of 15. Living in ravines, her gang robbed cars and looted higher caste villages, sometimes disguising themselves in police uniforms. Devi became popular among lower castes; there was even a doll made in her image. After a massacre based on gang rivalry, Devi was charged with 48 crimes; she went on the run for two years but eventually surrendered and spent ten years on remand. But the charges against her were dropped and she joined the socialist Samajwadi Party, becoming an MP in 1996 and campaigning for women’s causes and the poor. Understandably, many people have told her fascinating story, including a disputed film of her life, but she dictated her autobiography (Devi was illiterate) to regain control of the narrative. Phoolan Devi was assassinated outside her New-Delhi home in 2001, aged 37. Various attempts to install statues of her have been blocked by the authorities. Her life has inspired folk singers, opera writers, filmmakers and novelists, as well as millions of others.

THERESE GIEHSE acted in movies with Vivien Leigh and Romy Schneider, founded an anti-Nazi cabaret with her lover Erika Mann, was photographed by Annemarie Schwarzenbach, and embodied several of Bertolt Brecht’s best-known characters on stage. Born in Munich in 1898, she went against her liberal Jewish family’s expectations to train as an actor, cast as older characters even as a young woman. The Pfeffermühle cabaret started up in 1933, swiftly moving to Zürich to escape the Nazis. With Erika and Klaus Mann, Giehse toured the political show around Europe, never mentioning any names but using parables and storytelling to rip the piss out of Hitler and his henchmen. She returned to Zürich in 1937, where she joined the outstanding cast at the Schauspielhaus theatre, many of them also emigrants like her. During the war, she performed in the premiere staging of Brecht’s anti-war play Mother Courage, defining the title role in what some directors have called the greatest play of the 20th century. She went on working with Brecht and other key playwrights and directors after 1945, in Munich, Zürich and East Berlin. Therese Giehse maintained her pacifist stance throughout her life, criticising the Vietnam War at public events. She died in 1975 and is buried with her sister in Zürich.

And now for our guest presenters from Ms Informed:

Photo © Dominika Diandini

Madhvi Ramani writes articles, essays, plays and prose. Her most recent children’s book Whisper, Shout, Let it Out (Macmillan, 2023) encourages children to experiment with their voices. Her work has been published in Asia Literary Review, The New York Times and The Washington Post. Her collaboration with the sound artist Lutz Gallmeister, Water Stories, was performed at ACUD Berlin and at the Hamburg Floating Transmissions Festival.

Rina Grob was born in Munich and grew up between Germany and the USA. After a time in film and theatre in London und New York, she now works in Berlin as a producer and podcaster, focusing on the nexus between feminism and pop culture.

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Dead Ladies Show NYC #26

Happy New Year! We’re so excited for you to join us as we embark on SIX YEARS of the Dead Ladies Show NYC. We so appreciate your continued support that makes the whole labor of love worth it! 

DEETS: Wednesday, January 31, 7–9pm at the Red Room at KGB Bar! (85 E 4th St, New York, NY 10003, Third Floor.)

We will start the New Year with a FREE show! (although we will pass the hat for those who want to keep Dead Ladies going!) Join Molly and Sheila as we learn about why the caged bird sings, of a legendary American actress, and of the woman who built the Brooklyn Bridge. 
 

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EMILY WARREN ROEBLING (1843-1903) was a society wife with no formal training in engineering. But when her father-in-law was killed and her husband permanently disabled while trying to build the Brooklyn Bridge, Emily stepped in to finish the job, leading the project to build the longest suspension bridge the world had ever seen. This is the story of a woman who navigated Tammany Hall corruption and enormous engineering challenges to build a New York City icon dubbed the Eighth Wonder of the World, a symbol of the Big Apple that stands proud today. The Brooklyn Bridge exists thanks to the stubborn perseverance of Mrs. Roebling.
 

SARAH BERNHARDT (1844-1923) was widely regarded as the greatest actress of the nineteenth century, She rose from anonymity as the unclaimed daughter of a Parisienne courtesan to performing for enraptured audiences around the world, even those who didn’t know a word of French. Passionate and eccentric, her list of lovers reads like a syllabus for a 19th-century literature class and her hobbies ranged from sculpting to tending pet goats and alligators to sleeping in a coffin. In the words of Mark Twain, “There are five kinds of actresses. Bad actresses, fair actresses, good actresses, great actresses, and then there is Sarah Bernhardt.” 

MAYA ANGELOU (1928 – 2014) was an American author, poet, cook, dancer, traveler and wise soul who always had something to teach people, whether it was the general public, presidents, or celebrities. Her books tackle difficult life topics with poetic ease and passion. As she said, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” Our presenter will tell you the untold story that has lived inside of her since she discovered Angelou’s work. 

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BOB SOROKANICH is a writer and editor who mostly focuses on the car industry and transportation. He lives in Park Slope with his fiancee and their elderly dog Rory. 

NANCY RITTER is a writer in New York City. She sits on the board of Saving Grace, the nonprofit dedicated to preserving the architecture of Grace Church — that big gothic beauty on Broadway just a few blocks down from the Strand. She lives in the East Village and needs more neighborhood friends, so come say hi after the show. 

SYEDA ZAIDI is a Brooklyn resident who loves to travel to different countries when she can, collecting little pieces of art and jewelry. Like the lady she is presenting, “her mission in life is not to merely survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.”

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Podcast #68: June Tarpé Mills

In this episode, the last of Season Six, we bring you a show live from PodFest Berlin! DLS-ers Susan Stone and Katy Derbyshire joined the city’s fine and friendly podcasters at the yearly event in front of a small but perfectly formed audience.

From that event, producer Susan brings us the fascinating story of June Tarpé Mills, a comics pioneer and the first woman to create a female superhero, Miss Fury. The alter ego of socialite Marla Drake, Miss Fury wore a cursed black leopard skin and travelled the world fighting evil (mostly Nazis). She was sexy and smart, and a global hit from 1941–1951, during which she appeared in 100 newspapers, millions of comic books, and on the side of several US bombers. Then she, like her creator, largely disappeared. Decades after her death in obscurity, Mills is finally getting the recognition she deserves, from a headstone for her unmarked grave to induction into the Comic Industry Hall of Fame.

We mentioned our wonderful friend Andy Horn, who introduced us to Tarpé Mills. Read more about Andy here.

Also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Pocket Casts. You can download the transcript, created by Susan, here.

Show notes:

Continue reading “Podcast #68: June Tarpé Mills”
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PodFest Berlin 2023: June Tarpé Mills & Käthe Paulus

We’re delighted to invite you to our second appearance at PodFest Berlin!

Florian, Katy, and Susan will be presenting a mini-Dead Ladies Show at the podcast festival on Saturday, October 14th starting at 8:15pm (doors open 8pm) at Noisy Rooms, Revaler Str. 99, 10245 Berlin (inside House of Music at RAW Gelände). Susan will reveal the writer and artist behind Miss Fury, and Katy will reprise the story of Germany’s first female airship pilot (auf Deutsch this time). See below for more information on the two ladies in question, who will, as always, be presented in a messy mixture of English and German.

Tickets are €12, and you get 23% off with our special promo code “DeadLadies23”! Each ticket covers the Dead Ladies Show plus a half-day pass to festival events on Saturday between 5-10:30pm, including workshops and panels, seminars, and other events! Please book in advance here.

You can also purchase day and weekend passes (23% off with our promo code, or even cheaper with a student discount), which will include our event on Saturday and everything else on offer! This is our last show of the year, and we’d love to see you there.

Can’t wait? Why not listen to our past shows as podcasts? Our latest episode comes direct from DLS NYC, as illustrator Nafisa Ferdous introduces us to Amrita Sher-Gil, a queer, feminist, Hungarian-Indian artist, writer, and art critic who left a profound impact on art despite her untimely death.

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JUNE TARPÉ MILLS created the first female comic-book action hero — Miss Fury, the secret identity of socialite Marla Drake. Mills’ fashionable crimefighter appeared 6 months before Wonder Woman, and won fans for her style, noir storylines, and bouts of self-doubt, although Miss Fury’s kinky costumes and proclivity for putting the ‘strip’ in comic strip got the series banned from several newspapers in the 1940s. Writer and artist June Mills created several other male action characters, and had her own alter ego, turning her middle name into a nom de plume, for a mysterious and possibly more masculine identity.

KÄTHE PAULUS was Germany’s first female airship pilot, a professional aerial acrobat, and the inventor of the folding parachute. On meeting a balloonist, she decided to learn how to pilot a hot-air balloon and perform parachute jumps. Having had his baby out of wedlock, she lost him in a ballooning accident and made a living for herself – and her mother, who she lived with throughout her life – flying balloons, airships, and planes, and jumping out of them, starting her own parachute production line during WWI. And yes, they have named a street at BER after her.

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Dead Ladies NYC #25

Happy September! We’re celebrating FIVE YEARS of the Dead Ladies Show NYC this month—the first edition took place on September 5, 2018 at the illustrious KGB Bar. It has been an extraordinary ride—fascinating women, incredible presenters, and an audience that makes the whole labor of love worth it! (That’s you.)

And now, by popular demand, the information for our next show!

DEETS: Wednesday, September 27, 7–9pm at the Red Room at KGB Bar! (85 E 4th St, New York, NY 10003, Third Floor.) BUY TICKETS HERE!

(As always, if the cover charge presents any issue, please contact us and we can absolutely work something out.)

Join Molly and Sheila as we learn about an influential mother in Christian theology, a Surrealist painter who became part of the French Resistance, and a speed racer who shattered records and expectations in the automotive world!

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MONICA OF THAGASTE (331–387 AD) was the mother, and a major theological interlocutor, of Saint Augustine, considered one of the most influential figures in early Christianity.

MARY REYNOLDS (1891–1950) was an American-born artist and advocate who became a central figure of the Surrealist movement in Paris. A “relentless bohemian” who counted Man Ray, Alexander Calder, Peggy Guggenheim and Marcel Duchamp as close friends, Mary was renowned for her bookbinding, particularly her surprising and unorthodox use of materials like teacup handles, thermometers, and kid gloves. She refused to leave Paris during the Nazi occupation of France, and became a member of the French Resistance. When she was discovered, she narrowly avoided capture by escaping over the Pyrenees on foot, before returning to Paris after the war.

JESSI COMBS (1980–2019) was an icon in the automotive world. Trained as a mechanic, Combs made her name on TV, one of the first women to host a car-repair TV show. In 2013, she set a women’s record in land-speed racing, achieving 398 mph in a jet-powered car built from an Air Force fighter plane. In 2019, Combs died while attempting to break her own record driving that same jet-powered car.

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Your presenters:

SUSANNAH BLACK ROBERTS is senior editor at the magazines Plough Quarterly and Mere Orthodoxy. She and her husband split their time between the Upper West Side and the West Midlands of England.

GRACE ENRIGHT is a Midwest transplant to New York who works in the grocery industry. She loves all things Art History and, if you’re looking, you can find her rewatching “Moonstruck” starring Cher and Nicolas Cage.

BOB SOROKANICH is an automotive journalist and a former editor at Road & Track Magazine. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.

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Dead Ladies NYC #24

***** FIELD TRIP! *****

That’s right, the Dead Ladies Show is hittin’ the road…all the way to 3rd and B, baybee!

BRAND-NEW VENUE/TIME: Tuesday, July 11, 8–10pm at Book Club! (197 E 3rd St, at Avenue B). Buy tickets here:.

At this, our 24th show in NYC, we are finally getting grounded and giving your knees a break—this cozy bookstore/cafe/bar is on the ground floor, so you can grab a cocktail (the “Murder on the Orient Espresso Martini,” perhaps?) and settle in for the evening as we regale you with the life stories of three new Dead Ladies.

Over the course of the evening, we will hear about a bride-turned-cannibal-turned-widow who survived one of history’s most famously gruesome road trips; a mystery lover who not only opened America’s first mystery bookstore, but also wrote the literal book on murder; and a singer-songwriter dubbed “the female Bob Dylan” who disappeared without a trace at age 50. Presented by a math teacher, a journalist, and also YOURS TRULY.

Yours truly,

Molly and Sheila

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SARAH GRAVES (1825–1871) was a new bride in 1846 when she and her husband joined her parents on their journey west from Illinois as part of a group of 81 pioneers traveling to California by wagon train. That group, known as the Donner Party, would become snowbound in the Sierra Nevada mountains later that year, and its survivors—including Sarah, but not her husband—would famously avoid starvation by resorting to cannibalism.

When DILYS WINN (1939-2016) opened the nation’s first mystery bookstore, in 1972, the compact NYC shop didn’t even have a window sign. But inside Murder Ink, one could find British cozies, unsettling gothics, suspense thrillers, novels about hard-boiled detectives, police procedurals and even unpublished manuscripts—some 1,500 titles in all. She went on to literally write the book on murder (a quirky mystery reader’s compendium, which she followed with a sequel) and mastermind a brilliant series of immersive, interactive whodunits. In her work– and her life—Winn was the OG of the RPG.

CONNIE CONVERSE (1924–?) was an American singer-songwriter and polymath. She was active in 1950s New York City, writing songs that were both inflected by the folk tradition and years ahead of her time. Despite her talent, she never achieved success, though some of her work survived to inspire audiences today. After years of mental health struggles, she disappeared in 1974. Neither she nor the car she drove away has ever been found.

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Your presenters:

NORA KRULWICH is math department chair at the Berkeley Carroll School in Brooklyn, NY. Ask her about the three-day Ironman she’s planning this summer.

ALLYSON MCCABE is a journalist whose work is often broadcast on NPR, and her byline appears in the New York Times, BBC Culture, Wired, and other publications. She is also the author of Why Sinéad O’Connor Matters (University of Texas Press, 2023). Visit allysonmccabe.com for more.

MOLLY O’LAUGHLIN KEMPER is a writer and translator in New York City. Her writing can be found in MUTHA and Greener Pastures magazines, and she co-runs the Dead Ladies Show NYC. Heard of it?

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Podcast #63: Djuna Barnes

In this episode, translator Laura Radosh introduces us to the fascinating and troubled writer Djuna Barnes. The journalist, novelist, and artist mixed with everyone from James Joyce to Peggy Guggenheim, and was at the center of Bohemian life in 1920s New York and Paris, though perhaps not quite as much as she would like. Best known (if at all) for her modernist novel Nightwood, Djuna once called herself ”the most famous unknown in the world.”

DLS co-founder Florian Duijsens joins producer/host Susan Stone to muse on Djuna and her circle of modernist Dead Ladies.

If you’d like to get advance tickets for our May show in Berlin they are here. DLS NYC tickets can be purchased here.

Also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Pocket Casts. You can download a transcript, created by Rachel Pronger, here.

Show notes:

Continue reading “Podcast #63: Djuna Barnes”
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Dead Ladies Show #34: Paula Fox, Doreen Massey & Sister Mary Ignatius

We’re thrilled to be back on stage in Berlin on Monday, May 29th! While we await the next round of funding, we’re financially on our own for 2023, so all three of our talks will be in English, which means your beloved co-hosts Florian Duijsens and Katy Derbyshire, plus long-time favorite Agata Lisiak. Learn all about three impressive women who overcame obstacles, pushed boundaries and gave the world lasting treasures. The aim of the show is to raise money for more podcasts, so we’ve adjusted the non-reduced price to €10, but reduced tickets still cost €4. Buy them at Eventbrite. Doors open 7.30 pm, show starts at 8 pm – come on time to get a good seat!

We have more limited space than usual, since were in the CLUB (not the Studio), so please book in advance. And if you’re looking for an opportunity to get dressed up, you know we always appreciate your favorite finery.

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PAULA FOX wrote novels for children and adults, and two memoirs – always a good sign. Her childhood between the USA and Cuba might best be described as itinerant, although harsher adjectives may apply. She had three children, giving the first up for adoption at the age of 21. Her first main job was as a teacher for troubled children, but she began writing in her 40s. Her first novel came out in 1966, the children’s book Maurice’s Room, and the next year she published two more children’s books and one novel for adults. She continued apace, switching to memoir as she approached her 80s. In 2011 she was inducted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame. Paula Fox died aged 93 in 2017.

DOREEN MASSEY was a Marxist social scientist and geographer from the UK. She worked mainly at the Centre for Environmental Studies think tank, and at British early-morning TV fans’ beloved Open University – teaching students who didn’t have access to a traditional university education – and also in Nicaragua, Venezuela and South Africa. That work focused on economic geography and the geography of gender, and she spoke eloquently about place or space as “a pincushion of a million stories”. Her list of publications vies in length with her honors and awards – including a pretty impressive total of six honorary degrees. Like many other utter stars, Doreen Massey declined an OBE. She died aged 72 in 2016.

SISTER MARY IGNATIUS was born in Jamaica as Mary Davies, and became a Sister of Mercy (not the 80s Gothic rock band) at the age of 17. With a short exception, she spent the rest of her life at the Alpha Boys’ School in Kingston, teaching football, cricket, boxing, table tennis and dominoes – but most importantly, music. A lover of jazz and blues, she inspired hundreds of “wayward boys” to become professional musicians, including future Skatalites Tommy McCook and Don Drummond, trombonist Rico Rodriguez and Leslie Thompson, the first black conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. Without Sister Mary Ignatius, who died at the age of 81 in 2003, we might never have had reggae.

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Dead Ladies NYC #23

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose…by which we mean, good news! we’re staying at the Red Room after all for our upcoming Dead Ladies Show NYC!

The Deets: Wednesday, May 24, 7–9pm at the Red Room at KGB Bar! (85 E 4th St, New York, NY 10003, Third Floor.)

BUY TICKETS HERE! 

NB: We are now charging a $10 cover to defray costs of the event—if this presents any issue, please contact us and we can absolutely work something out.

This is our twenty-third show in New York, can you even believe it?? (Neither can we!) Join your fearless hosts, Molly and Sheila, as we dive into the life stories of a Lebanese-Palestinian feminist poet whose voice, long silenced, is just now re-emerging; a Black American activist who spent her life fighting for racial justice after the brutal murder of her son; and a comedy legend who paved inroads for American women in entertainment. Presented, respectively, by a designer, a research professor, and a writer—oh my!

If you want to make sure you don’t miss the next NYC edition, sign up for the dedicated newsletter here. You can also follow the NYC edition on Instagram and Twitter!

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MAY ZIADEH (1886–1941) was a Lebanese-Palestinian poet, writer, translator, and feminist who rose to prominence in the Nahda movement. She hosted a weekly literary salon in Cairo, and her work explored themes of love, identity, and the liberation of women. Yet May’s life is mostly remembered through tragedy and isolation: her dismissal by literary male contemporaries as an “intellectual ornament,” the deaths of her parents and Gibran Kahlil Gibran, and her forced admittance to a psychiatric institution. Today, May’s voice is finally, gradually gaining the resonance it deserves.

MAMIE TILL-MOBLEY (1921–2003) was a relentless Black American social activist and educator. She is best known as the mother of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old-boy who was brutally murdered by two white men in 1955 after being accused of an inappropriate encounter with a white woman. Till-Mobley, an excellent student in her youth, became a force of diligence and eloquence after Emmett’s murder, shedding a glaring light on racial violence in America and advancing the Civil Rights movement. She became a lifelong proponent of racial equity, both as an educator and an advocate for youth living in poverty.

AMRITA SHER-GIL (c. 1913–1941) was a queer, feminist, Hungarian-Indian artist, writer, and art critic who left a profound impact on Indian art. Part of the avant-garde, she was known to be incredibly charismatic and a non-conformist whose work reframed discussions on art and feminism, orientalism, and colonialism. She was able to create a significant body of work and make strides in hybridizing European technique, classical Indian aesthetics, and her own highly affective style before an untimely death from an unsafe abortion at the age of 28. 

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Your presenters:

ROSANA ELKHATIB is a designer, researcher, and curator whose work focuses on the mutual constitution of bodies and spaces across political, social, and religious environs. She is a co-founding principal of feminist architecture collaborative (f-architecture) and currently teaches at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation.

ALYSSA WILSON is a research professor studying age-related brain diseases at Mount Sinai in New York City. She also sings in a cover band and has a pet rabbit who resembles a tiny hippo.

NAFISA FERDOUS is a feminist program manager and illustrator from Queens, NYC. She has lived for nearly a decade in Asia and East Africa working for human rights organizations. Now she tries to make low-ego art and comics at @__petni.