In this episode, we take a jaunt to New York to find out about the talented and difficult Patricia Highsmith. You might know one of her most notorious characters, Tom Ripley, from your Netflix queue (the new series Ripley) or via one of the many films based on what might be Highsmith’s best-known novel, The Talented Mr. Ripley. Highsmith wrote several books that redefined the concept of the thriller, as well as one of the few stories to give a lesbian couple a happy ending.
That novel, The Price of Salt, was adapted into the 2015 film Carol, starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. It was inspired by one of Highsmith’s many obsessive relationships (or in this case, just an obsession) with women. Long a closeted lesbian, Highsmith was engaged to a man (as required by 1950s societal mores) yet aggressively seduced lady after lady.
She also wrote obsessively, was highly ambitious, and kept thousands of pages of diaries written in various languages to avoid spilling her secrets (they have been translated since her death in 1995). She was misanthropic and bigoted, and even her friends considered her unpleasant to be around, but her psychological thrillers have remained classics, partly for how they provide insight into the mind of the criminal.
The talk by writer and educator Hannah Meyer comes courtesy of our friends at Dead Ladies Show NYC. DLS co-founder Florian Duijsens was there for the event in NYC, and he joins producer/host Susan Stone to help introduce the episode.
Find Dead Ladies NYC on Instagram: @deadladiesnyc and follow Hannah Meyer @hannahrenee_m
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.)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
In this episode, we hear once again from our friends at Dead Ladies NYC. Nafisa Ferdous presents Amrita Sher-Gil, a queer, feminist, Hungarian-Indian artist, writer, and art critic who left a profound impact on art despite her untimely death. Sher-Gil was an incredibly charismatic non-conformist whose work reframed discussions on art and feminism, orientalism, and colonialism, while merging European technique and classical Indian aesthetics into something new. DLS co-founder Katy Derbyshire joins producer/host Susan Stone to introduce the story.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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!
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.
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.
Our story for this episode comes from our friends at the Dead Ladies Show NYC, which is organized and hosted by Molly O’Laughlin Kemper with Sheila Enright. Photographer, professional eccentric, and guinea-pig lover JR Pepper (previously on the pod with Mae West) tells the tale of artist Leonor Fini, a glamorous, passionate iconoclast (and cat lover) with a brilliant creative mind who was fiercely independent — at a time when women were allowed to be muses, not painters.
Like her friend Leonora Carrington, Fini is often called a Surrealist, but she didn’t consider herself one of their group due to their misogynistic views, which included viewing women as either childlike muse or femme fatale. Her paintings utilized the female gaze, and often featured catlike and other creatures inspired by Fini’s own striking appearance, accompanied by languid men. Leonor Fini’s life was as rule-breaking as her art; she had many lovers, and spent much of her life living in a happy throuple — along with about 20 cats.
DLS co-founder Katy Derbyshire joins producer/host Susan Stone to introduce this episode’s featured Dead Lady.
At this, our twenty-second show (Wednesday, March 29, 7–9pm at the Red Room at KGB Bar), be regaled with the tales of an inventive storyteller and librarian who has had a long-reaching impact on children’s literature; a stylish designer who gives new meaning to the phrase eco-conscious; and a supposed femme fatale who was one of the most maligned women of the 21st century. Presented by three women with a deep love for literature, with a smattering of commentary by your devoted hosts.
In bittersweet news, this will be our last show at the Red Room for the time being before we move to a super-special new venue in May—details to come!
PURA BELPRÉ (1899–1982) was a New York City librarian from 1921 through 1944, during which she ran storytimes and performed puppet shows for children, sharing the folktales she’d grown up with in Puerto Rico. She was an early proponent of diversity and representation in children’s literature, as well as an author of numerous short stories, picture books, essays, and a novel. Today the American Library Association gives the annual Pura Belpré Awards for children’s and young adult literature.
ELIZABETH HAWES (1903–1971) was a gifted American designer, a prolific author, and a vocal labor activist. Over a career spanning five decades, she fought to bring high-quality garments to the masses and championed timeless style over passing trends. Although largely forgotten by the public, Hawes is beloved by fashion historians — in part for her role as an outspoken critic of the garment trade. Several shows are now giving Hawes her due, including Elizabeth Hawes: Along Her Own Lines, the first exhibition centered on her radical re-conceptions of the fashion industry, on view at the Museum at FIT through March 26.
MATA HARI (1876–1917) was a Dutch exotic dancer, courtesan, and spy who duped both Germany and France through her liaisons and allegedly brought down 50,000 soldiers during World War I. Although her innocence is contested, her life is a story of great risk and ambition including traveling far and wide, bearing children, forging relationships with high ranking officials, learning several languages, performing Asian dances, and trading secrets as well as gossip on invisible ink! How old was she when this occurred? Did she make it out alive? What happened to her husband and children? You will find out more at The Dead Ladies Show!
KRISTA AHLBERG is a copyeditor and writer living in Brooklyn. She had an actual bookstore inside her house until she was six, so her fate as a book lover was sealed from an early age.
ANNALISE GALL works for the New York Public Library and is studying textile conservation at the Fashion Institute of Technology.
SYEDA ZAIDI is a Brooklyn resident who loves a good old world scandal, apart from more innocent activities like listening to Latin music, going dancing, and baking for friends. By profession, she is an 11th-grade teacher. She wakes up everyday aiming to teach English and History, but comes home expanding her vocabulary of teen boy slang! Oh, ambition!
Join us, February 22, 7–9pm at the Red Room, for our twenty-first Dead Ladies Show on American soil, as we do things just a little bit differently! We will learn about two pioneering artists (an aristocrat-turned-Marxist and an Argentinian-turned-Italian) and a death-defying homemaker with a healthy respect for packaged baked goods. Presented by a postdoc, a photog, and a professional performer, respectively. Buy your tickets here, and we can’t wait to see you there!
INJI AFLATOUN (1924–1989) was a pioneering painter and feminist in mid-20th century Egypt. She was born to a traditional family she described as “semi-feudal and bourgeois,” before joining the League of University and Institutes’ Young Women and embracing new, more communal politics. After a two-year painting hiatus that reflected this political transformation between 1946 and 1948, Aflatoun resumed her artistic work, engaged in further political activism, and emphasized in her works a growing solidarity with Egyptian working class communities of the time.
Defying all expectations about what a woman should be, LEONOR FINI (1907–1996) was one of the most fiercely independent artists of her time. Known for her fashionable presence, lion-like hair, and intriguing personality, she was one of the few female artists that the male Surrealists treated as an equal. In a flip of the male gaze, her artwork is characterized by powerfully dominant women, while the men are frail and vulnerable. Openly bisexual and polyamorous, Leonor Fini remains one of the most unapologetically provocative artists in the Surrealist movement.
ANGELINA KATZ (1936–2019) loved a good laugh. She killed bees and wasps with her bare hands, walked barefoot in the snow, and could catch our parakeet Chirpy with a dishcloth whenever he got loose. She worked at Child’s World for decades and loved the kids even though they ruined her back. Her chicken parmigiana was legendary, and she believed Entenmann’s coffee cake could solve all solvable problems. She taught us the essential life rules: a crow is a visit from the dead, and never to follow an empty hearse. She loved to vacuum, especially when anyone’s favorite show was on TV. She once drove straight through the garage without braking.
HUSSEIN MOHSEN is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, and a freelance writer who focuses on science and technology and the history and politics thereof as they pertain to the Arab World.
JR PEPPER is a photographer, lecturer, photo retoucher, researcher, cemetery tour-guide and self described ‘professional eccentric”. A New York native, she is known for her spirit photography and her peculiar love of guinea pigs.
CARLA KATZ is a storyteller and comic. She is a Moth StorySlam Champion and has been featured on PBS Stories from the Stage and The Moth Radio Hour. She has graced stages all over NY and NJ. More at www.carlakatz.com.
The Dead Ladies Show 