***** 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cozies, unsettling gothics, suspense thrillers, novels about hard-boiled detectives, police procedurals and even unpublished manuscripts—some 1,500 titles in all.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?
The Dead Ladies Show 