*** IMPORTANT NOTE: This episode’s Dead Lady had a very challenging existence, particularly when she was younger, and her story is marked by multiple incidents of violence and sexual abuse. Please use caution when listening ***   In this episode, we join forces with the Ms Informed podcast to bring you the story of Phoolan Devi.   Known as “India’s Bandit Queen,” Phoolan Devi overcame a life of poverty, illiteracy, and abuse, first as a child bride, and later enduring after being kidnapped by bandits and rising to lead the gang. She eventually became a politician, campaigning for women’s causes and the poor. Even today, Phoolan is a symbol for the anger, vengeance and injustice against women in India, as well as an inspiration for the lower classes.    Madhvi Ramani and Rina Grob told her story at a recent live DLS show in Berlin.    DLS co-founder Katy Derbyshire joins host/producer Susan Stone to introduce this episode.   Find our more about Phoolan Devi’s amazing story on our episode page: https://deadladiesshow.com/podcast/2024/04/11/podcast-70-phoolan-devi   Discover the Ms Informed podcast wherever you like to listen, and here: https://pod.link/1509211076   As mentioned, Katy and Susan have done an interview with them which will appear on Ms Informed Episode 165   You can also follow them on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_ms_informed/   Mentioned by Madhvi and Rina:   The Mann Deshi Foundation, a woman-founded charity that set up the first rural bank for women in India and helps women and girls in rural areas: https://manndeshifoundation.org/   Daughters of Destiny on Netflix, which follows five girls from the Dalit class, who enter Shanti Bhavan, a school that educates the poorest children in India so that they are given a chance in life and help their communities: https://www.netflix.com/title/80092926   The book The Furies: Three Women and their Fight for Justice by journalist and writer Elizabeth Flock: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-furies-elizabeth-flock   Their sources:    I, Phoolan Devi: The Autobiography of India's Bandit Queen, by Phoolan Devi India's Bandit Queen: The True Story of Phoolan Devi, by Mala Sen Arundhati Roy on Shekhar Kapur's Bandit Queen   If you are interested in attending the upcoming Dead Ladies Show at the Droste Festival in Muenster, get more details on the event here: https://www.burg-huelshoff.de/en/programm/projekte/droste-festival-2024   And if you’d like to come see us in Berlin May 16th, buy tickets here: https://literatur-berlin.tickettoaster.de/produkte/3303-tickets-the-dead-ladies-show-36-lettretage-in-der-veteranenstr-berlin-am-16-05-2024 and consider subscribing to our newsletter to receive updates: https://deadladiesshowberlin.beehiiv.com/   Fans of the New York show can get their newsletter here: https://deadladiesshow.substack.com   Want to see the CBS News feature about us? You can find it linked to on our about page https://deadladiesshow.com/about/ and pinned on our Instagram feed https://www.instagram.com/deadladiesshow    Our theme music is “Little Lily Swing” by Tri-Tachyon.    Don’t forget, we have a Patreon! Thanks to all of our current supporters! Please consider supporting our transcripts project and our ongoing work: www.patreon.com/deadladiesshowpodcast   Drop us a line [email protected] or find us on social media @deadladiesshow   Thanks for listening! We’ll be back with a new episode next month.   ****   The Dead Ladies Show is a series of entertaining and inspiring talks about women who achieved amazing things against all odds, presented live in Berlin and beyond. This podcast is based on that series. Because women's history is everyone's history.   The Dead Ladies Show was founded by Florian Duijsens and Katy Derbyshire.   The podcast is created, produced, edited, and presented by Susan Stone.  

 

Welcome to Season Seven!   In this episode, we bring you…the woman known as the “Mother Theresa of Reggae!   Sister Mary Ignatius, a white Jamaican Catholic nun dedicated her life to the Alpha Boys’ School in Kingston, where she taught 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.   DLS co-founder Katy Derbyshire tells the story of the woman known to her young charges as “Sister Iggy.” And she joins host/producer Susan Stone to introduce this episode, the first of Season Seven of the Dead Ladies Show Podcast, and to wish you all a happy International Women’s Day on March 8th!   Go see some fun images of Sister Mary Ignatius Davies and explore our delightful info links on our episode page: deadladiesshow.com/podcast/2024/03/08/podcast-69-sister-mary-ignatius   Definitely give a listen to the internet radio site for the Alpha Boys School here: https://www.alphaboysschoolradio.com/   Our theme music is “Little Lily Swing” by Tri-Tachyon.   Don’t forget, we have a Patreon! Thanks to all of our current supporters! Please consider supporting our transcripts project and our ongoing work: www.patreon.com/deadladiesshowpodcast   You can see us in Berlin on March 27th. Tickets here: 

https://tinyurl.com/DLSMarch27

  If you're in New York, you can go to a show March 19th. Tix: https://tinyurl.com/DLSNYCMarch19   Drop us a line [email protected] or find us on social media @deadladiesshow   Thanks for listening! We’ll be back with a new episode next month.   ****   The Dead Ladies Show is a series of entertaining and inspiring talks about women who achieved amazing things against all odds, presented live in Berlin and beyond. This podcast is based on that series. Because women's history is everyone's history.   The Dead Ladies Show was founded by Florian Duijsens and Katy Derbyshire.   The podcast is created, produced, edited, and presented by Susan Stone.

 

We're working on our next season, which starts in March! So, in this bonus show, we're sharing a guest episode from the podcast Her Half of History. 

Her Half of History covers women’s history in short episodes that fit into a series, like Women Who Seized Power, Women Who Escaped Slavery, and Women in Espionage. Host Lori Davis also likes to delve into the lives of ordinary women by covering topics including the history of housework, the history of getting married, and the history of girlhood.

In this episode, Lori tells the story of Ellen Craft, an enslaved woman who made a daring escape in a surprising…fashion. 

You can find more about Lori's show at herhalfofhistory.com 

The Dead Ladies Show Podcast will be back very very soon, as we kick off Season Seven of our show. If you can’t wait, find us at instagram on @deadladiesshow or come see what we’re up to in our Patreon exclusive Dead Lady Book Club, which you can find over at Patreon.com/deadladiesshowpodcast

Thanks for listening! 

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. 

 

You’ll definitely want to check out Miss Fury and June Tarpé Mills’ other works, and you can find some great examples, plus images of the lovely June herself over on our website at https://deadladiesshow.com/2023/10/22/podcast-68-june-tarpe-mills/

 

We mentioned our wonderful friend Andy Horn, who introduced us to Tarpé Mills. Read more about Andy here: https://tinyurl.com/AndrewHorn

 

One last note — If you’d like to support us and get a bit of Dead Lady content before we come back with season seven, please check out our page patreon.com/deadladiesshowpodcast where we have loads of exclusive content including interviews and book reviews, and even entire Dead Ladies Show presentations that you’ll get to hear before (almost) anyone else. Thanks to everyone who already supports us there, including our new friend Rita Durant! 

 

Our theme music is “Little Lily Swing” by Tri-Tachyon https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Tri-Tachyon/the-kleptotonic-ep/little-lily-swing

 

You can browse our TeePublic shop at this link: https://www.teepublic.com/user/dead-ladies-show

 

We are on Instagram and Twitter @deadladiesshow and on BlueSky @deadladiesshow.bsky.social

 

Thanks for listening! We’ll be back soon with a new season full of fabulous Dead Ladies!

 

****

The Dead Ladies Show is a series of entertaining and inspiring talks about women who achieved amazing things against all odds, presented live in Berlin and beyond. This podcast is based on that series. Because women's history is everyone's history.

 

The Dead Ladies Show was founded by Florian Duijsens and Katy Derbyshire. The podcast is created, produced, edited, and presented by Susan Stone.

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. 

If you’d like to see some of Amrita’s works while you listen to the episode, hop over to our website: deadladiesshow.com/2023/09/14/podcast-67-amrita-sher-gil

Our presenter Nafisa Ferdous is a talented illustrator who often draws Dead Ladies! Find her art here: https://www.nafisaferdous.com/  and here: https://www.instagram.com/__petni/

You can follow Dead Ladies NYC on Instagram @deadladiesnyc and get tickets to their upcoming show on September 27 here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dead-ladies-show-nyc-no-25-tickets-711181933307?aff=oddtdtcreator

The Dead Ladies Show Podcast will be recording live at PodFest Berlin October 14th! Get your tickets and find out more about the festival here: https://www.podfestberlin.com/event-details/dead-ladies-show-Oct2023-special

Our theme music is “Little Lily Swing” by Tri-Tachyon https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Tri-Tachyon/the-kleptotonic-ep/little-lily-swing

Check out our Patreon here: www.patreon.com/deadladiesshowpodcast

And browse our TeePublic shop at this link: https://www.teepublic.com/user/dead-ladies-show

We are on Instagram and Twitter @deadladiesshow and on BlueSky @deadladiesshow.bsky.social

Thanks for listening! We’ll be back with a new episode next month.

****

The Dead Ladies Show is a series of entertaining and inspiring talks about women who achieved amazing things against all odds, presented live in Berlin and beyond. This podcast is based on that series. Because women's history is everyone's history.

The Dead Ladies Show was founded by Florian Duijsens and Katy Derbyshire.The podcast is created, produced, edited, and presented by Susan Stone.

 

In this episode, we encounter the show’s very first featured geographer.  UK-born Doreen Massey was a pioneer in her field. She challenged existing ideas about space, place and power, was compassionate, politically active, and hopeful.  

She worked in academia and as a public intellectual, including 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. 

Our talk is presented by Agata Lisiak, a professor of Migration Studies at Bard College Berlin, and a DLS regular, who has previously talked about Marie Curie and Rosa Luxemburg. 

DLS co-founder Katy Derbyshire joins producer/host Susan Stone to introduce the episode, and talk a bit about the Open University, an important place for Doreen Massey and many others. 

You can find Agata’s podcast series on Doreen Massey, Spatial Delight, where ever you like to listen, and also here, where there are additional features: https://thesociologicalreview.org/podcasts/spatial-delight/

Photos and clips of Massey can also be found on our podcast episode page here: 

https://deadladiesshow.com/2023/08/17/podcast-66-doreen-massey

To get tickets for our upcoming PodFest Berlin event in October just click here: https://www.podfestberlin.com/event-details/dead-ladies-show-Oct2023-special

Sign up for the Dead Ladies Show newsletter here: https://tinyletter.com/deadladiesshow  and find us on social media @deadladiesshow and @deadladiesshow.bsky.social

For DLS NYC info and tickets, sign up to their newsletter here: https://tinyletter.com/DeadLadiesShowNYC or follow them on Instagram @deadladiesnyc

Our theme music is “Little Lily Swing” by Tri-Tachyon https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Tri-Tachyon/the-kleptotonic-ep/little-lily-swing

Find our Patreon page here:  www.patreon.com/deadladiesshowpodcast

The TeePublic shop for DLS logo treats is here: https://www.teepublic.com/user/dead-ladies-show

Thanks for listening! We’ll be back with a new episode next month.

****

The Dead Ladies Show is a series of entertaining and inspiring talks about women who achieved amazing things against all odds, presented live in Berlin and beyond. This podcast is based on that series. Because women's history is everyone's history.

The Dead Ladies Show was founded by Florian Duijsens and Katy Derbyshire.

The podcast is created, produced, edited, and presented by Susan Stone.

In this episode, we bring you the story of an actress whose off-screen life was as dramatic and tragic as many of the characters she portrayed. Born in Vienna in 1938, Romy Schneider was said to have the star power of Greta Garbo or Marilyn Monroe. 

She is perhaps best known for her portrayal of Sissi, aka Empress Elisabeth of Austria, who she embodied in four films (some of which are still shown at holiday time every year in countries from the Netherlands to China). But though she strove to move past this very nationalistic role to play more realistic and naturalistic characters, to her chagrin she was remembered by some her whole life as “Sissi.”

A great beauty and talent, Romy was much beloved by the public for her performances, yet hounded by the press over her personal life.  Our story comes from DLS co-founder Florian Duijsens, a writer, translator and educator, and devotee of tragic glamour. 

Our other DLS co-founder Katy Derbyshire joins producer/host Susan Stone to introduce things, and comment on the crossover with our last episode, which featured another German-speaking screen icon, the problematic Hildegard Knef.  

For more on Romy Schneider, please visit our episode notes at: 

https://deadladiesshow.com/2023/07/13/podcast-65-romy-schneider/

Our theme music is “Little Lily Swing” by Tri-Tachyon: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Tri-Tachyon/the-kleptotonic-ep/little-lily-swing

Check out our Patreon here: www.patreon.com/deadladiesshowpodcast

And browse our TeePublic shop at this link: https://www.teepublic.com/user/dead-ladies-show

Thanks for listening! We’ll be back with another new episode next month.

****

The Dead Ladies Show is a series of entertaining and inspiring talks about women who achieved amazing things against all odds, presented live in Berlin and beyond. This podcast is based on that series. Because women's history is everyone's history.

The Dead Ladies Show was founded by Florian Duijsens and Katy Derbyshire.

The podcast is created, produced, edited, and presented by Susan Stone.

 

 

 

In this episode, DLS co-founder Katy Derbyshire has the story of a deutsche Diva — an iconic German actress and singer and best-selling author known for her glamour and scandal, her smoky voice and sweeping false eyelashes. Hildegard Knef was also an unreliable narrator and a serial fabulator who was alternately loved and hated in her homeland.

 

Producer/host Susan Stone is joined by other DLS co-founder Florian Duijsens to introduce our featured Dead Lady.

 

To see Hildegard in all her eye-lashed glory, and hear some of her vocal stylings, visit our show notes: https://deadladiesshow.com/2023/06/15/podcast-64-hildegard-knef

 

Our theme music is “Little Lily Swing” by Tri-Tachyon.

 

Want to suggest a Dead Lady for us?  Drop us a line to [email protected] or tell us on social media @deadladiesshow

 

You can find our DLS logo merch at Teepublic here: http://tee.pub/lic/43ac26BhRl8

 

And our Patreon is here: https://www.patreon.com/deadladiesshowpodcast

 

Thanks for listening! We’ll be back with a new episode next month.

 

****

The Dead Ladies Show is a series of entertaining and inspiring talks about women who achieved amazing things against all odds, presented live in Berlin and beyond. This podcast is based on that series. Because women's history is everyone's history.

 

The Dead Ladies Show was founded by Florian Duijsens and Katy Derbyshire.

 

The podcast is created, produced, edited, and presented by Susan Stone.

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 about Djuna and her circle of modernist Dead Ladies. 

Find out more about Djuna and her work, and see her polka-dot portrait here: https://deadladiesshow.com/2023/05/11/podcast-63-djuna-barnes

Djuna Barnes intersects with a great number of our previously presented Dead Ladies, including:

photographer Berenice Abbott (who took the above mentioned portrait): https://deadladiesshow.com/2023/01/20/podcast-59-berenice-abbott/

and 

dadaist Elsa von Freytag Loringhoven: https://deadladiesshow.com/2021/10/16/podcast-47-elsa-von-freytag-loringhoven/

Here’s the documentary Laura cited where you can see Natalie Barney’s Parisian home and garden with its Temple of Friendship: https://youtu.be/ihzoLrUkNoc

The documentary we mentioned is “Paris Was a Woman” by Greta Schiller 

https://jezebelproductions.org/paris-was-a-woman/

And Will Self’s radio segment on “Nightwood” can be found here: https://youtu.be/5cy3-uOTTfE

Our theme music is “Little Lily Swing” by Tri-Tachyon.

Want to suggest a Dead Lady for us?  Drop us a line to [email protected] or tell us on social media @deadladiesshow

If you’d like to get advance tickets for our May show in Berlin they are here:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dead-ladies-show-34-tickets-632679640837

DLS NYC tickets can be purchased here: 

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dead-ladies-show-nyc-no-23-tickets-628717840987

Thanks for listening! We’ll be back with a new episode next month.

****

The Dead Ladies Show is a series of entertaining and inspiring talks about women who achieved amazing things against all odds, presented live in Berlin and beyond. This podcast is based on that series. Because women's history is everyone's history.

The Dead Ladies Show was founded by Florian Duijsens and Katy Derbyshire.

The podcast is created, produced, edited, and presented by Susan Stone.

Don’t forget, we have a Patreon! Thanks to all of our current supporters! Please consider supporting our transcripts project and our ongoing work: www.patreon.com/deadladiesshowpodcast

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 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.

Fini is often called a Surrealist, but she didn’t consider herself one of their group due to their misogynistic attitudes, which included viewing women as either a childlike muse or femme fatale. Her paintings utilized the female gaze, and often featured catlike and other creatures inspired by Fini’s own 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. 

For more on Leonor Fini, please visit our episode notes at: 

https://deadladiesshow.com/2023/04/13/podcast-62-leonor-fini/

For DLS NYC info and tickets, sign up to their newsletter here: https://tinyletter.com/DeadLadiesShowNYC

or follow them on Instagram @deadladiesnyc

Find JR Pepper on Instagram @girlduality 

and listen to her talk about Mae West here: https://deadladiesshow.com/2022/08/17/podcast-56-mae-west/

Our episode on surrealist Leonora Carrington is here: https://deadladiesshow.com/2018/01/25/podcast-5-leonora-carrington/

Our theme music is “Little Lily Swing” by Tri-Tachyon https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Tri-Tachyon/the-kleptotonic-ep/little-lily-swing

Thanks for listening! We’ll be back with a new episode next month.

****

The Dead Ladies Show is a series of entertaining and inspiring talks about women who achieved amazing things against all odds, presented live in Berlin and beyond. This podcast is based on that series. Because women's history is everyone's history.

The Dead Ladies Show was founded by Florian Duijsens and Katy Derbyshire.

The podcast is created, produced, edited, and presented by Susan Stone.

Don’t forget, we have a Patreon! Thanks to all of our current supporters! Please consider supporting our transcripts project and our ongoing work: www.patreon.com/deadladiesshowpodcast

If you prefer to make a one-time donation, here’s the link: paypal.me/dlspodcast

 

Dead Ladies Show Podcast 

Episode 61 - Emmy Noether

 

For this episode, we bring back the presenter who appeared in our very first podcast episode, writer and translator Karen Margolis. Drawing from her own history in higher mathematics, Karen ably tells the tale of Germany’s Emmy Noether, who developed key theorems in theoretical physics and made important contributions to abstract algebra. Excluded from academic positions in Germany as a woman, she worked unpaid and under other lecturers’ names. Once she was finally allowed to teach in 1919, she had only 14 years until the Nazis banned her as a Jew. In American exile, she taught at the women’s college Bryn Mawr and occasionally at Princeton, though she felt she was not welcome at “the men’s university, where nothing female is admitted.”  Nowadays, everything from fellowships to a crater on the moon has honored Emmy, so it was clearly our turn to do so. 

 

DLS co-founder Katy Derbyshire joins producer/host Susan Stone to introduce things. 

(by the way - due to a numbering discrepancy, this podcast was numbered 60 when we recorded it, and is now adjusted to 61. Math!) 

For more on Emmy Noether, please visit our episode notes at https://deadladiesshow.com/2023/03/16/podcast-61-emmy-noether/

 

 

For DLS NYC info and tickets, sign up to their newsletter here: https://tinyletter.com/DeadLadiesShowNYC

 

Our theme music is “Little Lily Swing” by Tri-Tachyon https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Tri-Tachyon/the-kleptotonic-ep/little-lily-swing

 

Thanks for listening! We’ll be back with a new episode next month.

 

****

The Dead Ladies Show is a series of entertaining and inspiring talks about women who achieved amazing things against all odds, presented live in Berlin and beyond. This podcast is based on that series. Because women's history is everyone's history.

 

The Dead Ladies Show was founded by Florian Duijsens and Katy Derbyshire.

The podcast is created, produced, edited, and presented by Susan Stone.

 

Don’t forget, we have a Patreon! Thanks to all of our current supporters! Please consider supporting our transcripts project and our ongoing work: www.patreon.com/deadladiesshowpodcast

 

If you prefer to make a one-time donation, here’s the link: paypal.me/dlspodcast