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Three entertaining and inspiring presentations by Susan Stone, Florian Duijsens and Magda Birkmann (English/German)

The DEAD LADIES SHOW is a series of entertaining and inspiring presentations on women who achieved amazing things against all odds. Each show hosts passionate cheerleaders of too-oft forgotten women, inviting its loyal audience into a sexy séance (of sorts) celebrating these impressive icons, turbulent lives, and deathless legacies.

The Dead Ladies Show is back at last to their bilingual format! Podcast producer Susan Stone and beloved co-host Florian Duijsens will be joined by the fantastic Magda Birkmann, an expert on almost-forgotten women’s writing. And it’s all held together by the other beloved co-host Katy Derbyshire. This is your chance to learn about three extraordinary women who certainly did not do as they were told. Put on your glad rags and join the podcast team for an inspiring and informative evening.

FLORA TRISTAN (Flore Célestine Thérèse Henriette Tristán y Moscoso) was a French-Peruvian socialist activist and feminist theorist. Born in 1803 into a military family, she experienced deprivation first-hand when her father died and her uncle nabbed the inheritance. Her writing organized the fragmented ideas on women’s equality arising from the French Revolution, laying the foundations for 19th-century feminism. She was the first to say that the proletariat must unite as a class and free itself, an idea that Marx would later incorporate in his work. Her publications included Peregrinations of a Pariah (1839), Promenades in London (1840) and the booklet The Workers’ Union (1843).

HELEN DUNCAN was a Scottish medium and the last person to be imprisoned under the Witchcraft Act of 1735 for fraudulent claims. She used her “paranormal talents” to make ends meet (and because it was better than working in a bleach factory). Her crude methods were quickly exposed by flash photography but she continued nonetheless. The British Navy took an interest in her after she leaked the sinking of a ship at a séance in 1941. She was arrested mid-performance in 1944, shrouded in a white sheet, and sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment. A sample of her “ectoplasm” is held at Cambridge University Library.

MARY MACLANE was an American writer whose memoirs started scandals and helped introduce the confessional style of autobiographical writing. A bisexual feminist, she wrote her first book at the age of 20 in 1901. Her publisher rejected its original title of I Await the Devil’s Coming but the book was still a massive hit, especially with other young women. Following two more experimental memoirs, she wrote and starred in an autobiographical silent movie in 1917, entitled Men Who Have Made Love to Me. It was the earliest recorded on-screen breaking of the fourth wall outside of comedy cinema, with MacLane addressing the camera while smoking cigarettes between vignettes of failed love affairs, although sadly the film is considered lost.

We would like to point out that the lift in the building is unfortunately not working at the moment. For this reason, access is currently restricted. We would like to apologise for this.

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