Madame E Toussaint Welcome
Lucy considers how the life of Madame E Toussaint Welcome, sister to Harlem Renaissance photographer James Van Der Zee, reveals the erasure of black women throughout history.
Radio 3 New Generation Thinker Lucy Powell tells the story of five brilliant women, all the siblings of renowned achievers in the arts and science, whose own success was overlooked β either by their own epoch, or by the annals of history ever since. Virginia Woolf famously reflected on the neglect of brilliant women with her fiction of "Shakespeareβs Sisterβ.
Lucy considers how the life of Madame E Toussaint Welcome, sister to Harlem renaissance photographer James Van Der Zee. βMadameβ - or Jenny Louise - once described herself as βthe foremost female artist of the raceβ. She was one of the first African American film directors, and one of the very few women directing films in the silent era. She established an art school, a photographic studio, a film studio, and a documentary that advanced the civil rights movement. And yet, as Lucy discovers, despite her extraordinary achievements, she and her work lie largely forgotten.
Produced by Debbie Kilbride
A Tempo & Talker production
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- Fri 12 Mar 2021 22:45ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 3
- Fri 10 Mar 2023 22:45ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 3
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