She Speaks Volumes

She Speaks Volumes

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She Speaks Volumes episodes

  • Perspectives on the Witch Trials

    She Speaks Volumes is created by Daniella Sorrentino

    CREDITS:

    Voice-Actors + Narrators

    Margaret Alice Murray, excerpts from witchcraze read by Verna Sorrentino

    Scottish Witches: Marnie Thompson, JP Wright, Susan Harden

    Joan of Arc: @katsuky

    Interviews with:

    Yvonne Owens

    Dr Liz Williams

    LINKS TO PURCHASE or READ BOOKS REFERENCED: detailed bibliography below.

    Witch Cults in Western Europe

    Witchcraze

    Abject Eroticism in Northern Renaissance Art

    Miracles of Our Own Making

    Research

    BBC Bitesize. “Case Study: James vi and the North Berwick Witch Hunt.” Accessed May 29, 2023. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zj77xbk/articles/zmr6hcw.

    Dictionaries of the Scots Language. “Dictionary of the Scots Language,” n.d. https://dsl.ac.uk/.

    King, James, G B Harrison, and James Carmichael. King James the First, Daemonologie (1597) : Newes from Scotland, Declaring the Damnable Life and Death of Doctor Fian, a Notable Sorcerer Who Was Burned at Edenbrough in Ianuary Last (1591). San Diego, Ca: Book Tree, 2002.

    Llewellyn Barstow, Anne . Witchcraze : A New History of the European Witch Hunts. New York, N.Y.: Harperone, 1994.

    Murray, Margaret Alice. The Witch-Cult in Western Europe, 1921.

    Owens, Yvonne. Abject Eroticism in Northern Renaissance Art : The Witches and Femmes Fatales of Hans Baldung Grien. London ; New York ; Oxford ; New Delhi ; Sydney: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2020.

    saint-joan-of-arc.com. “Joan of Arc: Trial of Condemnation Searchable Transcipt,” n.d. https://saint-joan-of-arc.com/trial-condemnation.htm.

    Williams, Liz. MIRACLES of OUR OWN MAKING : A History of Paganism. S.L.: Reaktion Books, 2021.

    35 min
  • The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington: Surrealist Storytelling and female friendship

    She Speaks Volumes: A primer for a millennia of often neglected writings by female philosophers, artists, and scientists.

    created by Daniella Sorrentino

    Donate Here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/SheSpeaksVol


    S2:E2: The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington: Surrealist Storytelling and Female Friendship.

    Excerpts from The Hearing Trumpet are ready by Verna Sorrentino

    This episode is based on The NYRB edition of The Hearing Trumpet published in 2021.

    The Hearing Trumpet was written in the 1950s, and was originally published in 1974.

    Listen to the SSV episode on Carrington's Down Below

    FROM WIKIPEDIA: Mary Leonora Carrington OBE (6 April 1917 – 25 May 2011[1]) was a British-born Mexican artist, surrealist painter, and novelist. She lived most of her adult life in Mexico City and was one of the last surviving participants in the surrealist movement of the 1930s.[2] Carrington was also a founding member of the women's liberation movement in Mexico during the 1970s.[3][4] read more

    Research Links:

    • Leonora Carrington's - Art work: https://www.wikiart.org/en/leonora-carrington
    • Museo Leonora Carrington: https://www.leonoracarringtonmuseo.org
    • Article about Carrington and Varo: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/leonora-carrington-7615/love-friendship-rivalry-surreal-friends

    Books I used for research:

    • The Surreal Life of Leonora Carrington by Joanna Moorhead.
    • Leonora Carrington: Surrealism, Alchemy and Art by Susan L. Alberth
    • Magia,...
    24 min
  • Down Below: Leonora Carrington - surrealism + feminism

    She Speaks Volumes: Season 2 Episode 1.

    Down Below: Leonora Carrington - surrealism + feminism

    Down Below written by Leonora Carrington published by NYRB 2017 (originally published 1972).

    Excerpts read by: Verna Sorrentino.

    https://www.nyrb.com/products/down-below?variant=29716648135

    Leonora Carrington was born in April 6, 1917 in Lancashire, England, and died May 25th, 2011 in Mexico City. She studied art in London, and in Italy. In 1937 Carrington moved to Paris, and was a central figure in surrealist circles. She lived in Sant Martin d’Ardeche with her lover Max Ernst before fleeing to Spain as the Nazi’s encroached on France. In Madrid she was involuntarily committed to an asylum. After her treatment she managed to evade being sent to a sanatorium in South Africa by her parents. She married Renato Leduc and moved to Mexico City, where she would live for most of the rest of her life. A complete biography is available here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonora_Carrington#Mexico

    If you liked this episode please consider supporting my work! You can ‘Buy Me a Coffee’ right here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/SheSpeaksVol

    19 min
  • Rags. Petrol. Matches. Virginia Woolf's Three Guineas.

    To support the podcast please donate at: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/FeralCulture

    She Speaks Volumes:  The Primer for 500 years of feminist philosophy, history

    Season 1 Episode 8: Three Guineas by Virginia Woolf. 

    Created by: Daniella Sorrentino for the Feral Culture Lab: feralculturelab.com , dsorrentino.com 

    Virginia Woolf is voiced by Fiona Thraille: https://thraille.weebly.com

    In this episode we are listening to excerpts from the essay Three Guineas written by Virginia Woolf in 1938. Three Guineas is a satirical book length essay written as England is on the brink of World War 2. The essay is in response to a letter she has received asking her for a donation towards peace efforts, and posing the question, ‘how can women help prevent war?

    For this episode I used:

    Virginia Woolf: A Room of One’s Own and Three Guineas published by Penguin Classics - April 2019 Introduction by: by Michèle Barrett

    Listen to the She Speaks Volumes episode: A Room of One’s Own

    I also Used the following sites as references: 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Woolf

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1939

    https://www.bl.uk/people/virginia-woolf 

    http://www.virginiawoolfsociety.org.uk 

    Credit to:

    SFX: 

    freesound.org 

    00489 Aircraft Run 2 - Robinhood76   

    https://freesound.org/people/Robinhood76/sounds/62049/

    O1777 machine gun - Robinhood76

    https://freesound.org/people/Robinhood76/sounds/96376/#

    Military-alarm - kizilsungur 

    https://freesound.org/people/KIZILSUNGUR/sounds/96973/#

    Music: 

    https://www.soundstripe.com

    Sweata Weatha - Dresden, The Flamingo

    24 min
  • The Most Dangerous Woman in America: Emma Goldman

    When the failure of modern dictatorship and authoritarian philosophies becomes more apparent and the realization of failure more general, Anarchism will be vindicated.  

    ~ Emma Goldman 

    She Speaks Volumes: Season 1 Episode 7Emma Goldman, The Most Dangerous Woman in America. 

    Episode created by: Daniela Sorrentino, for Feral Culture Lab 

    Your donations help me the voice actors!

    DONATE HERE: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/FeralCulture

    Living My Life Volume 1 - written By Emma Goldman 

    Published by Dover Publications, New York, 1970. 


    Emma Goldman is voiced by: Halia Hirniak.

    • Emma Goldman was born June 27th 1869 in Kovno in the Russian Empire. She died May 14th 1940 in Toronto Ontario, Canada. In her almost 70 years she witnessed, often firsthand, World War 1, the early part of World War 2, the Russian Revolution, The Spanish Civil War, the rise and fall of the American Trade Unions, the depression, and the rise and rise of capitalism. she fought for workers rights, wealth distribution long before it was a thing, campaigned for birth control and the rights of women. At heart she was an anarchist, and idealist and most surprisingly a romantic.  Yet she was called the most dangerous woman in America...but dangerous for who? 

    For research and references I also used: 

    https://theanarchistlibrary.org/special/index

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_Goldman 

    https://jwa.org/womenofvalor/goldman 


    The interview with Ruth Kinna is the bonus episode. Her books can be found here: 

    https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/128925/ruth-kinna.html

    And an essay here

    https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/professor-ruth-kinna-the-theory-and-practice-of-anarchism 


    Check out the Anarchist Library for tons of essays and publications on anarchy, including the works of Emma Goldman. 


    MUSIC:

    Dresden, The Flamingo; An Old Fashioned Magic Show:

    https://app.soundstripe.com/songs/12943

    SFX

    Inchadney: Northsea. https://freesound.org/s/587759/

    Plantmonkey: Gulls on the isles of Sicily; https://freesound.org/s/377107/

    Canardo55: Herring Gull 1: https://freesound.org/s/538016/

    24 min
  • The Cage of Obscene Birds: Harriet Jacobs - Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

    She Speaks Volumes:  The Primer for 500 years of feminist philosophy, history

    Season 1 Episode 6: In the Cage of Obscene Birds: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs. 

    Created by: Daniella Sorrentino for the Feral Culture Lab: feralculturelab.com , dsorrentino.com 

    Harriet Jacobs is voiced by Portia Cue, VoiceOnCue.com  

    To support the podcast please donate at: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/FeralCulture 

    For this episode I used two editions:

    Jacobs Harriet, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself,  Penguin Books, London, Eng 2000 

    Jacobs Harriet, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself, (Enlarged Edition), The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge Massachusetts, and London Eng. 2009

    I also used the following web-pages as references: 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Jacobs

    https://www.humanitiestexas.org/news/articles/before-and-after-civil-war

    https://www.britannica.com/event/American-Civil-War

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave_narrative 

    https://www.britannica.com/art/slave-narrative

    Here is the link ton the slave narratives from the Federal Writers Project in the Library of Congress: 

    https://www.loc.gov/collections/slave-narratives-from-the-federal-writers-project-1936-to-1938/about-this-collection/ 

    BIO: Harriet Jacobs was born into slavery around 1813, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, is her auto-biography, her own account of her life in slavery, and the harrowing years, decade she spent on the run, after her escape.

    “You may believe what I say; for I write only that whereof I know. I was twenty-one years in that cage of obscene birds. I can testify, from my own experience and observation, that slavery is a curse to the whites as well as to the blacks.” Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl


    MUSIC: 

    Swing Low Sweet Chariot: written by Wallace Willis, c1865, performed by Antioch Mass Choir, licensed via soundstripe. https://app.soundstripe.com/artists/563 

    Oh, Freedom: writer unknown. c1865 performed by Antioch Mass Choir, licensed via soundstripe. https://app.soundstripe.com/songs/13065


    Sound Effects: 

    Rain on a Summer Day

    "Vlatko Blažek Varaždin, Croatia e-mail: [email protected]


    26 min
  • Vindication of the Rights of Woman: the foundation of modern feminism

    She Speaks Volumes, the primer for over 500 years of feminist philosophy, history, and writing is produced by the Feral Culture Lab

    Written and created by Daniella Sorrentino. 

    Mary Wollstonecraft is voiced by Fiona Thraille

    In this episode we are listening to excerpts from the book that would lay the foundation of western feminism, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, written by Mary Wollstonecraft, and originally published in 1792.

    Episode extracts from Project Gutenberg edition 

    Research from the  Penguin Classic edition.

    Mary Wollstonecraft was born April 27, 1759 in Spitalfields, now part of London’s East End. Instability in the family’s finances, and her father’s drunken rages prompted her to seek employment outside of London as soon as she was able. She worked first as a ladies companion in Bath, and as governess in Ireland, she also briefly started her own school. Finding none of these careers suitable she returned to London to embark on a career as a writer. ‘The first of a new genus’, she would write in a letter to her sister. 

    A complete list of her works can be found in the bibliography on her wikipedia entry.

    Music:

    Mandoline Concerto in C, Vivaldo (1729) from the Internet Archive

    La Marseillaise, (1792 ) Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle, from Wikimedia Commons

    Soundscape source credits: 

    "Rain on Windows, Interior, B.wav" by InspectorJ (www.jshaw.co.uk) of Freesound.org

    "Wind, Realistic, A.wav" by InspectorJ (www.jshaw.co.uk) of Freesound.org

    “Dry Thunder”, by JusKiddink of Freesound.org

    22 min
  • Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex
    She Speaks Volumes, Season 2 - Episode 1,
    The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
    produced by: Feral Culture Lab, Jan 2021
    Website: https://www.feralculturelab.com/ (www.feralculturelab.com )Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FeralCultureLab (https://www.facebook.com/FeralCultureLab)
    Episode 1:
    Season 2 of the She Speaks Volumes podcast begins with an excerpt of The Second Sex by philosopher Simone de Beauvoir. The Second Sex is a harbinger of what we have come to call Second Wave Feminism. The book examines the question ‘What is woman?’ from an existential-feminist perspective.
    Sappho: 630-c. 570 BCE, a prolific, lyrical poet, Sappho had great influence over the poets of her own time. Sappho is best remembered today as a lesbian, rather than a poet; but in her own times she was represented as a promiscuous heterosexual. It wasn’t until a few centuries after her death that she was talked of as a lesbian, her reputation as a lover of women brought us the term sapphic, and defined a cultural history of lesbianism. read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sappho (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sappho)
    Christine de Pizan: 1364-c. Proto-feminist, considered the first woman to earn her living as a writer; and ‘the first woman to pick up her pen in defence of her sex’ (Simone de Beauvoir). Christine de Pizan was a poet and writer at the court of King Charles the VI. In addition to writing several works on military tactics and history she wrote The Book of the City of Ladies (https://podcasts.captivate.fm/media/a92fe639-32bc-4f97-82f0-e058a1478048/cityofladies-pt1.mp3 (covered in season 1 of She Speaks Volumes)) and The Treasury of the City of Ladies.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_de_Pizan
    Mary Wollstonecraft: 1759 - 1797. Writer, philosopher, proto-feminist. Along with A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Wollstonecraft wrote novels, history books, and travel literature. She died from complications giving birth to her second daughter Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein. Covered in She Speaks Volumes- S1 Episode 4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Wollstonecraft (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Wollstonecraft)
    Olympe de Gouges: 1748 - 1793. Playwright, political activist, abolitionist, and early feminist. She wrote Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen amongst many other plays, political pamphlets, and manifestos. She was executed by the new revolutionary government during the Reign of Terror for anti-revolutionary activities. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympe_de_Gouges
    Isabella the Catholic: an active monarch, her reforms and influence bought changes to the wealth, and safety of Castille, she married Ferdinand II of Aragon, unifying Spain. She was then considered the first Queen of Spain. She was an devout Catholic, complicated in our understanding today as converting Jews, Muslims and Indigenous Peoples of North America was a motivating factor for her, but she was vehemently opposed to slavery. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_I_of_Castile (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_I_of_Castile )
    Elizabeth of England: 1533 - 1603, Queen Elizabeth I the iconic ‘virgin-queen’ who reigned England from 1558, upon the death of her half-sister until her own death in 1603. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_I (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_I )
    Catherine of Russia: 1729 - 1796, Catherine the Great, she was empress of Russia from 1762 until her death in 1796, Russia’s longest serving female monarch. She was credited with revitalizing and modernizing Russia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_the_Great (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_the_Great)
    Catherine of Siena: 1347 - 1380, a lay member of the Dominican Order, was a mystic, activist, and author who had a great influence on Italian literature and the Catholic Church. Canonized in 1461, she is also a Doctor of the Church. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_of_Siena...
    19 min
  • Virginia Woolf's - Three Guineas
    She Speaks Volumes, A Feral Culture Lab Podcast
    https://www.feralculturelab.com/ (https://www.feralculturelab.com/)
    In this episode I am reading an excerpt from Three Guineas - a satirical book length essay written by Virginia Woolf in 1938, with England on the brink of World War 2.
    The essay is a response to a letter she has received asking her for a donation towards peace efforts, and asking the question, ‘how can women help prevent war?’ I don’t know if she really received the letter or not, but my feeling is she did, or something like it.
    Three Guineas is her response, and she queries if she is in fact qualified to answer the question. In doing this she explores the roles women play in education, the professions, and in the private household.
    Within the letter are two hypothetical letters from two other organizations, one asking for help rebuilding a women’s college, the other asking for donations to a women’s professional organization. Through these letters Woolf explores the relatively recent ability of women to be educated, to earn their own money, and to vote. (At the time of this essay Women had only had the vote for the 10 years, though the daughters of educated men had been able to vote for 20.
    email me at: [email protected]
    or Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FeralCultureLab (https://www.facebook.com/FeralCultureLab)
    15 min

About She Speaks Volumes

From the publisher's feed

Short and sweet summaries of fundamental feminist texts from the past 500+ years. She Speaks Volumes provides a primer for critical moments in the history, theory, and philosophy of feminism. Each…