Cherry Potts, Writer

Category: feminist

  • The Historical Birthday-Tea Party March 1st

    A new month, but no birthday to celebrate. I’ll have run out of people whose dates I haven’t found soon and then where will I be? Ok, never mind. Today we are composing birthday odes for Emilia Bassano Lanier aka Aemelia Lanyer 1569–1645 Emilia was  Jewish, the  illegitimate daughter of Venetian musician Baptista Bassano and…

  • The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 26th February

    Let’s light the candles on the cake for Mary Taylor 1817-1893 Mary and her  sister, Martha, went to  school at Roe Head, Mirfield, where in 1831 Mary met Ellen Nussey and Charlotte Brontë and they became great friends. Mary and Charlotte both stayed in each others homes regularly. Charlotte used the Taylor family as the…

  • The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 25th February

    No birthday alloted today, so a random choice: Theodora Bosanquet OBE 1881-1961 (no idea what day she was born, history and the internet refuses to relate) Now. Theodora is best known for being Henry James’ secretary. Not a good start, but remarkable that anyone could get known for being anyone’s secretary really. James described her…

  • The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 24th February

    No birthday for today, so guess where we are headed. Yep! Eliza Fowler Haywood, born around 1693 died 25 February 1756, so it seems appropriate to give her a February party. Eliza was an actress, and a prolific novelist, playwright, poet, translator and editor – and made quite a success of all of them. She…

  • The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 22nd February

    Today’s birthday girl is Edna St. Vincent Millay (February 22, 1892 – October 19, 1950) also known as Nancy Boyd when writing prose, and who called herself ‘Vincent’. Vincent was an American poet and playwright in 1923 she became the third woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry, her first poems were published when…

  • The Historical Birthday-Tea Party February 21st

    I’m a day late, sorry, but here is the Birthday news for February 21st. Now: if I say Prison Reformer, the most likely image to come to your mind is Elizabeth Fry. Ms Fry was an excellent woman and to be admired, but put her to one side for a minute and consider (fanfare) Lilian…

  • The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 18th February

    Raise your glasses in honour of Audre Lorde, 1934-1992 who described herself as black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet. One of the women who taught me it was ok to be angry, in fact, more than ok, essential. My sexuality is part and parcel of who I am, and my poetry comes from the intersection of…

  • The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 17th February

    Today we bake a cake for Dorothy Canfield Fisher February 17, 1879 – November 9, 1958. Dorothy was a great friend of fellow writer, Willa Cather, they wrote great quantities of letters, which in the main we cannot read as Cather’s will forbade the publication of, or quotation from her letters. (Apparently the way to…

  • The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 15th February

    Right, back to the history (and as an aside I’ve realised what I’ve been doing here – echoing Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls, a play in which various female icons from history and myth – Isabella Bird, Pope Joan, Lady Nijo, Dull Gret, Patient Griselda – gather together for a meal.) Today’s birthday belongs to Susan…

  • The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 11th February

    Karoline von Günderode 11 February 1780 – 26 July 1806  romantic poet, her works often had strong heroic women in the central role, and was critical of traditional gender attitudes. I have to say she behaved a bit like an opera heroine, and this doesn’t strike me as entirely a good thing – Jane Austen…