Ep. 29 Quirky & Queer with Hadrons (totally not Hardons)

By |

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Email | TuneIn | RSS

This episode best friends Megan & Milena cover gender-bending blues singer, pianist and entertainer Gladys Bentley & African American physicist, educator and pioneer Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson

Gladys Bentley

Gladys Bentley was a badass. Now, I might just be a sucker for a woman in a tux (which I totally am), but today’s episode offers us a glimpse into the queer nightlight that was 1920’s Harlem. In the full swing of the Jazz Age and Harlem Renaissance, 16 year old Gladys moved to NYC and made it big. Like, really big. Within a few short years she was a leading entertainer among clubs, drawing crowds both straight and gay, black and white to see her. We cover what Gladys did with that fame, what happens when America gets conservative and just how gay of a time it really was then.

1934 News article detailing a club where Gladys, the ‘smut singing entertainer’, played getting busted by the cops
Photos from the 1952 Ebony article announcing how totally not-gay Gladys was
  • The Great Migration – When African Americans GTFO of the South late 18th/early 19th century
  • Harlem Renaissance – Period in the 1920’s and 30’s of African American art, centered in Harlem, NYC
  • Mabel Hampton – Lesbian performer and activist that was a contemporary of Gladys
  • Bessie Smith – Known as the Empress of the Blues, was a leading singer of her day
  • Ma Rainey – Known as the Mother of the Blues, was one of the earliest professional Blues singers
  • Langston Hughes – Major figure within the Harlem Renaissance, was a poet, writer and playwright
  • Grand Order of the Odd Fellows Drag Balls – Drag balls that were -the- place to be seen, Harlem hosted the largest national event in the 1920’s and 30’s
  • Mona’s 440 club – First publicly lesbian club in SF, where Gladys performed
Wanna know more? Always a book for that (usually) (or article)

Celeida Tostes by editors Marcus de Lontra Costa & Raquel Silva. Available to read for free, this is a great collection of essays in both Portuguese and English

Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson

Continuing our theme of the episode, Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson is a badass. First African American woman to earn a PhD from MIT: Check
Established still-running educational diversity programs: Check
Headed international nuclear organizations: Check
Received the National Medal of Science: Also Check
I could keep going…or you could just listen to the podcast. Today Milena dishes out on what it means to be a theoretical physicist, the importance of supporting those coming after you and how to be the most badass college President ever – all while saying f’you to American racism.

As always, music by EeL