Empire State Of Mind: To Fight For The Poor With My Pen In-Person At Dorot

Empire State of Mind: To Fight for the Poor With My Pen: Zoe Anderson Norris's Gilded-Age Social Justice Independent scholar and New York Times contributor Eve M. Kahn will give a talk on her new book Queen of Bohemia Predicts Own Death: Gilded-Age Journalist Zoe Anderson Norris (Fordham U. Press). Zoe (as everyone called her) was a Kentucky belle turned restless Kansas housewife turned lauded writer/reformer/publisher on the Lower East Side. In the 1910s, she documented desperate immigrant poverty in her bimonthly magazine, The East Side. Defying her era’s ingrained xenophobia, and sometimes reporting undercover dressed as a pauper, Zoe raged against predatory landlords, corrupt charity executives, and garbagemen ignoring trashcans spreading pestilence, among other pernicious forces. Her motto: “To fight for the poor with my pen.” She took breaks from activism to admire Manhattan skyscrapers “flashing back the fire of the sun” and to dine at restaurants with her friends in an intentionally disorganized group that she organized, the Ragged Edge Klub, dedicated to “the Killing of Kare.” This lecture will focus on Zoe's interest in Jewish immigrants: she documented their sufferings at Ellis Island and in deathtrap workplaces (including the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory) and their finding footholds in a new world. And in honor of Election Day, Kahn will also discuss Zoe's stance on political campaigns, politicians, and battles for women's suffrage. More Info below.