Zoe Anderson Norris: "Queen of Bohemia" on the Town

889 Broadway,New York NY 10003

21 April, 2022

Description

“Lecture Musicale” with Eve M. Kahn about social justice activist and bon vivant Zoe Anderson Norris & music by Tommy Lee McKean & reception Zoe Anderson Norris (1860-1914) was a Kentucky-born journalist, fiction writer and publisher, known for her bimonthly magazine, The East Side (1909–1914), which focused on impoverished immigrants in New York. For this evening fundraiser for the Tin Pan Alley American Popular Music Project, Eve M. Kahn, frequent contributor to The New York Times, will give a preview of her biography in progress of Zoe, who was also famed as the Queen of Bohemia. Zoe gave out aristocratic titles with a wine bottle as a scepter during weekly dinner meetings of her intentionally disorganized organization, the Ragged Edge Klub. The likes of Lady Betty Rogers of the Bronx and Baron Bernhardt of Hoboken frequented Zoe’s events. Zoe wrote every word for her own magazine and contributed to publications including The New York Times and The Cosmopolitan. She investigated journalistic topics that still resonate: greedy charity executives lining their own pockets, corrupt cops harassing immigrant peddlers, abusive male bosses, women deceived by hypocritical suitors, children laboring in factories and farmers battling droughts. Her Ragged Edge Klub was full of like-minded reformers as well as poets, dreamers, politicians, filmmakers, and vaudeville performers. They gathered weekly at restaurants including Café Boulevard, Little Hungary, Keen’s, Joel’s Bohemia, and the Brighton Beach Hotel—all of which had custom china, cutlery and glassware. These establishments’ dinnerware survives in the collections of enthusiasts including Julie Gaines, the owner and impresario of Fishs Eddy, the truly unique purveyor of tableware and much more in the 1884 Gorham Manufacturing Company Building at 889 Broadway. Eve M. Kahn (evekahn.com) is a historian and journalist specializing in art, architecture, design, and preservation and served as the Times's Antiques Columnist. Her 2019 book, Forever Seeing New Beauties: The Forgotten Impressionist Mary Rogers Williams, 1857-1907 (Wesleyan University Press), won prizes from organizations including the Connecticut Center for the Book and Connecticut League of History Organizations. Tommy Lee McKean will sing and play popular songs of Zoe’s era and beyond inspired by her southern roots and work in bringing attention to New York’s impoverished. When not writing, storytelling, and making art under the name Thomas McKean, Tommy Lee performs country music in many surprising locations, happily including Fishs Eddy. The Tin Pan Alley American Popular Music Project (TinPanAlley.nyc) promotes appreciation for the historic beginning of American Popular Music and the modern music business on and around West 28th Street in New York City in the late 19th and early 20th century. Special thanks to Bottlerocket Wine & Spirit and the Victorian Society New York