Good morning everyone,

I've spent most of this week making powerpoints, which as you will know involves considerable staring at a screen. In a fun contrast to this, today's Fem Friday is devoted to noise and light and colour. Lots from various periods of history here, I hope you are looking forward to it. Let's dig in!

We start with Natalie Kalmus, innovator in Technicolor. She has 383 film credits on IMDb between 1928 and 1956, which seems like a tremendously high number. I don't know if I've made 383 powerpoints, I certainly haven't made 383 powerpoints that people will have enjoyed as much as they have enjoyed the work of Natalie Kalmus:

A former art student, Natalie became the ultimate mediator between the lab and the silver screen, unwavering in her commitment to make Technicolor shine. She made decisions about makeup, costumes, sets, and lighting, and even went behind the camera as a cinematographer a few times. She controlled (some say with an iron fist) the aura of Technicolor, describing her role as "playing ringmaster to the rainbow."

https://invention.si.edu/invention-hot-spot-technicolor-sets-scene

Sticking with the artifice of theatre, how about the early modern era? Lots of theatre going on then and lots of women taking part as well, even if famously the female parts tended to be played by men. Enjoy this article on women's noisy voices in the early modern theatre:

“Early modern theaters would have been alive with women’s actions and voices—the cries of orange-women, the dalliances of female spectators, and the songs of Mary Frith,” […] The “most powerful link between these women is that they did not sit silently watching the play.”

https://daily.jstor.org/the-rowdy-women-of-early-modern-theater/

Maybe not noisy but certainly consistently stating her point, we have Lal Ded, foremost female rebel saint-poet. What a description. Very hard to choose a pullquote here as there is so much to drink in ("shunned clothing"):

Lal Ded stands as not only a pioneer Kashmiri poet, an intrinsic part of the folk tradition of the region, but also as a foremost female rebel saint-poet. […] Lal Ded was perceived as a threat to the status quo. Married at the age of 12, she suffered unendurable mistreatment and left her marital home to wander the forests of Kashmir. This – along with the fact she shunned clothing – was a bold and transgressive act. She was branded insane in an effort to keep her at a ‘safe’ distance from mainstream society, lest her radical views inspire people to follow her. She cared little about societal restrictions, though, and continued to spread her teachings on life and spirituality. Her vakhs express the soul’s yearnings and are profoundly spiritual in nature, but the language she used to convey her longing for her god remains passionately human.

https://www.historytoday.com/history-matters/speaking-her-mind

Let's end with an extract of one of Lal Ded's poems:

I, Lalla, pined away in the search and chase,

With full intent I approached Him …

I tried to see Him, but the doors were latched,

Unbendingly, I lay there with watchful eyes.

Love,

Alex.