M.A. Lecture: "How Ghosts Gave American Women their Voice"

Event Title: "When We Spoke to the Dead: How Ghosts Gave American Women their Voice" with Author and Performer, Ilise S. Carter, aka The Lady Aye

Event Date: Monday, Sept. 8, 2025 at 7:00 PM EDT

Ticketing Info: FREE - but you must still register at: https://www.morbidanatomy.org/events-tickets/p/free-online-talk-when-we-spoke-to-the-dead-how-ghosts-gave-american-women-their-voice-with-author-and-performer-ilise-s-carter-aka-the-lady-aye

Ticketholders: A Zoom invite is sent out two hours before the event to the email used at checkout. Please check your spam folder and if not received, email [info.morbidanatomy@gmail.com](mailto:info.morbidanatomy@gmail.com). (Video playback of this event is only available to Morbid Anatomy's Patreon members.)

Event Description:
In the 1840s, the Fox Sisters―and the legions of mediums they inspired―ignited the Spiritualist movement that swept through Victorian parlors and presidential campaigns alike. Contacting the dead wasn't merely a parlor trick: It was a political statement, a declaration of self that still echoes. Séances attracted suffragists and scientists, skeptics and charlatans, giving women a voice in a society that often refused to hear them. And, as Spiritualism surged, it also blurred the lines between faith, fraud, feminism, and financial opportunity, drawing figures as varied as Harry Houdini, Victoria Woodhull, and even modern self-help gurus into its ever-expanding orbit.

In this lecture, Ilise S. Carter—author of the new book *When We Spoke to the Dead: How Ghosts Gave American Women their Voice—*will examine the forgotten roots of today's obsession with manifestation, mysticism, and the power of belief. Exploring America's deep-seated hunger for the unseen―whether through politics, personal empowerment, or grief―her book traces how the supernatural, once condemned as heresy, became the ultimate commodity.

About the Speaker:

• Ilise S. Carter is freelance writer and performer based in New York City. She has written for Allure, New York Times, Washington Post, and others. In addition, she’s spent over a decade as a consulting copywriter for companies such as Shiseido, bliss, L’Oréal, and Madame CJ Walker. Her first book, The Red Menace: How Lipstick Changed the Face of American History from Prometheus Books, has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, NY Post, and earned a starred review in Publishers Weekly. Her next book on the long-term impact of the spiritualist movement, When We Spoke to the Dead: How Ghosts Gave American Women Their Voice comes out in September 2025 from Sourcebooks. As her stage persona, The Lady Aye, she has worked as sideshow performer with acts ranging from Rob Zombie to Cirque du Soleil and has appeared on Gossip Girl, Oddities, The President Show, Mysteries at the Museum, and Dickinson.

About the Event Host:
This event is hosted by the Morbid Anatomy Blog & Library, a website dedicated to interstices of art and medicine, death and culture. Morbid Anatomy was created in 2007 as a blog by Joanna Ebenstein, a multi-disciplinary artist, curator, writer, lecturer and graphic designer. It later expanded to include a library of lectures, exhibitions, classes, spectacles, symposia, field trips, books, parties, and films. It is best known for its brief incarnation as the critically acclaimed Morbid Anatomy Museum (2013-2016) in Brooklyn, New York.

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