Episode 64: Iris Brown with guest readers Marilyn Oliva and Tom Gilroy

She Goes By Jane

In 1976, Iris Brown returns to her apartment and learns that her boyfriend is about to be released from Federal Prison the next day. The man who tells her this had been in prison with her boyfriend and he’s received a telegram informing him of this news. He suggests the two of them leave immediately and drive the nearly 300 miles there so they can welcome Iris’s boyfriend as he’s released. But the man is hiding a secret, he wants something else from Iris.

This week we’re joined by two special guest readers. Marilyn Oliva is a medieval historian whose research focuses on medieval English religious women—anchoresses, nuns, and vowesses—and the ties these women created with their local communities. She has published on several aspects of religious life for women, including their literacy, the organization and administration of their convents, and the sacred spaces they created within their monastic and parochial enclosures. She is also the co-creator of “The Seventh Circle,” a DIY story published on Instagram about a secret society of women whose mission is to release from oblivion all the lost, forgotten, and ignored women of all the sciences and humanities across all time periods and from every geographical region.

Tom Gilroy is an interdisciplinary artist who’s work spans feature filmmaking, music, theatre, and haiku. His work has appeared at Sundance, Cannes, The Toronto Film Festival, and the Berlinale, and he has taught at Columbia and Davidson College. His work can be experienced and explained at www.tomgilroy.net.

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