‘The Daring Life and Dangerous Times of Eve Adams’

In honor of Pride Month, Holocaust Museum LA presents “The Daring Life and Dangerous Times of Eve Adams,” A Book Talk with Jonathan Ned Katz, Tuesday, June 22, at 5 p.m. At the virtual event, Katz will discuss his new book about pioneering lesbian activist Eve Adams (also known as Eva Kotchever).

Born Chawa Zloczewer into a Jewish family in Poland, Adams emigrated to the United States in 1912, took a new name, befriended anarchists, sold radical publications, and ran lesbian- and gay-friendly speakeasies in Chicago and New York. Her New York after-theater club, Eve’s Hangout, is considered one of the first lesbian bars In America. In 1925, Adams wrote and published a collection of short stories, “Lesbian Love.”

Adams’ bold activism caught the attention of the young J. Edgar Hoover and the U.S. Bureau of Investigation, leading to her surveillance and arrest for publishing an obscene book. She was jailed and then deported back to Europe and ultimately murdered by Nazis in Auschwitz. Eve’s Hangout closed in the wake of her arrest and today is recognized as a historic monument by both the National Park Service and the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project. An LGBTQ icon in Paris, she has a street (Rue Eva Kotchever) and a public school named after her.

Jonathan Ned Katz is an American historian of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and heterosexual American history, who has focused on same-sex attraction and changes in the social organization of sexuality over time. “The Daring Life and Dangerous Times of Eve Adams,” his latest book, was published by the Chicago Review Press. The book also includes the text of Adams’ “Lesbian Love.” More information on the book is available at https://chicagoreviewpress.com/daring-life-and-dangerous-times-of-eve-adams--the-products-9781641605168.php.

More information about the event may be obtained at https://www.holocaustmuseumla.org/event-details/the-daring-life-and-dangerous-times-of-eve-adams-book-talk-with-jonathan-ned-katz.