Join us for the launch of Undercover Girl: The Lesbian Informant Who Helped the FBI Bring Down the Communist Party, by Lisa E. Davis.
 

This is not the story of a bad lesbian. This is the story of a bad system and a terrible moment in American history we call “the McCarthy era.” The American Left never recovered. Our focus is Angela Calomiris (1916-95), a Village photographer well paid by the FBI to spy on the New York Photo League and the American Communist Party (1942-49). We know about her because she broke her cover to testify at the first Smith Act trial (1949) of the Party leadership accused of “conspiracy to advocate the overthrow of the US gov’t by force and violence.” They went to prison while Angela became a Red Scare celebrity with a (ghost-written) book about her patriotic service, then tried to get a big-time job in photography out of the FBI. She later retreated to Provincetown where she owned several properties–Angel’s Landing was one–and kept her previous career as an informant a deep, dark secret. A selection of vintage photos accompanies this presentation.
 
Lisa E Davis has lived in Greenwich Village for many years. Her latest book is “Undercover Girl: The Lesbian FBI Informant Who Helped the FBI Bring Down the Communist Party.” Her novel “Under the Mink,” a film noir tale of gay and lesbian entertainers in mob-owned Village nightclubs of the 1940s, was re-issued in 2015, and has been optioned for a TV series/film. With a PhD in Comparative Literature, Davis taught for years in SUNY and CUNY, published numerous essays, and lectured widely on New World and European literary topics. High points in her career include meeting Fidel Castro and almost drowning in the Colorado River.