@naomipaxton
Historian of suffrage theatre. Books, talks, walks, games, exhibitions - and more! Performer and broadcaster. Former BBCR3/AHRC New Gen Thinker. Member of The Magic Circle. Does comedy, cabaret & magic as Ada Campe www.naomipaxton.co.uk
This #WomensHistoryMonth, check out the new exhibition at the Florence Nightingale Museum, 'In Focus: Nurse Catherine Pine', and find out about this St Bartholomew's Hospital nurse and her life's work in the fight for women's rights
www.florence-nightingale.co.uk/exhibition-i...
A fascinating and inspiring event - and do check out this toolkit!
Suffragettes! Swazzles! Slapsticks! This was so much fun to record 🐊 😄 And you can still hear the BBC Radio 3 Sunday Feature “Judy Punches Up” here: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...?
The Alternative Comedy Memorial Society (ACMS) The Phoenix, Cavendish Sq, by Oxford Circus Monday 9th March 2026, 7:30pm-10:40ish Thom Tuck & Tom Bell (MCs), with umpteen excellent guests: Ada Campe, Ashley Haden, Callum & Toby, Cerys Bradley, Heidi & Julie, Joz Norris, Rosie G, Sam Eley, Ted Hill, Tom Whiston £10 online, from wegottickets.com £12 at the gig, doors open 7pm noblefailure.org
#ACMS
📆 TONIGHT
🏰 The Phoenix
🎟️ £10 online from wegottickets.com/event/692738 till 5pm, then £12 on the door
😻 hosted by @turlygod.bsky.social & @tombellforever.bsky.social, with e.g. @naomipaxton.bsky.social, @joznorris.bsky.social, AND MORE
🌈 free guestlist for trans & non-binary folk, just ask
To mark #IWD2026 #RightsJusticeAction we launch @ukri.org #AHRC funded project #womensgrassrootsactivism #Activism100+ toolkit. Join us:
🗓️ 10 March 2026
⏰ 5.30pm-7pm (UK time via Zoom)
& find out more here: learn.lsbu.ac.uk/womens-grass... #WomensHistoryMonth Please re-post 🙏 #RightsJusticeAction
Black and white photo of a woman with a newspaper.
Happy International Women’s Day!
Let's create a thread of women from history we think more people should know about.
We will start:
Una Marson (1905 – 1965) was a Jamaican feminist, activist and writer.
Image: WikiCommons
#WHM26 #InternationalWomensDay
Yes, I whack her out (I couldn't have whacked her in real life anywhere, anyhow!) every International Women's Day. Can't help it. Here's a 6ft 2, 252lb 1906 Lady Wrestler for you. Her real identity is still unknown after 120 years! Kayfabe Queen #IWD2026
1) grapplingwithhistory.com/2021/03/02/i...
Oh Glasgow 😢
Happy International Women’s Day!
Here’s a list by the excellent Dani Johns of 400+ female comedians working at pro and semi-pro level in the UK.
Turns out there are quite a few of us 🥳
Notes, caveats, and how to recommend someone are in the images.
#IWD
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Happy International Women's Day! Why not use it to listen to some excellent womenfolk answering kids' bananas questions on our podcast.
@abbywambaugh.bsky.social on how to capture a snortalflax:
youtu.be/NDVIdp7gqIQ?...
@natluurtsema.bsky.social on why foxes are orange: youtu.be/1zuWPpWSm6M?...
Is it weird to feel proud that people remember and like your alter ego?! And recognise you in the wild? Well however that shakes down - I’m proud of and for you Ada Campe 🤗
#adacampe #artofdrag #cabaretperfomer #coventgarden #musings
I am so excited about this upcoming 1-day hybrid conference. I can't wait to share findings from the project & hear the amazing papers we have lined up.
Most importantly, it's free! In person attendees get cakes, lunch & a drinks reception. Travel bursaries are available for PhDs/ECRs. Join us!
Saturday 7 March Colchester, Colchester Arts Centre | 2pm show Tonbridge, The Market House | 2pm festival show Sundays 8 March and 12 April Finsbury Park, Park Theatre | 3pm show Sundays 15 March, 5 & 19 April Central London, The Phoenix | 12-2:30pm classes Tuesday 7 April Epsom Playhouse | 2pm show Wednesday 8 April Hornchurch, Queen’s Theatre | 2pm show Thursday 9 April Folkestone, Quarterhouse | 1pm show
Fancy some family-friendly comedy goodness? Come see:
⭐ @naomipaxton.bsky.social's Ada in Epsom & Folkestone
⭐ @katiepritchards.bsky.social in Colchester & Hornchurch & Folkestone
⭐ @howardread.bsky.social in Colchester & Hornchurch
⭐ Dov Citron in Tonbridge & Epsom
www.comedyclub4kids.co.uk/gigs/
NEW EXHIBITION NOW OPEN ✨
The Women’s Library at 100: Celebrating a Century of Collections.
Join us Thu 12 March to celebrate - meet the curators alongside colleagues from other archives including @nationalarchives.gov.uk.web.brid.gy @thelondonarchives.bsky.social
www.lse.ac.uk/library/twl100
They are wonderful
And it’s proved unexpectedly relatable - every time I’ve performed it at least one person has told me a story about a ganglion they had once… and how they were told to do the same 😄
New video up from my show last week! This is Hit it with a Bible aka The Ganglion Song - and it’s captioned 🙂
I loved writing this and performing it is always fun, thanks to the the brilliant @tomcarradine.bsky.social 👏
Ada Campe sings "Hit it with a Bible!" at Crazy Coqs
youtu.be/QIyDxTBNIgs
Black and white image of women workers.
Join us this #WomensHistoryMonth in amplifying women’s voices past and present.
Our website is a wonderful place to start learning more. Spread the word!
womenshistorynetwork.org
#WHM2026 #WomensHistory #GenderHist
Image: Pit girl brow workers, Wigan, 1900. COPY 1/445, The National Archives.
This is the beginning of the Censor's report for a 1914 play. He thought it "often offensive" but not improper, demanded the words "bloody" "damn" and "blast" be omitted, and reluctantly recommended it for license to be performed at the Royal Court. What a start to a five act drama! 🍿
Want to work for @britishacademy.bsky.social? We are hiring several roles at the moment including 3 policy roles at different levels, a Deputy Head of Research Funding and several more. We are a lovely place to work. Take a look
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/about/jobs/
What do Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, and the 19th-century Divorce Court have in common? Murder, of course.
I chatted with @cacrampton.bsky.social on the Shedunnit podcast about how divorce law shaped golden age detective fiction 🔍
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
#LegalHistory #DivorceHistory
This week's review covers Australian swimmer and movie star Annette Kellerman, who was named "the perfectly formed woman" in 1910 by a Harvard weirdo and she took that endorsement straight to the bank, slipping in some radical feminism in the bargain.
moviessilently.com/2026/02/22/t...
A moment of utter peace in an otherwise empty Music Room at the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn. Loved seeing his handwritten score spotlighted (spotlit?) alongside the recording.
#beethoven #moonlightsonata #museums
A common fictional narrative shows people with nonconforming identities finding self-acceptance in towns and cities.
This #LGBTQHistoryMonth, archivist Lottie Wood explores how author E. M. Barraud found the opposite, through rural work and the Women’s Land Army.
merl.reading.ac.uk/news-and-vie...
The photographic studio ‘Ramsey & Muspratt’ opened on St Andrews Street in Cambridge in late 1932. The town’s main photographer predicted that ‘those two ladies won’t last six months.’ Two years later Lettice and Helen bought out his studio for £600 and established their own premises there.
Bumping my Free Stuff Thread in case you wanted something nice to watch for the low low price of no money at all
Four varieties of ear trumpet created by Johann Mälzel for Beethoven around 1812
Four uncomfortable looking ear trumpets created by Johann Nepomuk Mälzel around 1812 - in a display case at the Beethoven Haus in Bonn. A chilly but interesting museum, with lots of very creaky floorboards!
I remember finding a great granddaughter of one of my suffrage actresses and she was surprised and thrilled to hear about all her activism - she had absolutely no idea before… just one sad memory of meeting her when she was very very young. Was happy to bring positivity and enthusiasm to her!
Thank you Virginia Giuffre. Thank you Gisèle Pelicot.
A mixed pastel background with bold orange & purple text ‘Creative Resistance 17 Feb guest facilitator’. Below, a photo of Naomi holding a mirror, looking into it - she’s a white woman with short white hair. The face in the mirror is her as Ada Campe, looking out at the viewer. Ada wears elaborate eye make up. Below, text says Naomi Paxton, with a purple arrow & the Creative Resistance illustration of a group of people walking together.
A bigger version of the illustration of a group of people walking together, holding a drum, a paintbrush, a sign, and a rolled up scroll of paper. Text: Creative Resistance, Tuesday evenings once a month @ QUEERCIRCLE SE10 0BN. With the Bechdel Theatre, QUEERCIRCLE & Community Fund logos.
Looking forward to facilitating this Creative Resistance session for
Bechdel Theatre tonight at QueerCircle.
We'll explore creative activism in historical feminist theatre & how the innovative and collaborative strategies of early 20C activists can inspire & challenge creatives today.
