For over two thousand years, violets have been a shared language between women. In this episode, we follow a thread from Sappho's pen, through Parisian salons and art circles, to Broadway. And we ask how love finds a way to exist when the world insists it can't.

Executive Producer, Writer & Host: Nina Ozier

Co-host and Episode Cover Artist: Jake Kaplan

Audio Producer & Sound Mixer: Elliot Terzian

Theme Music: Paul Oliphant

Episode References:

1. Anne Carson, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho
2. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Sappho”
3. Poetry Foundation biography
4. Shari Benstock, Women of the Left Bank
5. JSTOR Daily, “Why Violets Became a Symbol of Lesbian Love”
6. Lillian Faderman, Surpassing the Love of Men
7. Kew Gardens, "Four Flowers That Have Become Queer Symbols" — kew.org
8. JSTOR Daily, "Four Flowering Plants That Have Been Decidedly Queered"
9. Wikipedia, "LGBTQ Symbols" — for The Captive / violet sales detail
10. Dressing Dykes, "From Lavender to Violet: The Lesbian Obsession with Purple" — for Paris Lesbos community detail
11. Manchester Historian, "Fighting Lesbian Erasure in Historiography: Restoring Sappho as a Queer Identity" — Amber Barry
12. Wikipedia, "Renée Vivien" — for laudanum/violets suicide attempt detail
13. Freedom Socialist Party, "Gay Resistance: The Hidden History Part III" — for Vivien's work being unsellable in England and US
14. Taylor Institution Library, "Renée Vivien, Enfant Terrible of the Belle Époque" — for critical hostility detail