Herstoria eksperymentalna: Miss La La

Abstrakt

Anna Olga Brown is a figure who became known in history as Miss Lala. Strong „African Princess”, „Black Venus”, with iron jaws which could hold the weight of several people as well as an exploding cannon. Her trapeze stunts were admired on the biggest European stages. She was born in Szczecin, to a black father and a white mother; the youngest of four siblings. She lived in a time of colonialism and racism. At a time when women still had no right to vote and their role was restricted to the private sphere. Her muscular, circus body went beyond the normative canons of female beauty and with its strength challenged dominant beliefs. It fascinated and disturbed. For advertising purposes it was alternately normalized and exoticised. Her biography is full of blank pages, uncertainties, and speculations. The following article is another attempt to read herstory, conducted within the framework of experimental history.