Wednesday

Star of the Cabaret Voltaire

Emmy Hemmings in Ascona, 1918 -


Because I am a seaman's child, stem from the sea, life itself is to me a journey over the sea,
and I never see the shores, as if the land, which I don't know yet and which awaits me, were
sleeping in peace. It might be my homeland or a strange land that I will love. I don't know.
Always it was the adventure which I did not seek and which befell me, and each journey was
called 'Call and Response.'
-Emmy Hennings in 'Ruf und Echo:Mein Leben mit Hugo Ball' 1953


...Hennings preferred to keep from history most of the creative work produced during her long career as a member of Munich and Zurich’s Avant-Garde inner circles, as it would unfortunately also reveal a long career as a morphine addict, prostitute, and hustler, who frequently promoted free-love, anarchy, and social revolution, and spent several stints in prison, at least once for forging passports for draft dodgers. 

[click on one of the images for more about emmy]