The Lives of Freda

The Lives of Freda
Author: Andrew Whitehead
Publisher:
Total Pages: 394
Release: 2019-02-10
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9789388874083

The extraordinary story of an Englishwoman who became Indian; a person born and raised at the heart of Empire who went to jail because she believed in a free India; a Christian girl who became a world renowned Bhiksuni, a Buddhist nun. From the moment she married a handsome young Sikh at a registry office in Oxford in 1933, Freda Bedi, née Houlston, regarded herself as Indian, even though it was another year before she set foot in the country. She was English by birth and upbringing--and Indian by marriage, cultural affinity and political loyalty. Later, she travelled the world as a revered Buddhist teacher, but India would remain her home to the end. The life of Freda Bedi is a remarkable story of multiple border crossings. Born in a middle-class home in provincial England, she became a champion of Indian nationalism, even serving time in jail in Lahore as a Satyagrahi. In Kashmir in the 1940s, while her husband B.P.L. Bedi drafted the 'New Kashmir' manifesto, she assisted underground left-wing Kashmiri nationalists, and joined a women's militia to defend Srinagar from invading Pakistani tribesmen. In 1959, she persuaded Nehru to give her a role coordinating efforts to help Tibetan refugees who came with the Dalai Lama and immersed herself in the project, setting up a nunnery and a school for young lamas. Some years later, she became the first western woman, and possibly the first woman ever, to receive full ordination as a Tibetan Buddhist nun. This meticulously researched and superbly written biography does perfect justice to Freda Bedi's extraordinary life. By interviewing her children and friends, and delving into the family's extensive archives of letters and recordings--as well as official records and newspaper archives--Andrew Whitehead paints a compelling picture of a woman who challenged barriers of nation, religion, race and gender, always remaining true to her strong sense of justice and equity.

The Revolutionary Life of Freda Bedi

The Revolutionary Life of Freda Bedi
Author: Vicki Mackenzie
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
Total Pages: 207
Release: 2017-03-28
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1611804256

A fascinating biography of Freda Bedi, an English woman who broke all the rules of gender, race, and religious background to become both a revolutionary in the fight for Indian independence and then a Buddhist icon. She was the first Western woman to become a Tibetan Buddhist nun—but that pioneering ordination was really just one in a life full of revolutionary acts. Freda Bedi (1911–1977) broke the rules of gender, race, and religion—in many cases before it was thought that the rules were ready to be challenged. She was at various times a force in the struggle for Indian independence, spiritual seeker, scholar, professor, journalist, author, social worker, wife, and mother of four children. She counted among her friends, colleagues, and teachers Mohandas Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, and many others. She was a woman of spiritual focus and compassion who was also not without contradictions. Vicki Mackenzie gives a nuanced view of Bedi and of the forces that shaped and motivated this complex and compelling figure.

Riccardo Freda

Riccardo Freda
Author: Roberto Curti
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 376
Release: 2017-03-21
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1476628386

In an eclectic career spanning four decades, Italian director Riccardo Freda (1909-1999) produced films of remarkable technical skill and powerful visual style, including the swashbuckler Black Eagle (1946), an adaptation of Les Miserables (1947), the peplum Theodora, Slave Empress (1954) and a number of cult-favorite Gothic and horror films such as I Vampiri (1957), The Horrible Dr. Hichcock (1962) and The Ghost (1963). Freda was first championed in the 1960s by French critics who labeled him "the European Raoul Walsh," and enjoyed growing critical esteem over the years. This book covers his life and career for the first time in English, with detailed analyses of his films and exclusive interviews with his collaborators and family.

The Spiritual Odyssey of Freda Bedi

The Spiritual Odyssey of Freda Bedi
Author: Norma Levine
Publisher:
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2018-05-31
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9788878341609

Freda Bedi had a big heart and a big life. An English head prefect and Oxford graduate, a devoted Indian wife and doting mother of three, a hands on social worker and investigative journalist, a university teacher and Tibetan translator, a Gandhi satyagraha and Buddhist nun: who was Freda Bedi, Gelongma Palmo, affectionately called Mummy-la by all the Tibetans including His Holiness the 16th Karmapa and His Holiness the Dalai Lama? Who was this lady who tread so lightly yet left an indelible footprint, obscured but not forgotten? Fearless even in death, Freda died sitting in meditation with no rigor mortis, her body remaining supple for four days with warmth around the heart. "Mrs. Freda Bedi whom we all lovingly called Mummy was truly a giver of life for thousands of Tibetan refugees. But she was much more. She delved deep into ancient Tibetan wisdom and became a living representative of its value to the rest of the world when it was being destroyed in Tibet. The history of Tibetan Buddhism in the West would not be complete without her." - Ringu Tulku, author of Mind Training, Confusion Arises as Wisdom and Path to Buddhahood "The Spiritual Odyssey of Freda Bedi is a rich intimate journey into the life of an extraordinary pioneer in the dialogue between Tibetan Buddhism and the western world. Her closeness to His Holiness 16th Karmapa was unprecedented, enabling her to move into the inner recesses of his world and to have a lasting impact on the Tibetan refugees. This riveting book shares her journey from England to India, to marriage with a Gandhi activist, motherhood and ultimately a life of deep spiritual realization in the Tibetan tradition as it emerged into view in the 1960s and '70s." - Lama Tsultrim Allione, author of Women of Wisdom and Feeding Your Demons "​This is a beautiful book on Mummy, well written, highly informative. It captures the essence of her life extremely well and tells her story with great sensitivity. Truly a wonderful book and a labour of love. I feel gratitude and admiration. Congratulations!" - Kabir Bedi, Indian film and television actor

Alice + Freda Forever

Alice + Freda Forever
Author: Alexis Coe
Publisher: Millbrook Press
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2019-08-01
Genre: Young Adult Nonfiction
ISBN: 1541581679

Alice + Freda Forever is a gut-wrenching story of love, death, and the dangers of intolerance."—Bustle In 1892, America was obsessed with a teenage murderess, but it wasn't her crime that shocked the nation—it was her motivation. Nineteen-year-old Alice Mitchell had planned to pass as a man in order to marry her seventeen-year-old fiancée Freda Ward, but when their love letters were discovered, they were forbidden from ever speaking again. Freda adjusted to this fate with an ease that stunned a heartbroken Alice. Her desperation grew with each unanswered letter—and her father's razor soon went missing. On January 25, Alice publicly slashed her ex-fiancée's throat. Her same-sex love was deemed insane by her father that very night, and medical experts agreed: This was a dangerous and incurable perversion. As the courtroom was expanded to accommodate national interest, Alice spent months in jail—including the night that three of her fellow prisoners were lynched (an event which captured the attention of journalist and civil rights activist Ida B. Wells). After a jury of "the finest men in Memphis" declared Alice insane, she was remanded to an asylum, where she died under mysterious circumstances just a few years later. Alice + Freda Forever recounts this tragic, real-life love story with over 100 illustrated love letters, maps, artifacts, historical documents, newspaper articles, courtroom proceedings, and intimate, domestic scenes.

Red Velvet Underground

Red Velvet Underground
Author: Freda Love Smith
Publisher: Agate Publishing
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2015-09-21
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1572847611

“Not only a rock memoir and recipe book but also a poignant work of personal self-discovery and the challenges yet joys of parenting.” —Huffington Post Part memoir, part cookbook, and all rock and roll, Red Velvet Underground tells the story of how musician Freda Love Smith’s indie-rock past grew into her family—and food-centric present. Smith, born in Nashville and raised in Indiana, is best known as the drummer and co-founder of bands such as the Boston-based Blake Babies, Antenna, and the Mysteries of Life. Red Velvet Underground is loosely framed around cooking lessons Smith gave to her eldest son, Jonah, before he left for college. Smith compares her son’s experiences to her own—meeting Juliana Hatfield and starting the Blake Babies, touring in Evan Dando’s hand-me-down station wagon, and crashing with Henry Rollins, who introduced the band to local California fare—all while plumbing the deeper meanings behind the role of food, cooking, and family. Interspersed throughout these stories are forty-five flexitarian recipes—mostly, but not exclusively, vegetarian—such as red pepper-cashew spread, spinach and brazil nut pesto, and vegan strawberry-cream scones. Throughout the book, Smith reveals how food, in addition to music, has evolved into an important means for creativity and improvisation. Red Velvet Underground is an engaging exploration of the ways food and music have informed identity through every stage of one woman’s life. “These are sweet, unsentimental scenes from the ever-evolving life of a woman of many shifting and balancing roles: mother, wife, drummer, student, teacher, friend, daughter, food enthusiast. It’s all tied together with tantalizing recipes that have been lovingly improvised and tweaked into a life-affirming doneness.” —Juliana Hatfield, musician

I Am Hava

I Am Hava
Author: Freda Lewkowicz
Publisher: Intergalactic Afikoman
Total Pages: 40
Release: 2023-01-01
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1951365151

Experience the story of the world's most famous Jewish song, as told by the song herself. In her spare, poetic text, Freda Lewkowicz has personified the song of Hava Nagila and made her the narrator of her own story, known simply as "Hava." Renowned Indian-American Jewish illustrator Siona Benjamin, who is known for her blue characters, draws Hava as a young blue girl in a sari. Follow Hava as she spreads joy and hope throughout the world.

Frida's Fiestas

Frida's Fiestas
Author: Marie-Pierre Colle
Publisher: Clarkson Potter
Total Pages: 226
Release: 1994-09-20
Genre: Cooking
ISBN: 0517592355

In the tradition of the best-selling Monet's Table, Frida's Fiestas is a personal account in words and pictures of many important and happy events in the life of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, and a scrapbook, assembled by her stepdaughter, of recipes for more than 100 dishes that Frida served to family and friends with her characteristic enthusiasm for all the pleasures of life. Full-color photographs.

The Amazing Mrs Livesey

The Amazing Mrs Livesey
Author: Freda Marnie Nicholls
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2016-02-24
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1952533287

Ethel Livesey was quite a gal. An attractive young woman from a respectable middle-class family in Manchester, she had over 40 aliases, eight official marriages, four children and five divorces. Her story stretches from industrial England to the French Riviera, from Ireland to New York, Shanghai, New Zealand, the Isle of Man and across Australia. Ethel claimed she was a cotton heiress, wartime nurse, casino hostess, stowaway, artist, opera singer, gambler, spy, close friend of the King, air raid warden, charity queen and even wife of Australian test cricketer Jack Fingleton. When her career imploded (with the abandonment of her glittering society marriage in post-war Sydney just two hours before the guests were due to arrive), the story of the Amazing Mrs Livesey was blazoned across newspapers around the world. But what was fact and what was fiction? With a prologue by Ethel Livesey's granddaughter, this extraordinary and constantly surprising story of the woman who was possibly Australia's greatest fraudster is told for the first time in rich and fascinating detail.