Life's a Gamble: Penetration, The Invisible Girls and Other Stories

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New Age (5:35) // Archangel (4:17) / Body Music (2:54) (12", Polestar PSTR-12-003, November 1986) [24] Inspired to attend Columbia University by a favorite teacher, Murray was turned away from applying because the university did not admit women, and she did not have the funds to attend its women's coordinate college, Barnard College. [23] Instead she attended Hunter College, a free women's college of City University of New York, where she was one of the few students of color. [24] Murray was encouraged in her writing by one of her English instructors, from whom she earned an "A" for an essay about her maternal grandfather. This became the basis of Murray's later memoir Proud Shoes (1956), about her mother's family. Murray published an article and several poems in the college paper. She graduated in 1933 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. [23] Pauli’s lived experience really informed Pauli’s intellectual advancements’ ... Murray at Brandeis University in 1970. Photograph: AP Larkin, Colin. The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Pg. 1783. Guinness, 1992. ISBN 0-85112-939-0, ISBN 978-0-85112-939-6

The ten songs on ‘Elemental’, all in minor keys were written by Pauline Murray, originated on acoustic guitar and electronically, with full production by Robert Blamire. Their subject matter includes topics such as the power of nature, emotional ties, reflections, depression, missing persons and ancestors. Murray wore her hair short and preferred pants to skirts; due to her slight build, there was a time in her life when she was often able to pass as a teenage boy. [85] In her twenties, she shortened her name from Pauline to the more androgynous Pauli. [87] At the time of her arrest for the bus segregation protest in 1940, she gave her name as "Oliver" to the arresting officers. [88] Murray pursued hormone treatments in the 1940s to correct what she saw as a personal imbalance [37] and even requested abdominal surgery to test if she had "submerged" male sex organs. [89] After All has a much more solemn feel as it explores the issues faced in close relationships, again very pertinent at a time when so many are living in more confined surroundings. Gambler appears to focus the mind on the challenges of addiction whilst Dark Clouds exudes more gothic imagery in a bid to find a way through moments of despair. The irony is that such dark moods are conveyed in such an uplifting way. Murray was married to Peter Lloyd, Penetration's road manager, but split with her husband after the release of Searching for Heaven in 1980. She and Robert Blamire then became a couple and moved together to Liverpool. [8] She currently resides in Newcastle upon Tyne. Murray has two children. [14] Discography [ edit ] Murray in 1981Bell-Scott, Patricia (2016). The Firebrand and the First Lady: Portrait of a Friendship: Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Struggle for Social Justice. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-0-679-44652-1. Murray is brutally honest about the depression, anxiety, and mental health struggles that accompanied her years in Penetration and beyond, and the various times she considered leaving a career in music behind. While she doesn’t tie these confessions directly to misogyny in the music industry, a reader certainly has to consider whether Murray might have had a different experience but for gender.

Simon, Amanda (April 28, 2016). "New Residential College at Yale to Be Named after Former Ford Fellow". Ford Foundation . Retrieved August 29, 2021. I never thought “I’m a woman fronting a band”’ … Pauline Murray performing with Penetration in 1979. With Life’s a Gamble, Omnibus brings readers the coming-of-age story of Pauline Murray, a trailblazing musician whose voice is essential to the history of punk. (Pauline Murray will be talking about her book at Louder Than Words festival on Nov 11 – details here)Noting Murray’s profound effect on her legal career, the late Justice often called Murray her legal hero, crediting her for the “willingness to speak out when society was not prepared to listen. [Murray] was the one who sparked the idea that the Fourteenth Amendment should protect the right of men and women . . . to follow their talent as far as it could take them.”

This is a clear-eyed account of Pauline’s creative journey. She never loses her punk vision, and serves as an example to up-and-coming musicians of the resilience and tenacity you need to survive and thrive. You’re with her all the way- I couldn't put it down.' Helen McCallum The band debuted on vinyl with the single "Don't Dictate", issued by Virgin Records in November of the same year. The band went on to release two studio albums, Moving Targets (1978) and Coming Up for Air (1979), as well as an official bootleg, Race Against Time (1980). Later there would be a Best of Penetration compilation album. After a measure of success during 1978/79, including a headline show at the Rainbow Theatre and a five-week American tour, they announced a split in October 1979. [4] The record companies signed up anything that moved, took it into their system and pushed them out the other side.”Murray took a position at Camp Tera, a " She-She-She" conservation camp. Established at the urging of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, these federally-funded camps paralleled the all-male Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camps formed under President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal to provide employment to young adults while improving national infrastructure. [27] [28] During her three months at the camp, Murray's health recovered. She also met Eleanor Roosevelt. Later they had correspondence that affected both of them. Murray clashed with the camp's director, however. The director had found a Marxist book from a Hunter College course among Murray's belongings, and questioned Murray's attitude during the First Lady's visit. The camp director also disapproved of Murray's cross-racial relationship with Peg Holmes, a white counselor. [29] Murray and Holmes left the camp in February 1935, and began traveling the country by walking, hitchhiking, and hopping freight trains. [30] Vaughan, Dawn Baumgartner (June 13, 2017). "Pauli Murray's Landmark House to Become More Accessible". The Harold-Sun. Durham, North Carolina: The McClatchy Company . Retrieved March 16, 2018. A follow-up volume to Proud Shoes, her memoir Song in a Weary Throat: An American Pilgrimage, was published posthumously in 1987. Song focused on Murray's own life, particularly her struggles with both gender and racial discrimination. It received the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, the Christopher Award, and the Lillian Smith Book Award. [98] Works by Murray [ edit ] Law [ edit ]

From the upbeat and melodic opening bars of Shadows In My Mind it is evident that the album draws on the tried and tested formula of Pauline’s previous solo albums with a synth-driven pop sound full of positivity and hope, regardless of the lyrical content. The song is about the dialogue we constantly have with ourselves, both positive and negative, and how we can be our own best friend or our own worst enemy. This is certainly a message which assumes a certain poignancy more than ever before with so many people living in isolation.The 1930s were also a time in which Murray began to struggle with their gender identity. Murray changed their birth name from “Anne Pauline” to “Pauli.” Murray also began looking for gender-affirming treatments, including hormone therapy, but was denied. Murray seems to have mostly internalized this struggle; Murray’s autobiography omits any mention of their sexuality, gender orientation, and quest for medical treatment. Penetration played a number of gigs around London in 2001–2002, leading to a band reunion. [4] In 2015 the band announced they would release Resolution, a new studio album. [5] Solo work [ edit ] The ' evening with' events consist of Pauline Murray in conversation, with a Q&A session and career spanning acoustic performances. Pauline is also doing some book signings, in Leeds, Preston, Nottingham and Liverpool.