Eva Kotchever


For the Canadian politician, see Eve Adams.
Eva Kotchever, known also as Eve Adams or Eve Addams, born as Chawa Zloczower was a Polish-Jewish émigré librarian and writer, most known for running from 1925 to 1926 a popular, openly lesbian after-theater club in Greenwich Village, Lower Manhattan, called Eve’s Hangout. It closed when Eva was convicted of obscenity and disorderly conduct, which resulted in her deportation.

Biography

Chawa Zloczower was born in 1891 in Poland. Having emigrated to the United States during the 1920s, she ran with her partner Swedish painter Ruth Norlander a business named The Gray Cottage in Chicago, at 10 E Chestnut St.. She was a friend of anarchist writer Emma Goldman.
In 1925 she opened Eve’s Hangout, also known as Eve Addams’ Tearoom in Greenwich Village. On the outside, she put a sign that read: "Men are admitted but not welcome."
She was convicted by NYC's Vice Squad of obscenity for her collection of short stories Lesbian Love and for disorderly conduct after undercover police detective Margaret Leonard entered Eve’s Hangout and was shown the book. Leonard said Kotchever made overt sexual advances to her. After a year in jail, where she probably met Mae West, at Jefferson Market Prison, she was deported to Europe.
In Paris, she ran a bookstore and a café named Le Boudoir de l'Amour in Montmartre. She met in Paris other American artists such as Henry Miller, June Miller, Anaïs Nin, all regulars customers of Le Dôme Café and called Dômiers, in Bohemian neighborough of Montparnasse.
In the 1930s she fought against fascism. In accordance with her political ideas, she supported the Second Spanish Republic, against the regime of General Francisco Franco. She regularly corresponded with Ben Reitman.
In 1943, she was arrested in Nice with her girlfriend Hella. The two women were imprisoned in the Drancy internment camp, near Paris. Deported to Auschwitz, the two women were murdered by the Nazis on December 17, 1943.

Legacy

wrote Unreachable Eden, a play about Eva Kotchever. She read from it in 2014 at the Theater for the New City, 19th Annual Lower East Side Festival of the Arts.. Kahn popularized the life of Eve Addams in the United States.
A street in Paris, rue Eva-Kotchever, located in the 18th arrondissement of Paris is named after her, as well as a public school.
Kotchever is now considered, especially in Europe, as an LGBT icon. The City of New York and the National Park Service tend to keep her memory alive.