Join us for a FREE history presentation and book talk with the author of Swimming Pretty: The Untold Story of Women in Water.

Join author Vicki Valosik as she discusses her new book, Swimming Pretty: The Untold History of Women in Water—a groundbreaking history of how women found power in water, written “with the precision and grace of an Esther Williams tableau” (Los Angeles Times).

Valosik’s illustrated talk will offer an engaging history of women’s empowerment through the water, with a focus on the Art Deco era.

In the Victorian era, few American women could swim, but that all changed in the early 20th when they began throwing off their soggy petticoats and diving into the deep end. By the 1920s, women were not only voting and bobbing their hair but becoming Olympic champions and stars of the sports pages. This transformation was made possible by female swimmers of the stage, who used their athletic skills to entertain, as well as to educate and inspire. Swimming Pretty—which Publisher’s Weekly described as “an incisive marriage of sports and cultural history”—traces a century of aquatic performance, from vaudeville to the Olympic arena, and brings to life the colorful cast of characters whose “pretty swimming” not only laid the groundwork for the sport of synchronized swimming but forever changed women’s relationships with water.

Far more than bathing beauties, these swimming starlets ushered in sensible swimwear and influenced lifesaving and physical education programs, helping to drop national drowning rates and paving the way for new generations of female athletes.

You are welcome to purchase the book at Changing Hands! Vicki will stick around for a book signing as well.

Date: September 13, 2024

Time: 7:00pm (please arrive a bit early to settle in!)

Location: Changing Hand’s Tempe: 6428 S McClintock Dr. Tempe, AZ