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25 April 2008

Ovida Delect (1927 - 1996) poet and political activist.

Jean-Pierre Voidies was part of the French Communist Résistance to the German invasion. He was arrested and sent to Neuengamme concentration camp.


After the war Jean-Pierre was a political activist, a poet, a novelist, a husband and father.

At the age of 55 Jean-Pierre transitioned to female and became Ovida. She lives in Normandy with her ex-wife, Huguette Voidies.
  • Ovida Delect. La prise de robe. Itinéraire d'une transsexualité vécue. Edité à compte d'auteur, 149 pp 1982.
  • Françoise Romand (dir). Appelez-moi Madame. France 52 mins 1986.
  • Ovida Delect. La Vocation d'être femme: itineraire d'une transsexualité vécue. Paris: Editions L’Harmattan 384 pp 1996. (includes La prise de robe).

Here is a poem that the 18-year-old Jean-Pierre wrote in January 1945 without pen or paper after being marched 5 kilometres, barefoot in the snow:
Sous l'étoile trop pure
Du grand ciel froid
La toile de la tente
Au vent qui tourmente
Claque - et c'est la voile
Des galères d'autrefois.
Oppressés, compressés
Les prisonniers s'irritent
Des toux rocailleuses
Et des voix pleureuses
Des mourants qui s'agitent.
Le projecteur est dur
La sentinelle boit
Je ferme mes gerçures
Et mes lèvres sans joie.
Le projecteur est dur
La sentinelle boit
J'étire mes jointures
Et fais craquer le bois.
Time:

1 comment:

  1. jjbirge25/11/08 20:05

    Ovida has died a few years ago
    and Call Me Madame has been issued as a DVD this week !

    ReplyDelete

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