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Posts tagged as “Josephine Baker”

20th Century Global Superstar, Activist and Spy Josephine Baker’s Cheeky Quote on Getting Ahead From Behind (LISTEN)

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

We celebrate the iconic, internationally famous entertainer Josephine Baker in today’s GBN Daily Drop podcast with some history along with her humorously clever quote regarding her ticket to fame, fortune and freedom in her adopted homeland of France, and around the world.

It’s based on the Wednesday, March 23 entry in “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022:

You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):

SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Wednesday, March 23rd, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing. Today we offer a quote from internationally famous singer and dancer Josephine Baker:

“My face and my rump were famous! I could honestly say that I’d been blessed with an intelligent derriere. Most people’s were only good to sit on.”

Born in 1906 in St. Louis, Missouri, after stints in vaudeville and musical revues like Eubie Blake’s Shuffle Along, Josephine Baker immigrated to France in the 1920s to find freedom and grow her talents into the pinnacle of singing, dancing, acting and comedic entertainment that brought her fortune and fame.

Known for her iconic “Banana Dance” in the Folies Bergere, Baker became a global sensation.

She was a member of the French Resistance during World War Two,  spied on the Nazis for her adopted homeland, spoke out for civil rights, worked with the NAACP, spoke at the March on Washington, and adopted 12 children from all races, countries and religions, calling them her Rainbow Tribe.

Baker passed in 1975 and in 2021, she became the first Black woman inducted into France’s National Panthéon.There is so much more to learn more about Bakers’ life and work, but you can start by reading 2018’s Josephine Baker’s Last Dance by Sherry Jones, 2001’s Josephine Baker: The Hungry Heart by one of her sons, Jean-Claude Baker, watch Baker’s movies, Princess Tam Tam, Siren of the Tropics and Zou Zou, which can be found in the Josephine Baker DVD Collection, the recently restored film from 1940 called The French Way, and there’s also 1991’s The Josephine Baker Story, an HBO movie starring Lynn Whitfield, also available on DVD.

The main documentary I found on her is 2018’s Josephine Baker: The Story of An Awakening, produced by Terranoa, which can currently be found in some PBS local listings.

There’s also the BBC Wales’ 2006 documentary Josephine Baker: The 1st Black Superstar, currently posted on YouTube.

Links to these and other sources are provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org.

This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, based on the A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing.

Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot. Additional music includes “J’ai Deux Amours” performed by Josephine Baker and employed under fair use.

If you like these Daily Drops, please consider following us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a rating or review, share links to your favorite episodes, or go old school and tell a friend.

For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

Sources:

(paid links)

MUSIC MONDAY: “A Song For You” – The Best of St. Louis Musical Artists (LISTEN)

by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

I have done a few playlists, so far devoted to specific cities. Chicago, New Orleans, and DC are among them.

My own hometown, St. Louis, doesn’t get the same props as many other musical towns. Though from Josephine Baker to Chuck Berry to Donny Hathaway to Nelly, descendants of The Gateway City have made their mark.

[spotifyplaybutton play=”spotify:playlist:58kPFAGneM8Xzkh00I4PvM”]

This collection brings together artists across several genres that are from, based, or got their start in St. Louis. Though Ike Turner was from Mississippi and Tina Turner was from Tennessee, it was during a gig at St. Louis’ Club Manhattan where Tina, then Anna Mae Bullock, first grabbed Ike’s microphone on stage and their tumultuous path to fame began.

From the advent of ragtime at the turn of the 20th century to hip-hop at the turn of the 21st, though, St. Louis has always profoundly impacted the direction of American music.

As always, stay sane, safe, and kind. “See” ya next week.

Marlon West (photo courtesy Marlon West)

Authors N.K Jemisin and Jacqueline Woodson Among 2020 MacArthur “Genius” Fellows Awarded $625K Grant

[Top L to R: Monika Schleier-Smith, Ralph Lemon, N.K. Jemisin, Jacqueline Woodson; Bottom L to R: Fred Moten, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Catherine Coleman Flowers, Tressie McMillan Cottom and Thomas Wilson Mitchell; photos courtesy macfound.org]

Every year, the MacArthur Fellows Program awards its recipients a $625,000 “no strings attached” grant, an investment in a person’s originality, insight, and potential so they may continue to “exercise their own creative instincts for the benefit of human society.”

In 2020, nine of the 21 “geniuses” that have been selected are Black. Among them are award-winning author N.K. Jemisin who wrote the science fiction series The Broken Earth Trilogy, and Jacqueline Woodson, who wrote the young adult books Brown Girl Dreaming and Harbor Me, among others.

Sociologist Tressie McMillan Cottom, artist Ralph Lemon, environmental activist Catherine Coleman Flowers, law scholar Thomas Wilson Mitchell and experimental physicist Monika Schleier-Smith are among the other 2020 MacArthur Fellows. A full list and brief bios follow below:

N. K. Jemisin is a speculative fiction writer exploring deeply human questions about structural racism, environmental crises, and familial relationships while immersing readers in intricately imagined, fantastical worlds. The societies she constructs are populated by protagonists who push against the conventions of earlier-era science fiction and epic fantasy, which often feature male-dominated casts of characters and draw heavily from the legends of medieval Europe. Her multi-volume sagas counterbalance the monumental themes of oppression and exploitation with attentiveness to the more intimate inner workings of families and communities and the range of emotions—from love to rage, resentment to empathy—that they inspire.

Jemisin’s most recent novel, The City We Became (2020), is the first in what will become her Great Cities series and features present-day New York not only as its setting but also as a sentient entity itself. Invading and homogenizing forces threaten the metropolis she depicts and must be fended off by a team of human avatars—comprised primarily of people of color, male and female, queer and straight—who embody the diverse histories and distinct personalities of the city’s boroughs. The novel dramatizes the city’s own legacies of racism and both references and critiques the xenophobic and racist views of H. P. Lovecraft, whose horror fiction has had a profound impact on popular culture.

Jacqueline Woodson is a writer redefining children’s and young adult literature in works that reflect the complexity and diversity of the world we live in while stretching young readers’ intellectual abilities and capacity for empathy. In nearly thirty publications that span picture books, young adult novels, and poetry, Woodson crafts stories about Black children, teenagers, and families that evoke the hopefulness and power of human connection even as they tackle difficult issues such as the history of slavery and segregation, incarceration, interracial relationships, social class, gender, and sexual identity.

In the picture book Show Way (2005), also a picture book, Woodson tells the story of a quilt that was passed down through generations from enslaved ancestors who stitched the route to freedom on the quilt. Through sympathetic and convincingly developed characters and spare, poetic writing, Woodson portrays the search for self-definition and self-acceptance in which young readers are actively engaged.

In Harbor Me (2018), Woodson employs a unique structure: the text of the novel is ostensibly derived from recordings of weekly conversations among six middle school classmates from various racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. The conceit of the recordings allows the reader to intimately witness the characters’ efforts to confront their fears, biases, and confusion around topics like racial profiling, deportation, and incarcerated parents.

Tressie McMillan Cottom is a sociologist, writer, and public scholar shaping discourse on pressing issues at the confluence of race, gender, education, and digital technology. In work across multiple platforms, ranging from academic scholarship to essays and social media engagement, McMillan Cottom combines analytical insights and personal experiences in a frank, accessible style of communication that resonates with broad audiences within and outside of academia.

In her book-length study of for-profit colleges, Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy (2017), McMillan Cottom explores the rapid growth of these institutions in the context of rising inequality in the United States. The book has reverberated amongst educators and policymakers and has influenced recent policy debates about the racial, gender, and class inequalities of educational institutions.

Harvard University Acquires Copy of Unfinished Play "The Welcome Table" by James Baldwin

The Houghton Library at Harvard University has acquired a typed script of an unfinished James Baldwin play “The Welcome Table.” The manuscript is the 3,000 item acquired by the library archives since 1874.

James Baldwin
James Baldwin

One of the main characters in the Baldwin play, Peter Davis, is based on Henry Louis Gates Jr., the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and the director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard. Another character is based on Josephine Baker. In 1973, Professor Gates, who was working as a London-based journalist at the time, drove Josephine Baker to Baldwin’s villa in France, where the three dined together.
Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Henry Louis Gates Jr.

There are four known versions of the script that were written over the years. In one version, Professor Gates is a young man but in a later version he is a middle-aged man. Gates owns one of the other copies of the unfinished play. Another is held at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture of the New York Public Library. The fourth is owned by a private collector.
article via jbhe.com

Tony Winner Audra McDonald Announces Broadway Return Alongside George C. Wolfe and Savion Glover for 2016 Musical "Shuffle Along"

Audra McDonald will return to Broadway in 2016, in collaboration with George C. Wolfe and Savion Glover.
Audra McDonald will return to Broadway in 2016, in collaboration with George C. Wolfe and Savion Glover. (© David Gordon)

Six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald will return to Broadway in spring 2016 in a new collaboration with Tony-winning director George C. Wolfe and Tony-winning choreographer Savion Glover. The collaboration is called Shuffle Along, or, The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Follows. The production begins previews March 14, 2016, at the Music Box Theatre, with opening night set for April 21.
McDonald will play Lottie Gee, the 1920s performer who appeared in the cast of Shuffle Along. This 1921 musical by Flournoy Miller, Aubrey Lyles, Eubie Blake, and Noble Sissle altered the face of Broadway in giving several black performers their first Broadway credits. The show helped launch the careers of Josephine Baker, Florence Mills, and Paul Robeson, among many others.
Ninety-five years later, this backstage musical will explore the creation of this now-forgotten show. Wolfe directs and pens the book, while Glover choreographs. It marks their first collaboration since their 1996 hit Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk. The production will have music supervision, arrangements, and orchestrations by Daryl Waters, scenic design by Santo Loquasto, costume design by Ann Roth, and lighting design by Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer. Scott Rudin serves as producer.
Additional information about the production will be revealed in the coming months.
article by David Gordon via theatermania.com

New Children's Biographies of Malcolm X, Josephine Baker Out This Month

Not Just For Kids: Biographies aimed at children include Abraham Lincoln, Malcolm X, Josephine Baker and Thomas JeffersonIlyasah Shabazz, Malcolm X’s daughter, has written Malcolm Little: The Boy Who Grew Up to Become Malcolm X (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, $17.99, ages 6-10), a sentimental book about his early life (sensitively illustrated by A.G. Ford).
Also available for elementary school readers is Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker (Chronicle Books, $17.99, ages 7-10), Patricia Hruby Powell’s scrupulously researched, high-spirited celebration of the color-line-crossing dancer, illustrated by Christian Robinson.

Writing in jazzy, syncopated free verse, Powell, a former dancer, finds the seeds of Baker’s passion in her hardscrabble St. Louis childhood. “I didn’t have any stockings … I danced to keep warm,” Baker explains. The author detects heat too in the frustration and fury fueled by racism, which she compares to hot lava, burning deep in the dancer’s soul and released like steam “in little poofs” when she performs.
Powell’s poetic voice details not only Baker’s rise to stardom, onstage triumphs and offstage heroism but also her disappointments, excesses and her descent into homelessness before a glorious return to the stage and funeral fit for a queen.
Robinson’s richly vibrant, sensually expressive illustrations also capture the dancer’s lithe power and passion. Robinson credits the work of Paul Colin, who created the La Revue Negre posters that propelled Baker to fame in France and beyond, as his primary inspiration. But his palette also evokes Jacob Lawrence’s “Migration Series,” adding emotional weight.
article via latimes.com