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Event
Josephine Baker: Black Diva in a White Man's World
Josephine Baker: Black Diva in a White Man's World
Monday, February 20 at 7:30pm
Includes Reception & Book Signing
In Person: Jean Claude Baker and Jarry Baker. Jean Claude will sign copies of his new book about his mother: Josephine: The Hungry Heart
Program sponsored by Kool Herc Productions
A revealing documentary about one of the most famous and popular performing artists of the 20th
century. Her legendary banana belt dance created theater history. The film portrays the artist
in the mirror of European colonial clichés as well as a resistance fighter, an ambulance driver during
WW11, and an outspoken activist against racial discrimination involved in the worldwide Black
Consciousness movement of the 20th century. For black Americans, Baker became 'a role
model'. Baker herself "wasn't allowed to be the real American she wanted to be." In an
article she says, "I had been suffocating in the United StatesA lot of us left, not because
we wanted to leave, but because we couldn't stand it any more" During the mid-1920s
Baker found fame in Paris, performing at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees and eventually the Folies Bergeres. It came at a cost;
she often performed in erotic costumes with racist overtones. The dance routines are seen as distasteful now, but at the time
it was an aspect of a black popular culture forced to adapt to white tastes. Baker's career spanned fifty years, and she is
portrayed as a true superstar, one with grace and humility. Black Americans loved her, the French referred to her as their Black Venus"
and in the last years of her life white American audiences gave her the standing ovation she longed for. USA, 2006, 45 min.
In Person: Jean Claude Baker and Jarry Baker. Jean Claude will sign
copies of his new book about his mother: Josephine: The Hungry Heart
Program sponsored by Kool Herc Productions
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LocationCinema Arts Centre
423 Park Avenue
Huntington, NY 11743
United States
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