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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
Saturday, June 2 @ 8:30PM
Josephine Baker, Black Diva in a White Man's World
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.
Director: Annette von Wangenheim, 2006, 45 min.
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LocationTeachers College, Columbia University (View)
525 West 120th Streeet - Room 263 Macy
New York, NY 10027
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: No |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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