Words and Pictures Seduce

‘a woman of steel and panther-like grace’

‘beautiful, sexy, silly and savvy’

‘a symbol of sexual liberation uninhibited in her choice of lovers both male and female reveling in her beautiful, sensual dancing body’

- BBC Documentary

The life of Josephine Baker is one of the most fascinating, adventurous, and inspiring stories I have ever come across. She is inspiring as a performer, lover, equal rights activist and all-round free spirit!

About this time last year, I went to the Art Deco 1910-1939 Exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria International. About midway through the exhibition, somewhat bored by the repetitive display of Art-Deco jewellery, architecture, furniture, pottery, graphic design and fashion, I was completely stumped by the large semi-naked dancing body and beautiful, silly, facial expressions and smile of Josephine Baker! Her performance of ‘Danse Sauvage’  in ‘Revue Nègre’ was being projected onto the large white walls of the gallery and was attracting quite a gob-smacked audience! This girl was so fresh, fun and alive!

From reading her biography, it was clear she was a huge influence on the fashion, social, political and cultural trends from the 1920s till her death in 1975.

This woman was amazing.

Notable points in her life:

• Josephine Baker was originally a street performer who became a bona-fide star. She left racially segregated America at just 19 ‘to find freedom’ in Paris during the 1920s as a vaudeville performer and singer. And didn’t she find it, and more! She found fortune, celebrity, love and respect in Paris.I think it’s fascinating that Paris embraced Baker when America wouldn’t, considering the race conflicts in France in the past decade.
• She became a muse for artists and designers such as Picasso and Dior
• She renounced her American citizenship to become a French citizen and received the Croix de Guerre, the highest French military honor, for her underground intelligence services during World War II.
• Her beautiful long legs, scandalous uninhibited dance moves and barely-there sequinned dresses led her to have the nicknames “Black Venus,” “Black Pearl” and “Creole Goddess.”
• She made significant contributions to the Civil Rights Movement in the US. For example she refused to perform in segregated audiences.
• She married 4 times and got nearly 1,500 marriage proposals!
• She become the first African-American woman to have the lead role in a major motion picture.
• She adopted 12 children from all around the world to create a ‘rainbow family‘ long before Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.
• She had a baby cheetah as a pet!

She clearly also has a heart of a poet:

“Surely the day will come when color means nothing more than the skin tone, when religion is seen uniquely as a way to speak one’s soul; when birth places have the weight of a throw of the dice and all men are born free, when understanding breeds love and brotherhood.”

“The secret to the fountain of youth is to think youthful thoughts.”

“… I improvised, crazed by the music… Even my teeth and eyes burned with fever. Each time I leaped I seemed to touch the sky and when I regained earth it seemed to be mine alone.”

“Beautiful? It’s all a question of luck. I was born with good legs. As for the rest… beautiful, no. Amusing, yes.”

“I did take the blows [of life], but I took them with my chin up, in dignity, because I so profoundly love and respect humanity.”

“We’ve got to show that blacks and whites are treated equally in the army. Otherwise, what’s the point of waging war on Hitler?”

“I love performing. I shall perform until the day I die.”

“I’m not intimidated by anyone. Everyone is made with two arms, two legs, a stomach and a head. Just think about that.”

“Art is an elastic sort of love.”

Footage of Josephine Baker performing her famous Banana Dance at the Folies Bergère in Paris, France c. 1927

2006. BBC documentary