Ms. Josephine
In the world today, it is often difficult for a woman to decide how to be, how to move. Should she be demure and mysterious? Should she be titillating and wildly sexy or carry her lap scarf in her purse at all times? How are we, as divine and multifaceted beings supposed to express the fullness of ourselves when we are constantly being asked to make choices and compartmentalize ourselves? Well, ladies, the good news is we don’t have to. The Wild Woman says it is so.
Let us look to the illustrious Ms. Josephine Baker:
Born Freda Josephine McDonald (1906-1975) in St. Louis, Missouri, Josephine Baker donned hats ad infinitum. A multifaceted woman, she sang, dance, acted, finessed espionage, and was a comedian in her own right.
Ms. Baker embodied the impeccable feminine, sashaying onto a Paris stage during the 1920s with a comic, yet sensual appeal that took Europe by storm. Famous for barely-there dresses and no-holds-barred dance routines(“Banana Dance," anyone?), her comic, yet sensual beauty generated the nicknames “Black Venus,” “Black Pearl” and “Creole Goddess.”
Josephine toured the United States with The Jones Family Band and The Dixie Steppers in 1919, performing various comical skits. When the troupes split, she tried to advance as a chorus girl for The Dixie Steppers in Sissle and Blake's production Shuffle Along. She was rejected because she was "too skinny and too dark." Still, she learned the chorus line's routines while working as a dresser. Thus, Josephine was the obvious replacement when a dancer left. Onstage she rolled her eyes and purposely acted clumsy. Thoroughly enthralling the audience with her comedic touch, Josephine was a box office draw for the rest of the show's run.
She enjoyed some success at The Plantation Club in New York after Shuffle Along. However, when she traveled to Paris for a new venture, La Revue Nègre, it proved to be a turning point in her career. Amongst a compilation of acts, Josephine and dance partner Joe Alex captivated the audience with the Danse Sauvage. Everything about the routine was avant garde and Josephine, boldly dressed in nothing but a feather skirt, conjured the audience into frenzy with her uninhibited movements.
A 1936 return to the United States to star in the Ziegfield Follies--an elaborate series of theatrical productions on Broadway--proved disastrous, despite the fact that she was a majorrr celebrity in Europe. American audiences rejected the idea of a melanated woman with so much sophistication and power, newspaper reviews were equally cruel. Por ejemplo, The New York Times once referred to her a "Negro wench." Our dearest Josephine returned to Europe heartbroken, quite obviously.
Selah.
Disgusted with the undue treatment she experienced in the States, Josephine served France during World War II in several ways. She performed for the troops, and was an honorable correspondent for the French Resistance (undercover work included smuggling secret messages written on her music sheets) and a sub-lieutenant in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force. She was later awarded the Medal of the Resistance with Rosette and named a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by the French government for the sheer genius of her finesse.
During her speech to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs, Justice, & Freedom, Ms. Baker had this to say:
“You know I have always taken the rocky path. I never took the easy one, but as I get older, and as I knew I had the power and the strength, I took that rocky path and I tried to smooth it out a little. I wanted to make it easier for you. I want you to have a chance at what I had."
She raises one of thee most important questions we must consider when deciding how to be: Will this moment in which I am deciding whether to honor myself make the path less rocky for my sisterfriend, daughter, playcousin, and all the women who descend me?
Josephine Baker traveled all her avenues and, in doing so, I believe she gave her contemporaries and descendants a clearer vision of who they could be. She is proof that we are permitted to experience and share the fullness and complexities of ourselves. That we each can be wild and live well. That we can twerk to the heavens til our great, big hearts are content. That we can be warriors in a manner in line with our gifts and talents.
DID YOU KNOW??: Josephine developed a close friendship with American artist Robert Brady. Divorced from her fourth husband Jo Bouillon, she was looking for companionship on a more platonic level. The feeling was mutual and, on a trip to Acapulco, Mexico in September 1973, they went to an empty church and exchanged marriage vows. Sans clergy and legal hoops, they commemorated the personal bond that they maintained the rest of her life. Josephine told very few people about the pseudo marriage, fearing the press would ridicule it. (Wild Women still have to exercise discernment). Take notes.
Today, Josephine's spirit is expressed with as much as diversity as when she breathed this air. Witnessed in the Eton crop hairstyle that suits the cloche hat she made famous; we also see performers like Rihanna nodding their head to the GOAT. And even the bananas get shown love, with designer Miuccia Prada drawing inspiration from the fruit-encrusted skirt in 2011.
Live many lives. Allow yourself to die little deaths and allow yourself to be born again. Selah.
“Dance a lot and sweat a lot, because that makes you sleep.”
--Yours, Truly
--Yours, Truly
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