EYES: Throne (ABH Prism) & Super Nova Glitter Chrome (Hard Candy)
Josephine Baker was a famous 1920s entertainer/dancer the first African-American to star in a major motion picture, openly bisexual, considered the Beyonce of her day, a French Resistance agent during WW 2, and civil rights activist. She refused to perform for segregated audiences in the united states so she based most of her career out of France. The descendent of black slaves and native american ancestry she was first married at 13 but by 15 she was in the Harlem Renaissance vaudeville circuit. She left america and it’s racism behind to get he big break, like many black performers, in Europe. She was famous for her erotic dances including the sensational banana skirt dance! Picasso painted her and despite her background she was one of the most successful american entertainers in france. She has a crazy life story & if you like the jazz age, women’s history, black history, or just the history of famous entertainers you should check out the biopic The Josephine Baker Story!
(I decided not to do a Halloween project! But I did decide to do a few portraits - if they came out good- of some really iconic people but a la Randi. Apparently there weren’t as many popular, mainstream black women who were icons or it girls in history. Imagine that ! :P. I could do this project ad infinitum, and with more resources & help the better but until then like always I’ll do what I can with what I got! And take it all a day at a time.)
15 LGBT Legends from the past for 50 years of Stonewall 14/15: Josephine Baker
Josephine Baker (3 June 1906 – 12 April 1975) was a Bisexual Woman and American-born French entertainer, activist, and French Resistance agent. Her career was centered primarily in Europe, mostly in her adopted France. During her early career she was renowned as a dancer, and was among the most celebrated performers to headline the revues of the Folies Bergère in Paris. Her performance in the revue Un vent de foliein 1927 caused a sensation in Paris. Her costume, consisting of only a girdle of artificial bananas, became her most iconic image and a symbol of the Jazz Age and the 1920s. Baker was the first African-American to star in a major motion picture, the 1927 silent film Siren of the Tropics. Bakerrefused to perform for segregated audiences in the United States and is noted for her contributions to the Civil Rights Movement. In 1968 she was offered unofficial leadership in the movement in the United States by Coretta Scott King, following Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. After thinking it over, Baker declined the offer out of concern for the welfare of her children. During Baker’s work with the Civil Rights Movement, she began adopting children, forming a family she often referred to as “The Rainbow Tribe”. Bakerwanted to prove that “children of different ethnicities and religions could still be brothers.” At some point Baker was in a relationship with Frida Kahlo.
