Beyond Black Paris

In this special Black History Month series, I'm inviting you to venture beyond Black Paris and discover places where the Diaspora and France intersect.

Many of the African-American links to France are centred in Paris. We all know, however, that France was entangled in the Black Diaspora long before and during the time African Americans have benefited from the mythology of tolerance.

Today, there are many cities and towns around the country to experience African-American and Diaspora heritage sites and contemporary points of interest.

Some places have only recently begun to acknowledge and redress their involvement in slavery (Nantes, Bordeaux), some venerated the contribution of WWI & II soldiers (Normandy). In one, you'll find statue of the Senegalese infantrymen ( Mediterranean city of Frejus), in another, the museums to a great men of culture.

Alongside the Black connection, I'll give you some intriguing reasons to put these places on your itinerary.

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First in the spotlight

NANTES

Point of Interest: Abolition of Slavery Museum (description below) opening March 2012. The only one of its kind in France.

Connection: Nantes was the largest slave trade port in France (out of 17).

Facts: Between the 17^th and 19^th centuries, Nantes organized 43% of the French expeditions along the Slave Trade Triangle, carrying 450,000 slaves to the Caribbean colonies.
 A city made wealthy by slave trade, some of homes and offices of the industry are still standing, so are the carved stone heads of Africans into buildings.

Fast Forward

The first international convention to study slavery was held in Nantes, in 1985. Out of that came the Association Shackles of Memory, an international non-profit which works in conjunction with the University of Nantes to educate through conferences and school programs. They give walking tours for all ages focusing on the city's slave trade history, abolition, and present day activities.

The memory-keepers are very active and vocal. Last May 10, 2011, to commemorate ten years since the passing of the Taubira Law that declared slavery a crime against humanity, a controversial re-enactment of slave and slave-masters was led through the streets of Nantes. 

The ceremony was attended my Malcolm X's daughter. Also commenting was Deputy of Guyana Christiane Taubira, author of the 2001 Taubira Law. She emphasized that reviving the memory must go further - progress must continue in the education curriculum because it is education that will help understand and go beyond.

Here's the video, "Shocking Commemoration of Slavery in Nantes!" only available in French(1:40):

Key points: 

- The re-enactment dramatizing a past the city wants to take responsibility for.

- Ten years after the declaration of slavery as a crime against humanity, the Association of 10 May wanted to strike hard at consciences.

- Malaak Shabbaz says, “It's about time to heal."

- Images of the memorial site under construction.

- Octave Cestor, Municipal Councillor for African Caribbean Relations: “These deported men, women and children who had no proper grave, now have a place of memory.”

Related Sites

Rings of Memory along the river

The Abolition of Slavery Memorial Museum opens in March 24, 2012. Free entrance.

On a replanted esplanade at the very spot where the slave ships used to berth, 2,000 commemorative glass plaques recall the slave trade expeditions that started from Nantes, as well as the major trading posts in Africa and in America. 1,710 of the plaques name the ships and dates of departure, 290 name the ports of call and sale in Africa, Antilles, Americas and Indian Ocean.

An open air stairway leads underground to the heart of the Memorial. First thing you'll see is the Declaration of Rights of Man and the word Freedom in 50 languages of countries affected by the slave trade. Once in the underground, to your left you'll glimpse the Loire River between the pillars on which are inscribed excerpts of texts from 5 continents over 5 centuries. To the west, historic and geographic texts and images place the Atlantic slave trade into context, balancing the weight of historic facts with the fight against servitude yesterday and today. 

Visit Nantes

 Geographic location: 2 hours west by train from Paris Montparnasse station; capital of the Pays de la Loire region in northwestern France. Situated on the banks of the Loire River, 34 miles (55 km) from the Atlantic Ocean.

Population: 800,000+

Its Vibe: voted one of the best places to live in France, appreciated by young professionals who love the arts but don't want to live in Paris.

What Else to Do

• Carnaval de Nantes – April 1, 2012 – the second largest annual street fest in France (after Nice). Their specialty is giant performing marionettes, brainchild of the extraordinary home-grown, world renown street theatre group Royal de Luxe.

• 
  On the trail of Jules Verne – if you're a fan of the visionary author of 'Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea', visit his home and places that inspired him. Year-round guided tours.
• Promenade Nantaise – get a panoramic view from the tower of the former LU biscuit factory now an eclectic arts centre + Turkish bath, stroll through the beautifully restored medieval Bouffay city centre, admire the superb gothic Saints Paul and Peter Cathedral, visit the Chateau of Dukes of Brittany which the city was built around.

Food Speciality: Nantes shortbread biscuits, Berlingot candies, galettes (crepes)

Regional wines: Muscadet

While You're in the Area

-  If you drive, pass through the Loire Valley - the Valley of Kings - and spend a few hours marveling at the splendid Chenonceau, Chambord and other castles

- Mont St. Michel to the north

- Chic seaside resorts and spas on the Brittany coast: La Baule (great for celebrity spotting) and Dinard.

 - St. Nazaire ship-building yards of the largest ocean liners, also a museum of historic liners.

Who Would've Guessed: there are 3 mosques in Nantes.

Twin Town/cooperative agreement with: Jacksonville, FL and Seattle, WA

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N E W S

A few months ago I became a Certified Agent for France designated by the France Tourism Development Agency.

This didn't exactly come out of the blue.  I began visiting France in the early 80s as a flight attendant, lived in Provence as a mature student then as a full-fledged Paris resident. After 17 years of offering tours of Black Paris, I'm ready to share my appreciation of this rich country and get you connected with all that great food, gorgeous countryside, and some pretty cool surprises along the way.

How about joining me on a private bus excursion from Paris to visit Josephine Baker's chateau in the south and nearby Bordeaux?

I'll be escorting you on a wonderful journey to discover the region that Josephine fell in love with - it's the land of a thousand castles, of beautifully preserved medieval towns, of lively and laden open air markets. But you'll never forget stepping back into Baker's life and achievements. 

Details:

- Private tour of Chateau des Milandes permanent exhibition of Josephine Baker's former home where she lived with her Rainbow Tribe family. Revel in the beautifully exhibited mementos, her recreated living spaces, and the extraordinary display of her private and public life.
- Explore Josephine Baker's Dordogne :  Sarlat, outstanding medieval town renown for its sprawling Saturday market of world famous local products. Visit the nearby UNESCO World Heritage site of prehistoric cave drawings at Lascaux.
- Discover Bordeaux's famous vineyards, the city's rich architectural setting, fine gastronomy, and learn about its slave-ship history.

Departure from Paris: Thursday May 3
Return to Paris: Tuesday May 8
Your package includes:
- private bus to Dordogne and Bordeaux region
- 3-star hotels for 5 nights

- full day Bordeaux wine tour including tastings
- private tour of Josephine Baker's chateau
- breakfast daily
- all transfers, taxes, fees and service charge

Please contact
Julia Browne info@walkingthespirit.com for Further Details and Registration.

Deadline to Register: March 15.

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Stay tuned for our next Beyond Black Paris spotlight.... after our Valentine's Day Lovefest.

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Did You Get Your Spirit of Black Paris Calendar?

 

Learn new facts year-round, beautiful original artwork

Special Black History Month price!

How Did Jazz Become French, Anyway?

Jazz at Juan-les-Pins

When I lived in Aix-en-Provence, we hopped from summer jazz fest to jazz fest all around the Provencal region and the South of France. I wasn’t a huge fan yet but the swaying, dancing all-ages crowd around me sure seemed to be. They were mouthing those lyrics and humming those tunes as if they’d grown up on the music.

In fact, most of them had. Across the country, radio stations had long been spinning homegrown jazz as often as American jazz – and their playlist lengthened every year. 

Used to be, when jazz first shocked and entertained Paris out of its World War I doldrums, that Black-played jazz was considered the only real jazz. Boatloads of musicians hit the Normandy shores and took the train straight for Lower Montmartre, aka Black Montmartre. Club owners and club goers couldn’t get enough; the local musicians, however, weren’t thrilled to be pressured to learn this foreign American music. 

And then there were the insightful fans who saw the future of French music in jazz and began the quest of elevating this American ‘pop’ music to an art form. The Jazz Hot Club, formed by Hughes Panassié and Charles Delauney , launched the first Jazz Magazine in Europe from their locale near Rue Pigalle. Here, eager young people could come try out the new sounds, meet the Americans, and gain confidence. Then, two of their protégés formed the first real French jazz band. Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grapelli and their Jazz Hot Quintet toured the region in the 30s, spreading the jazz gospel.

But the occupation of Paris by the Nazis sent Americans back stateside and outlawed so-called degenerate Negro music on the airwaves and in public places.  

"The fervent fans simply took their old New Orleans-style records down to the soundproof, underground cellar clubs of St.Germain-des-Pres and the Latin Quarter."

With no Americans around to show them the chops, and no new records being pressed and distributed, the young French resorted to imitating Jelly Roll Morton, Sidney Bechet, Louis Armstrong and Cab Calloway.

One particularly avid fan was Claude Luter, who formed a band reproducing the sounds of his idol, Sidney Bechet. By 1946, Les Lorientais were considered the best live jazz band, drawing crowds, known as Les Rats de Cave, to their hot, sweaty cellar club near Rue du Vieux-Colombier (6^th district). 

The Soundtrack of St.Germain-des-Pres

Like in the 20s, jazz was the music of the French youth. Thousands of them flocked to the St.Germain-des-Pres and Latin Quarter from their native provinces, creating a veritable revolution. They gathered by day in the smoky literary cafés – The Flore, Les Deux Magots, bickering over existentialism with their philosopher king Jean Paul Sartre, lunched at Bart’s on Rue Jacob, then around midnight headed for the jazz mecca. 

 

Among them was a lanky, balding, ambitious engineer, writer and poet Boris Vian. His nickname became The White Negro for his obsession with Black music and culture. Not surprising he was the one, in April 1947, to open the most infamous of the area’s clubs – The Tabou Club. The same kids who haunted the literary cafes by day, descended treacherous low-ceiling stone stairways into the smoky, damp, joyous cellars to boogey-woogey 'til the wee hours. Decked out in black market American jeans and plaid shirts bought off the GIs, they swung to the same well-scratched records, or to Vian’s old piano or his ever-present trumpet and house band. 

For the rebellious young, jazz was more than about music. At first it was their tool to rebel against the Nazi edict. It composed the soundtrack of their generation. And, by embracing Black American culture they felt they were proving themselves bigger than the American racism.

Return of the Masters

Boris Vian and Miles Davis

Then the Americans started returning to Paris after the war, looking to take up the glory where their 1920s predecessors had left off. The fledgling French jazz bands didn’t deny the American superiority, they paid their respects to the greats like Dizzy Gillespie who played Paris’ first International Jazz Festival in May 1948 held at the Salle Pleyel. 

They plunked down their francs for festivals featuring Max Roach, Charlie Parker, Lips Page, Buck Clayton, Kenney Clark, Coleman Hawkins and countless others. Parisian jazz fans stormed Vian’s next and just as famous club, Le Club Saint-Germain on Rue St. Benoit, blocking the narrow street by the hundreds, elbowing their way in to see Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and Sidney Bechet up close.

But they longed for the recognition that would convince the American musicians to play alongside the French. 

Bechet was the first to break the barrier, in 1949, joining forces with Claude Luter’s band. Bechet genuinely liked this fledgling French jazz, and they loved his talent for melodies that mixed European quadrilles with traditional jazz.

What also divided the French jazz fan world was the appearance of the new generation of jazz stars – the Beboppers.
If they couldn’t get in to the shows, they could hang around Hotel Louisiane on Rue de Seine until Bud Powell or Miles Davis and their friends emerged from their headquarters/rooming house.

Clubs like Le Caveau de la Huchette stuck with New Orleans style (to this day), while others embraced the smaller formations of Bebop. 

By the 1960s, the French musicians felt they’d earned their stripes and their fair share of club dates. A law, similar to one of the 1920s, limited the number of American-only bands played per night in the various venues.

These days, French jazz bands are plentiful; mixed French and Black bands are common. 

Back In The Day...

A few background facts :

• The jazz club, Chez Inez, opened 1949 by Inez Cavanaugh and located on rue Champollion, near the Sorbonne. The venue’s specialty was fried chicken and jazz. Pianist Art Simmons got his Paris start here. Cavanaugh had managed Duke Ellington, married Danish baron and noted jazz critic Timme Rosencrantz.

• The most well-known existing jazz club from post-war Paris is Caveau de la Huchette which opened in 1945. One American GI recalls using an army jeep to drive from Antwerp to Paris and finding the Caveau de la Huchette within two hours of his arrival. It was filled with soldiers, mostly Afro-American.

Its specialty was, given the late arrival of bebop to the capital, Dixieland jazz although Art Blakely and his Jazz Messengers played in 1972. Bechet and Armstrong played shows here in the 50s.

• On Rue de Sommerand, also near the Sorbonne, the Chez Moune nightclub was opened in ’48 by French West-Indian Moune de Rivel. Aaron Bridgers (a disciple of Art Tatum, and who accompanied singers such as Inez Cavanaugh and Muriel Gaines) started his Paris career here. As did Gordon Heath who began as a singer and player of folk guitar before opening his open club Cabaret de l’Abbaye near Rue Saint-Benoit in the 6^th.

• One of first ‘Saint-Germain-des-Pres’ type jazz club was La Rose Rouge in 1948. Located on Rue de Rennes, it was run by African dancer Feral Benga and Greek-Ethiopian Nikos Papadakis. On the program were professional musicians and dancers (Maya Angelou sang in the 50s, Billie Holiday headlined in 1958).

• Between 1947-9, Chez Honey was an African-American club gallery, near Montparnasse. Painter Herbert Gentry displayed works of young artists but also ran one of the first post-war jazz cafes. His wife Honey Johnson sang and Art Simmons played the piano. Many musicians performed here – Zoot Sims, Don Byas, Kenny Clarke, and James Moody often played with French musicians like Pierre Michelot. Duke Ellington played here. Singers included Jimmy Davis, Lena Horne, Moune de Rivel, and the Peters Sisters sang. Also: here in 1947 Kenny Clarke’s ‘Epistrophy’ became the first ‘bop’ record cut in France.

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Poster from Jazz A La Villette 2011

Upcoming Jazz Festival
JAZZ A LA VILLETTE  - August 31 - Sept 11, 2011
It's big, it's bold, and it gets cooler every year! This year's theme is: When Jazz Meets Funk & Hip Hop.

On the programme: Archie Shepp, Roy Hargrove, Maceo Parker plus Meshell Ndegeocello reinventing Prince's most controversial songs. Uh-huh!
Also nostalgic movies - Stormy Weather, Glory, Jungle Fever, Jazz Singer, even Gone With The Wind.
Plus a kid's programme.
See the full list and details here

Love Letters for Paris & France

For 200 years Paris has held a special home in the heart of African Americans.  Long before the sheer beauty of the place takes hold, there are expectations. Black history is chock full of alluring, mythical stories from Paris and France - longstanding acceptance and deep appreciation of Black culture, to start. Then what comes after the first coup de foudre? Some of us know the love affair never ends. At some point though, for those who linger, eventually new understanding sets in. 

I've gathered here a few reflections from writers, artists, abolitionists, poets and intellectuals. Their eye-opening moments transformed a sojourn into an important point of evolution. Whether folks looked to Paris as a place to soothe old hurts, to delight a grumbly heart, or simply to learn something about oneself, it seems that it came down / comes down to looking for love of some kind.                   Paris, on vous aime!

Lois Mailou Jones

Lois (Mailou) Jones, artist, future long-time teacher at Howard University :

“France gave me my stability, and it gave me the assurance that I was talented in that I should have a successful career. [Also] I remember that I had the most wonderful studio. The American University found it for me… it looked out over the city towards the Tour Eiffel. It had a loft and it had a roof garden. It was really paradise working in that studio of my dreams."

From an interview with Charles H. Rowell for Callaloo.

William Wells Brown, visiting in 1849 as a fugitive slave, a militant abolitionist, and as delegate to the Peace Congress:

"All Paris appeared to be on the Boulevards and looking as if the great end to life was enjoyment." 

From Sketches.

James Weldon Johnson, 1905:

"From the day I set foot in France I became aware of the working of a miracle within me. I was free from special scorn, special tolerance, special condescension... free to be merely a man."

Frederick Douglass, 1859:

“To think that I, once a slave on the Eastern shore of Maryland was experiencing all this… Now I was enjoying what the wisest and best of the world have bestowed for the wisest and the best to enjoy.”

From The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass.

Henry O.Tanner

Painter Henry O.Tanner, arrived in 1891. A former Sunday School superintendent and advocate for temperance, he was constantly surprised by cultural differences and wary of being seduced by French customs:

“But primarily, I was really afraid… I might grow to like it, that there might be lurkng somewhere within me an appetite which, once awakened, I could not control.”

From The Story of an Artist’s Life, H.O.Tanner.

Langston Hughes, romanticized his rooms near Place Clichy where he landed in 1924:

“The room was right out of a book and I began to say to myself I guess dreams do come true … Because here I am, living in a Paris garret, writing poems and having champagne for breakfast (because champagne is what we had with our breakfast at the Grand Duc from the half-empty bottles left by unsuspecting guests.

From The Big Sea, 1940.

This particular apartment was the upside of Hughes' first years in Paris; the downside being his financial hardships and the xenophobia he experienced while competing for scarce jobs.

Jessie Fauset, a Phi Beta Kappa scholar and graduate of Cornell, former teacher of Latin and French, literary editor for Crisis:

 “[It’s] lovely just to be oneself and not bothering about color or prejudice,” but noted that her writing might be suffering from such freedom, “I think strangely that’s why my book progresses so slowly, because I am away from the pressure."

From Noblesse Oblige.

Countee Cullen, poet, champion of all things French. More than other expatriate during the Harlem Renaissance, he explored Diaspora Paris and came up against surprising results:

“As an American Negro we are somewhat startled to find that our dark complexion avails us nought among these kindredly tinted people. Language must be the open sesame here, and it must be French.”

From Opportunity, September 1928.

Horace Cayton, psychologist and sociologist, wrote in his 1960s autobiography ‘Long Old Road’ of his trip in spring 1936:

“I walked down rue de la Paix to the Madeleine and then down into the magnificent Place de la Concorde where I turned up the Champs-Elysées. It was early evening and the air was soft and balmy. Crowds of people were sitting in the numerous cafés on either side of the wide street. I was just one of a crowd. I felt free and happy as I had never remembered feeling in the United States. 

Ralph Ellison first heard stories of France brought back from WWI by his favorite cousin. Later he read French literature, and visited French battlefields after D Day. Writing to Richard Wright:

“I saw the bombed buildings… even the negative symbols contain enough of their lost vitality to make one regret he failed to get there sooner. Certainly, it provided me a new perspective through which to look upon the U.S. and brother, the view is frightful.” 

Chester Himes was ambivalent about his stay in France but acknowledged its contribution to his success:

"In Paris, I found many ways to feed myself without disastrous effects. I gathered throwaway scraps in the markets, old bread, stale wine, and hotel proprietors let me live in rooms until I could afford to pay. France did not support me; it let me live and grow strong enough to concentrate on my work, which was writing … I became famous.” 

As told to author Michel Fabre, 1978.

Hazel Scott, the famed pianist arrived at the end of the 50s for a 3-week vacation and stretched it into a 3-year stay:

“I’m not going to say that France is paradise, but I will say this: you can live anywhere if you’ve got the money to live. You can go anywhere if you’ve got the money to go and whomever you marry or date is your business.”  

What Paris Means To Me,  Negro Digest 1961.

Surrealist poet Ted Joans wrote this tribute to his idol poet André Breton:  

“How can I thank you for the exquisite encounter

On rue Bonaparte in Paris (June 1960)

Of a giant in grey and an Afro American sunbeam.

From Spetrophilia, 1966.

  

Richard Wright:

How calm I've felt here in Paris! No more of that tension that grips so hard ... I walk down a street and feel my legs swinging free."

From his journal, 1947.

James Baldwin, through a fictional character in This Morning, This Evening, So Soon:

"But I could not hate the French, because they left me alone. I will always love [Paris]; it is the city that saved my life ... by allowing me to find out who I am."

So what about you? 

What's your love story with Paris? 

During my first trips to Paris (I was a flight attendant) I was less than impressed. The city tried to charm me but I finally swooned at my first crossing of the Pont Neuf. It was a foggy November morning, best spent in the Louvre, where I was headed. I just stopped dead, peered through the haze, felt - rather than saw - the Conciergerie and the lamp posts reaching out to me; I heaved a sigh and that was that. That was 1982. Like a marriage worth its salt, we've had our falling-outs, but as you can see, I just can't leave it alone.

 

 

Show & Tell on the Champs-Elysées

This question comes up often on tours – how are African Americans viewed and treated differently in Paris than Africans?  Would you be surprised if I told you part of the answer reveals itself on the Champs-Elysées? 

In the Holiday season, the Champs-Elysées truly earns its crown of most beautiful street in the world. Thousands of lights are strung like snowflakes in the trees, ground level is dazzling with Christmas Market baubles and Ice Sculptures. The last thing anyone’s thinking about is what a glorious arena this grand avenue has been for displaying Paris’ appreciation of African American culture. And even further from the mind, recalling how it has recently been the ground of contention in France-Africa relations.

Here's the recurring scene: every Bastille Day on the majestic Champs-Elysées, the rain-proof stadium is set up, the tricolor flag flutters, and military bands march in parade in front of the president.

On more occasions that most people realize, an impressive number of African Americans of unrivaled merit have been invited to parade. And fittingly so; the name of this grand avenue originates from the Greek mythological Elysian Fields where heroes and virtuous souls rest after death.

Imagine the unbelievable pride of the 369^th Harlem Infantry and other segregated Regiments, decorated with their Croix de Guerre, waving back at the grateful crowds that surged onto the street to greet them. This was 1919;  the soldiers had helped liberate small towns in France, they’d kept their heads and hearts when all around them were losing theirs, they’d proven the inferiority label wrong.

Lighting The Flame

Eugene Bullard

A few years earlier, the US Air Force hadn't considered Eugene Bullard worthy of manning its planes. Georgia-born Bullard up and earned his wings in 1916 through the Foreign Legion flying Fokker Triplanes and a Pfalz D III and became the only African American pilot in WWI. The French showered this trailblazer with honors. One of the most powerful took place at the western-most entry to the Champs-E.  Under the Arch of Triumph in 1954, General de Gaulle asked Bullard to rekindle the Flame to the Unknown Soldier.


 

Another Legion of Honor inductee, Josephine Baker, made this swanky street her own. Her feisty, sexy debut at the nearby Théatre des Champs Elysées took the collective breath away. Then all frivolity behind her, down this same fashionable street she marched in 1969 alongside De Gaulle supporters. To complete the picture, the site of her thousands-strong funeral was held a block north of the Champs, at the Madeleine Church.

It's pretty well certain that someone like Josephine 'Queen of Parisian Nights' wasn't quite who France's Queen Marie of Medici had in mind in the 17th century when she planned to turn this farmland on the outskirts of the city into The Queen's Court, later known as the Champs-Elysees.

Miss Sally Hemings started her own dynasty in the shadows of this street, in the shadows of society. She arrived in 1787 as a slave to Ambassador Thomas Jefferson’s family at their residence at the corner of Rue Berri. Thanks to French law, though, she was considered just another free servant of color. Less than a year before the Liberty, Equality, Brotherhood creed of the French Revolution was cast in stone, Miss Sally was said to have conceived the first of the contested Hemings-Jefferson clan here, and soon after hammered out her own declaration of independence for her children. 

Meta Vaux Warrick

Le Petit Palais

From revolution in deed to evolution in perception, look no further than a few steps south of the avenue to the Grand and Petit Palais museums, both constructed for the 1900 Universal Exposition. Here, amid all the beau monde, W.E.B. Dubois exhibited highly unusual photos of Black Americans. Streams of ticket-holders came expecting to commiserate with images of downtrodden, poverty-stricken, ragged former slaves but Du Bois’ fine displays of Black America’s prosperous middle and upper class left them with new food for thought. Since then, those same museums have featured a veritable parade of fine, progressive art that was getting little respect back home:  Henry O. Tanner, Meta Vaux Warrick, Daniel Warburg, Annie E. Walker, Elizabeth Prophet, Palmer Hayden, William Edward Scott, Lois Mailou Jones.

 

More recently, post-modern France chose opera
 singer Jessye Norman to belt out their national anthem "La Marseillaise" during their Champs-Elysées blowout parade for the 200^th anniversary of the storming of the Bastille. In the same event, William Foster’s Marching 100 from Florida’s A&M was honored as the only band to represent the U.S. during that 1989 Bastille Day parade. This clip of the performance sings like a Hymn To Joy.

 (N.B. Foster passed away Aug 20, 2010).

So when do the Africans enter Champs-Elysées history? Let’s fast forward to the Bastille Day 2010 military parade. This one’s got controversy stamped all over it.

For the first time in the parade’s history, troops from 13 former African colonies were invited to march infront of the presidential gathering (only Ivory Coast refused). Yet the courage and exploits of the Senegalese Regiment has been the stuff of legend for 150 years, so why now? To mark the 50^th anniversary of the independence of African nations, and yes, finally to honor the soldiers. 

Veterans attending the 2010 parade

The Amazones of Benin

Malian soldiers

From Gabon

From Republic of Central Africa

While few may have questioned the African American presence over the century, a national debate ignited over the African appearance. Some saw the parading soldiers as inappropriate and outdated nostalgia for paternalistic colonial times. Others were outraged at the presence of what they called criminals among the invited contingent. And here’s where our Diaspora history defines our relationship with the French. There hasn't been a high cost politically, socially or morally for France to welcome and be enriched by African Americans.

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And now for something completely different:

Follow up on the Richard Wright 50th Anniversary Commemoration Collage. I'm working on it and plan to have it complete early in the new year. Thank you all for your contributions!

There's more to be done, however!

If you were one of the countless who have searched up the stairs, under the stairs, scanned hundreds of markers to find Wright's, we can put an end to this. To get his name inscribed in the cemetery's guide, the Administration of the Père Lachaise cemetery has to receive a certain quantity of letters requesting his inclusion.

Julia Wright, the author's daughter, is calling on everyone to write a brief letter ( name, address, profession) expressing your wish to see Richard Wright's name added to the list of the personalities in the guide.
Send to:

Madame La Conservatrice

Cimetière du Père Lachaise

16 Rue du Repos

75019 Paris, France

Julia has asked for copies of all letters to be sent to her either by email at richardwrightcentennial.jw@gmail.com or at her address Julia Wright 92 Rue de Lourmel, 75015 Paris France to make sure the integrity and numbers of the file of letters is protected.

Thanks for your continued support.

Care for a French Treat?

Let me offer you a taste of Holidays in Provence. I have parents-in-law there and spent some of my most memorable Christmases circling the ever full table. One of the delectable traditions in the land of the mean Mistral wind is ending the Christmas meal with 13 dessert items! At any given moment I would be nibbling at walnuts, quince cheese, almonds, raisins, teeth-breaker biscuits, Calisson from Aix-en-Provence (candy pebbles with a thick padding of almond and fruit paste sandwiched between a delicious crust of smooth white confectioners sugar), white nougat, black nougat with honey, apple, pear, orange, winter melon and fougasse (Provencal bread).  All is left on the table and eaten over three days.

You'd also be eating this:

Buche de Noel (kind of Christmas cake)

Enjoy! Have a Wonderful Holiday and a Brilliant Start to the New Year!

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Bricktop - A Black Woman Takes Paris On Her Terms

Although my Walking The Spirit Tours of Black Paris have been introducing travelers and Parisians to African-American history for 16 years, I still get a thrill discovering new tidbits to share as food for thought.

Lately it's the fire of Bricktop that has me lit up. She was a hostess extraordinaire who ran the best nightclubs in Roaring 20s Paris. If you don't already know of her, let me introduce you to Miss Ada Beatrice Queen Victoria Louise Smith, aka Bricktop.

Said this fiery redhead from Virginia: 'I'm not a singer, I'm not a dancer; I'm a performer and a saloon-keeper'. Hearing that, you just know she was destined to drop a bomb on the decadent Paris scene. That is, once she got past the classic Paris trip-up: reality check of expectations vs what Paris feels like offering up.

At Le Grand Duc

How would you react if you had seasoned your act in the swankiest Chicago and New clubs, then Paris beckoned so you set sail only to find yourself gaping at your new place of employment that fit precisely 12 tables and a minuscule bar.
Exactly.

Of small comfort, a 22-year old Langston Hughes offered the entertainer a hanky to dry her tears and some refreshments from the kitchen at  Le Grand Duc where they both now worked. Revitalized, she got up and put her saloon-keeping skills to work with entrepreneur and employer, aviator Eugene Bullard. Together they turned that little dive into the hotspot for jet-setting celebrities in Lower Montmartre.




A year and a half later, the shrewd but oh so classy Bricktop opened her own namesake club directly across the street. As hostess to royalty and writers, to movie stars and homies, she became both the spark and the cultivator of change.

It's well-documented gossip that F.Scott Fitzgerald and Cole Porter fought over her on that corner of Rue Pigalle and Rue Fontaine in the heart of Black Montmartre; out of their boyish one-upmanship came the classic tune 'Miss Otis Regrets'.

Away from judgmental eyes, she agreed to teach the Prince of Wales to swing his behind to the latest dance 'Black Bottom'. At the bar, Black and white Americans rubbed elbows without friction, taking in the latest records from home. And somewhere in that maddening, jubilant crowd, two fresh-faced local musicians listened with their whole spirit. Then a certain Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grapelli went home and worked their guitar and violin until they formed France's first professional jazz band.

View from Black Montmartre - Rue Fontaine

Beyond the expat-makes-good story, what piques my curiosity is Bricktop's personal politics - the decisions she made as an influential woman. Though kept very private, her love life provokes reflection on the real values of the day and on our assumptions. One might assume that, surrounded as she was by powerful and accomplished men, in freewheeling Paris no less, that she just might slip into the obvious. Well, not for this equally powerful and accomplished Black woman! Her rule number one - never mix business with pleasure.

Then she wondered aloud what a successful African American woman would want with a white man, even if he was her manager. She herself married a Brother saxophonist, Peter Duconge, in 1929 but my question branches from her puzzlement. Lower Montmartre of the 20s attracted an international mix of party-goers so crossing the color line wouldn't raise an eyebrow.

Picasso hung out at Bricktop's.

We've heard much about the male expats who married European women
but rarely, (Josephine excepted), the other way around in that time period - up to the 1950s. Was it because the Black community was so fervent and prosperous that the French offered no tangible benefits for a woman? Did the close knit community effectively satisfy that yearning to belong within the foreign culture? Despite France's reputed racial tolerance, did any of the women really consider staying and integrating? Bricktop was half black, half freckled Irish so it could be simply that she chose sides early on and was sticking to it when it came time for the ultimate commitment.



How Black women's experiences in Paris have branched out since the 60s! The homey inclusion of Black Montmartre of the 20s has never been recreated. Compared to the legions of Black men, the trickle of African American women relocating and staying has slowly grown. But without a visible community to soft land into, it's easy to start making a life among the French and disappear into the fabric of Gallic society. Black women who have lived or live in Paris know more than a handful of us who are navigating our adopted land as mothers, wives or significant others, career builders, cultural interpreters, and passers-on of our Black and American culture. We're carrying on what Bricktop and her colleagues started, on a less flamboyant but just as influential level.

Any thoughts out there?

Jazz and its Homestyle 'Hood

Jazz à La Villette is summer's last hurrah of festivals. Running August 31 through Sept 12, this jazz tribute brings onstage their signature creative mix of jazz, hip hop and soul. Closing night rings out with a shout out to the Black Panthers called 'Tongues on Fire' by The Roots, The Last Poets and David Murray.


Preparing the terrain since the summer, the MK2 movie theater along the quays of the 19th district lined up an exciting selection of iconic Black films all summer.


What's also great about attending this festival is the opportunity to hang out in the cosmopolitan neighborhood that surrounds La Villette and stretches alongside the waterfront. Paris doesn't get much more unselfconsciously diverse than up here in this part of the north east, the 19th district.

For example, you'll find an African restaurant next to a Breton creperie both facing a neighbor-tended garden which is traversed by Jews on their way to the nearby synagogue.

Along the canal on a fine day, young people and families spread blankets and dawdle over picnic or take-out lunch, kids tear up the crushed gravel playgrounds, table-tennis players battle it out....

While planning your next trip to Paris, book one of the architecturally- interesting Holiday Inns that overlook the quais, and plan to get to know this homestyle Paris (between metros Jaurès to Porte de Pantin). One of the lures  - the best Sicilian pizzeria in town is at metro Laumière.

And to butter up that mood, I'm inviting you to tune into the internet broadcast of one of the jazz festival's sponsors - Fip jazz radio. Part of the Radio France family, Fip keeps me and my work humming along to the most surprising mix of music genres - lots of jazz, yes, including live concerts taped in their studios. Also rare and favorite African artists, plus other international talents including American rock, British edge and good old classical.  Tune in anytime by hitting the 'ecouter' arrow - great chance to practice your French by listening to the signature purr of the female djs. There's some vintage Quincy Jones streaming through as I write this...