Paris honours legacy of Josephine Baker with new mural

PARIS (AP):

Paris is reviving the spirit of U.S.-French entertainer and civil rights activist, Josephine Baker, with a new mural.

Fifty years after her death, Baker now gazes out over a diverse neighbourhood of northeast Paris, thanks to urban artist FKDL and a street art festival aimed at promoting community spirit.

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Baker became a megastar in the 1930s, especially in France, where she moved in 1925 as she sought to flee racism and segregation in the United States.

In addition to her stage fame, Baker also spied on the Nazis and marched alongside Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington. She died in Paris in 1975.

“I feel moved and I feel happy, because this is part of a memory of my mother,” her son Brian Baker told the Associated Press at the unveiling of the mural Saturday. He was one of 12 children Josephine Baker adopted from around the world that she called her ‘rainbow tribe’ and what her son called “’a little United Nations”.

The mural of Baker, meant to symbolise freedom and resistance, is among several painted in recent days in the neighbourhood and organised by the association Paris Colors Ourq.

The artist FKDL said he focuses on “bringing women back into the urban landscape”.

“Josephine Baker has always been, for me, a somewhat iconic figure of that era. Both wild and free-spirited, but also deeply connected to music, musicals, and dance,” he said. ’’She was an extraordinary character, an incredible woman.“

Baker was the first black woman inducted into France’s Pantheon, joining such luminaries as philosopher Voltaire, scientist Marie Curie and writer Victor Hugo.

“My mother wouldn’t have liked words like iconic, star, or celebrity. She would have said, no, no let’s keep it simple,” her son said.

Josephine Baker, who spent her youth in poverty before learning to dance and finding success on Broadway, moved to France in the 1920s and soon became one of Europe’s most popular and highest-paid performers. She worked for the French Resistance during World War II, and during the 1950s and ‘60s devoted herself to fighting segregation and racism in the United States. After beginning her comeback to the stage in 1973, Baker died of a cerebral haemorrhage on April 12, 1975, and was buried with military honours.