Homage to Josephine Baker

It is enough simply to be alive, biking each day through the great, green land of the Dordognes Region in France. Yet two more glories awaited us— the other day, the cave paintings of Lascaux and then today, the story of Josephine Baker told in the tour of her Chateau. I’ve known something of her legacy, but today was knocked over by her extraordinary life. Amongst many pinnacle achievements:

 

1)   She fought for the French resistance in gratitude for a country that welcomed her (and adored her) light years beyond her own American culture. 

2)   She adopted 11 children around the same age both because she loved children and wanted to show how humanity should—and can—live as one family. The kids —who she called “The Rainbow Tribe”—were from Japan, Morocco, Algeria, Ivory Coast, Colombia, Venezuela, Finland and France. 

3)   Revered as a dancer and a singer, she also was a remarkable entrepreneur, amassing enough money to own and live in a castle for 30 years and using her fame and fortune to create jobs and parklands in the surrounding village and hold various festivals and fairs, including anti-racism gatherings. 

4)   She marched alongside Martin Luther King in 1963 (along with Burt Lancaster, Marlon Brando, Harry Belafonte, Bob Dylan) and gave the speech right before his I Have a Dream speech! (Am I the only one that didn’t know that?)

5)   She performed off and on up until 5-days before her death at 68. 

 

And more. (Look it up.) I wished I had included her in my jazz, Joy & Justice book and certainly will if I ever write a Volume II.

Meanwhile, today was (a bit sadly) the last day of the bike tour. We pulled into the Medieval city of Belves, bid farewell to our faithful bikes, strolled around town for some final shots of beautiful buildings, windows, doors, alleys.  I bought a book of folk tunes from the area in French and Occitane, with an accompanying CD! My first little brush with music the whole trip! I didn’t expect anything, but would have been nice to have stumbled upon a street musician playing accordion or hurdy-gurdy somewhere. Never happened. I’ll listen to the CD later to see what I missed. 

 

A farewell dinner with appreciations of each person and what they contributed. Bringing seven strong-willed people together to agree on what time to leave each morning, where and when to eat, whose GPS map is correct, whose weather report is correct, could have been a challenge, but all in all, it went very smoothly. Tomorrow we all board the bullet train to Paris, though probably some of us in separate cars. So thanks to Gerry, Terry, Mary (yes, they rhyme!), Doug and Dennis, Marcia and Karen for a marvelous 10 days together. 

 

Now Karen and I continue with three days in Paris and then London, Oxford, the Cotswolds, before she goes home and I continue on to Austria and then Ghana.  That’s today’s news, such as it is.