CULTURE – Under the gaze of French basketball player Evan Fournier, the iconic New York skyscraper, The empire state building, lit up in the colors of France on Monday, November 29 in the evening to honor Joséphine Baker, on the eve of the entrance to the Pantheon of the black artist born in the United States.
From nightfall and throughout the evening, the top and tip of this 102-story art deco building sparkled blue, white and red, “in homage to the artist and civil rights icon Josephine Baker, first black woman inducted into the Pantheon ”, according to the Twitter account of the legendary Manhattan building.
On the 86th floor, facing the city lights, the French rear of the New York Knicks, Evan Fournier, paid tribute to the “courage” of one who was a heroine of the Resistance and a seasoned anti-racist activist.
“When you look at what happened last year or two years ago”, when massive protests rocked the United States after the death of African American George Floyd, “She was ahead of her time”, greeted the basketball player, who participated in the ceremony with one of the actors of the series “Emily in Paris”, the French William Abadie, and the Consul General of France in New York , Jérémie Robert.
Also present, Jari Bouillon-Baker, one of the twelve children adopted to the four corners of the world by the Franco-American star to affirm his attachment to universalism, his “rainbow tribe”. Now 68 years old, a New York resident, the man especially wanted to pay tribute to “our mother” and to “the love she had for us”.
In France, a quick ceremony also took place at the United States Embassy, in the presence of the Minister for Gender Equality.
Tributes to Saint-Louis, Baker’s birthplace
Born into a poor family in the United States, in Saint-Louis (Missouri), Joséphine Baker had tried to break into New York, before choosing Paris and France, which had become her adopted homeland. The French ceremony will also be broadcast at the University of Saint-Louis and the mayor of the city will receive the French ambassador. Other tributes are planned in the United States, including one in the form of a concert in a hotel in Miami.
Back in the United States, Josephine Baker still suffered from the segregation that struck black people, as when New York hotels refused to accommodate her in 1948, or when she forced an upscale Miami Beach club, the Copa City. , to open its doors to African Americans or else they will not perform there.
In New York, the restaurant “Chez Joséphine”, founded by the one who was considered to be her thirteenth adopted child, Jean-Claude Baker, still pays homage to her.
See also on The HuffPost: Josephine Baker does not enter the Pantheon only for her artistic work
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