STILL MY HEART BEATS, MY JOSÉPHINE BAKER

JOSÉPHINE'S HEART BEATS AGAIN

Joséphine Baker was born in Saint Louis on June 3, 1906. A long journey, from her very poor childhood harassed by racism, to the spotlight of the most important theatres in the world.
An innovator in the show, a dancer, a soubrette, the first "Black Venus" superstar of the twentieth century. She was a tenacious fighter in the defense of rights and social justice.

Maria Olivero wanted to tell Joséphine’s extraordinary story, her courage, her contemporaneity, feeling a strong sense of sweetness and rebellion. She has created the show and has written the music of the concept "Still My Heart Beats, My Joséphine Baker". She has also composed the six songs, on the lyrics of Elena Maro, that fit into the story with a narrating voice.

In January 2014, Maria met Joséphine’s son Jean-Claude Baker in Manhattan to talk about her musical project. He called it "a labour of love." And so it is. Joséphine chose love above all else; love as an act of care.

General Charles De Gaulle awarded her the War Cross and made her a Knight of the Legion of Honour for her role in the participation in the French Resistance during the Nazi occupation. In the 50s, Joséphine adopted 12 orphaned children of different nationalities, and called them the "Rainbow Tribe". In 1963 she spoke at Martin Luther King's March in Washington wearing the uniform as an officer in the Free French Army.

She arrived in Paris in 1925 aboard the ocean liner Berengaria, at the age of 19, together with Caroline Dudley Regan, the impresario who had discovered her and who had wanted her in "La Revue Nègre". The show premiered on October 2nd, 1925
at the Champs–Elysées theatre, and it was a sensational success. Around her, the artistic and cultural dynamism of the "Ville Lumiere". The modernity that breaks into history.

She had a brief relationship with Frida Kahlo in Paris, she was a great friend of Grace Kelly and she was admired by great masters such as Scott Fitzgerald, Georges Simenon, Luigi Pirandello, Jean Cocteau, Le Corbusier, André Citroen, Christian Dior. Hemingway said, "the most sensational woman ever seen". Colette called her "the most beautiful panther and the most charming of women", Picasso described her as "heavenly legs, ebony eyes and the smile where all the other smiles go to die".

She died in Paris on April 12, 1975, shortly after the shows that celebrated his fifty years on stage at the Bobino. She was buried in the cemetery of the Principality of Monaco, following the will of her great friend Princess Grace who supported her through difficult times.

November 30, 2021, is the date of her entry into the Pantheon in Paris, the sixth woman, the first artist and the first black woman, along with the greats of France.

Joséphine is certainly one of the most important figures of the twentieth century, one who touches on the themes at the center of current events.

Joséphine's heart is still beating. It shows us the route: that love is an action towards the care of oneself, of others, of the world in which we live. Love above all things!