On my recent visit to France, I was excited to find out that Josephine Baker’s former residence was 45 minutes away from the private chateau that we had rented 6 hours south of Paris, in France’s Dordogne Valley region. In my eyes, Baker was the ULTIMATE ex-pat. At the height of her success in 1930’s interwar France, the 24-year-old icon was a millionaire…11 Years after 13-year-old Baker left her Missouri home for a musical theater job. During a time when being a woman meant you had limited options and being a Black woman meant that many of those limited options came with inhumane treatment and degrading segregation, Baker knew she had a gift and went after what she wanted. 100 years later, her work ethic and discipline continues to speak volumes to me.
Born Freda Josephine MacDonald, I can’t pinpoint the 1st time that I heard about Josephine Baker, but I remember staying up late as a teenager to catch Lynn Whitfield portraying her in a movie on TV. Years after listening to my high school French teacher praise Baker for using her fame to work for the French Resistance and the Red Cross during WWII, it felt surreal to actually stand in the room of the chateau that held Baker’s bedazzled costumes. As I peered through the glass case, I could almost picture her crooning “J’ai deux amours” on stage. Walking up the spiral staircase that would eventually lead to her lavish pink marble bathroom, I could hear the melody to “C’est lui” replaying in my head. The castle remains extraordinarily inhabited by the soul of the music hall entertainer and you can feel the magic each step of the way.
Some people think of success in terms of money and power, but Baker’s trajectory is a reminder that sometimes the magic that we are looking for can be in the work that we may be avoiding (both inner and outer). There is a freedom that comes with being able to live the lives that we truly desire and not just the lives that we settle for. I felt that energy walking the halls of Chateau des Milandes. Baker’s success transcended money and power in a way that encompassed a sense of well-being that intertwined with mystical wonder as well as the type of wisdom that fueled her giving.
“She dreamed improbable dreams, followed her heart & created her own little fairytale” - unknown