The Art and Imagination of Josephine Baker

This class is a seminar-style exploration of the art and imagination of Josephine Baker, the 20th century's most famous Black celebrity. Baker was an iconoclastic political thinker, a race-bending globetrotter, and a figure of outsized historical consequence. Her biography sheds light on many of the major dynamics of Black history, including the long histories of civil rights and human rights, and of radicalism and internationalism. Students will study Baker's body of artistic work, her role in many of the major social movements of the century, and her legacy right up to the present. The aim is to leave the class with a deep and thorough knowledge of her life, her ideas, and her politics.