J'ai deux amours (1917-1931)

Overview

The Paris of the 1920s made Josephine Baker the first international black star. While she alone personified the joie de vivre, insolence and creativity of the Roaring Twenties, at the same time, in the shadow of the icon, a whole generation of black American artists crossed the Atlantic and settled in France. From musician Sidney Bechet to painter Henry Ossawa Tanner, from Great War hero aviator turned Montmartre nightclub manager Eugene Bullard to writer Claude McKay, from poet Langston Hughes to the exuberant Ada Bricktop, they found in France a freedom of expression unattainable in their homeland, and made Paris a key stage in the emergence of African-American culture. And in the process, they helped write one of the most vibrant and dynamic pages in our country's cultural history.