Josephine Baker’s Last Dance
by Sherry Jones
From the author of The Jewel of Medina, a moving and insightful novel based on the life of legendary performer and activist Josephine Baker, perfect for fans of The Paris Wife and Hidden Figures.
Discover the fascinating and singular life story of Josephine Baker—actress, singer, dancer, Civil Rights activist, member of the French Resistance during WWII, and a woman dedicated to erasing prejudice and creating a more equitable world—in Josephine Baker’s Last Dance.
In this illuminating biographical novel, Sherry Jones brings to life Josephine’s early years in servitude and poverty in America, her rise to fame as a showgirl in her famous banana skirt, her activism against discrimination, and her many loves and losses. From 1920s Paris to 1960s Washington, to her final, triumphant performance, one of the most extraordinary lives of the twentieth century comes to stunning life on the page.
With intimate prose and comprehensive research, Sherry Jones brings this remarkable and compelling public figure into focus for the first time in a joyous celebration of a life lived in technicolor, a powerful woman who continues to inspire today.
Josephine Baker's Last Dance: Paula Patton To Star In
And Produce Project On Legendary Performer
Los Angeles film star and recording artist Paula Patton has optioned the film and TV rights to JOSEPHINE BAKER’S LAST DANCE, a novel by Sherry Jones about the 20th-century entertainer, World War II spy, and civil rights activist Josephine Baker. Patton plans to produce the project and star in the title role, fulfilling a desire since childhood to portray the dynamic Ms. Baker, one of the world’s most famous performers of all time.
“Josephine Baker had an incredible life and was a remarkable woman,” Patton said Monday in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s been a childhood dream of mine to play such an inspirational person and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to tell her story.” A search for writers to adapt the material is underway.
Josephine Baker was an African-American dancer, singer, comic, and actor from St. Louis, MO who made her Paris debut in 1925 at age 19, and was an instant sensation. Although best remembered for her scandalous dances wearing a skirt made of bananas and little else, Josephine Baker broke new ground in a number of ways for African Americans as well as for women.
She was the first black woman to star in a feature film (La Sirene des Tropiques, 1927) as well as to headline with the Ziegfeld Follies in New York, among other distinctions, and during the early 20th century she was the most highly paid performer in Europe. She also worked as a spy for the French Resistance during World War II and helped to launch the American Civil Rights Movement by insisting that all venues in which she performed during her 1951 U.S. tour be integrated. As a result, nightclubs, theaters, and other venues throughout the country opened their doors to black people for the first time. In recognition of her accomplishments as an activist, Ms. Baker was invited to speak with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the 1963 March on Washington. She was the only woman to speak.
JOSEPHINE BAKER’S LAST DANCE by Sherry Jones debuted in December 2018 from Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon and Schuster. “I am delighted to have the opportunity to work with Paula Patton, a talented actor who shares my vision for a portrayal that goes beyond the iconic ‘banana skirt,’ ” Jones said.
“Josephine Baker was like no other on the stage, true—she was a veritable whirlwind—but she was also a complex and courageous force of nature who dedicated her life to promoting love and equality in spite of the racism she experienced every day. Ms. Patton’s experience in the media industry, ebullient spirit, and passion for this project make her the perfect person to bring Josephine Baker to life on the screen.”
Patton last starred in the 2018 thriller Traffik and on the ABC series Somewhere Between. She is known for her work in such movies as The Do-Over, Warcraft, and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. Patton is repped by ICM Partners, Management Entertainment and Ziffren Brittenham.
Author and journalist Sherry Jones is best known for her international bestseller The Jewel of Medina. She is also the author of Josephine Baker’s Last Dance , The Sword of Medina, Four Sisters, All Queens, The Sharp Hook of Love, and the novella White Heart. Sherry lives in Spokane, WA, where, like Josephine Baker, she enjoys dancing, singing, eating, advocating for equality, and drinking champagne. Visit her online at AuthorSherryJones.com.
Praise for Josephine Baker’s Last Dance
“Sherry Jones takes us on a remarkable journey of heartbreak and empowerment. Josephine Baker’s Last Dance is a bold and beautiful book about a bold and beautiful life. This book left its mark on me.”
– Susan Crandall, author of The Myth of Perpetual Summer
“[An] entertaining portrait of a groundbreaking woman. Hand this to fans of Paula McLain’s The Paris Wife (2011), Liza Klaussman’s Villa America (2015), and other tales of Jazz Age artists.”
– Booklist
“The extraordinary story of a unique and unrivaled icon…Jones delivers a satisfying life of one endlessly fascinating person.”
– Kirkus Reviews
“If you loved The Paris Wife, you’re going to love this… Sherry Jones’s new Fall release is an inspiring novel that women everywhere will find to be an important piece of literature in helping to bring about total equality in our current world.”
– PopSugar
“The mesmerizing chanteuse who shattered race barriers and hearts across the world is brought to vivid, unstoppable life in Josephine Baker’s Last Dance. The champagne swirl of the Jazz Age fuels this amazing, untold story of a defiant woman who fought her way from poverty to become the toast of Europe, infamous for her bawdy act and banana-peel-barely-there skirt. Jones’s Josephine is complicated and human: a courageous artist on a quest for freedom under the haunting legacy of race inequality; she emerges as not only a fantastic icon from the past in her own right, but also as a mirror and example for today. “
– C.W. Gortner, author of Mademoiselle Chanel
Purchase Josephine Baker’s Last Dance in paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats on Simon and Schuster’s website (available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, BooksAMillion, Indiebound, Kobo, and other sites). Learn more about Sherry’s books at www.authorsherryjones.com
Excerpt: Josephine Baker’s Last Dance
Just before she entered the stage door, a drop of rain hit her on the head. No, that was not a bad omen, only a reminder to do her best, to shine like the star she was, or would be. Wilsie came running up—Mr. Sissle was there, but Mr. Blake had yet to arrive. “You’ll knock ’em dead, Tumpy. Just do your dancing and forget the rest.” Josephine didn’t need to be told that. She was ready.
She flexed and stretched her arms as she walked with Wilsie across the stage, past the musicians gathering, trumpets and saxophones and drums and a clarinet, down into the auditorium, where a slender man spoke to a white-haired man at his side. He turned his head very slightly and looked her up and down from the corners of his shrewd, hard eyes. His mouth pursed.
“How old are you?” he’d said before Wilsie had even introduced them. The stage door opened, and a very dark-skinned man with a bald head hurried in, talking about “the damned rain,” scampering down the steps, striding up the aisle, shaking water from his clothes.
“Eubie Blake,” he said, smiling, holding out his hand to her.
“This is Tumpy, Mr. Blake, the one I told you about,” Wilsie said. “She’s here to audition for Clara’s spot in the chorus.”
The man with Mr. Sissle—the stage manager—motioned to her and she followed him up the stage steps. Did she know the songs? Could she dance to “I’m Just Wild about Harry”? Josephine wanted to jump for joy. She pretended to watch as Wilsie showed her the steps, which she already knew as if she’d made them up herself. Josephine stripped down to her dingy leotard, tossed her clothes on a chair, then ran and leaped to the center of the stage. This was it. She bent over to grasp her ankles, stretching her legs, then stood and pulled her arms over her head.
“Ready?” Mr. Sissle barked. The music started, and she began the dance, so simple she could have done it in her sleep. Practicing in the Standard, she’d gotten bored with it and had made up her own steps, throwing in a little Black Bottom, wiggling her ass and kicking her legs twice as high as they wanted to go, taken by the music, played by it, the instruments’ instrument, flapping her hands, step and kick and spin and spin and squat and jump and down in a split, up and jump and kick and spin—oops, the steps, she didn’t need no damn steps, she had better ones—and kick and jump and wiggle and spin. She looked out into the auditorium—a big mistake: Mr. Blake’s mouth was open and Mr. Sissle’s eyes had narrowed to slits. Don’t be nervous, just dance. Only the music remained now, her feet and the stage.
When she’d finished, panting, and pulled on her dress and shoes, Wilsie came running over, her eyes shining. “You made their heads spin, you better believe it,” she whispered, but when they went down into the aisle Josephine heard Mr. Sissle muttering.
“Too young, too dark, too ugly,” he said. The world stopped turning, then, the sun frozen in its arc, every clock still, every breath caught in every throat. Mr. Blake turned to her, smiling as if everything were normal, and congratulated her on “a remarkable dance.”
“I can see that you are well qualified for our chorus, Tumpy,” he said, and on his lips, the name sounded like a little child’s.
“You have real talent, and spark, besides. How did you learn to do that at such a young age? You are—how old?”
“Fifteen,” she said.
Mr. Sissle snorted, and cut Wilsie a look. “Wasting my time,” he said. Mr. Blake looked at her as if she’d just wandered in from the orphanage.
“I’m very sorry, there’s been a mix-up,” he said. “You must be sixteen to dance professionally in New York State.”
“I’ll be sixteen in June,” Josephine said. Her voice sounded plaintive and faraway.
“We need someone now.” Mr. Sissle folded his arms as if she were underage on purpose. Mr. Blake led her toward the stage door, an apologetic Wilsie saying she hadn’t known. Mr. Sissle followed, talking to Mr. Blake about adding some steps to “I’m Just Wild about Harry,” saying they should put in some kicks, that he’d been thinking about it for a while. Uh-huh.
“Come and see us in New York after your birthday, doll,” Mr. Blake said. “You never know when we might have an opening.” He opened the door and let the rain pour in before shutting it again. He looked at Josephine’s thin, optimistic dress. Where was her umbrella? She hung her head. He stepped over to retrieve a black umbrella propped against the wall and handed it to her. She took it without even knowing, her thoughts colliding like too many birds in a cage. She would have to stay in Philadelphia, she had failed—too young, too dark, too ugly—she should have lied about her age, what had gotten into her? Showing off, that was what.
And now Mr. Sissle disliked her, and she would never get into their show; it didn’t matter how many times she went back. As she stepped out into the rain with that big umbrella in her hands unopened and felt the rain pour down her face; she was glad, for now they would think it was water instead of tears, but when she looked back, Wilsie was crying, too, in the open doorway.
Seeing the men watching from a window, she stopped. They wouldn’t forget her; she’d make them remember. She walked slowly, her silk dress dripping, while Mr. Sissle gesticulated with excitement as he stole her ideas—authentic Negro dancing were the last words she’d heard—and Mr. Blake looking as if he wanted to run out there, scoop her up, and carry her back inside.
( Continued… )
© 2018 All rights reserved. Book excerpt reprinted by permission of the author, Sherry Jones. Do not reproduce, copy or use without the author’s written permission. This excerpt is used for promotional purposes only.
Purchase Josephine Baker’s Last Dance in paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats on Simon and Schuster’s website (available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, BooksAMillion, Indiebound, Kobo, and other sites). Learn more about Sherry’s books at www.authorsherryjones.com
Why I Wrote About Josephine Baker by Sherry Jones
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My novels tell the lives of extraordinary women in history who overcame formidable obstacles to achieve their highest potential—which, for me, always involves making a positive difference in the world. I delve into these women’s lives in hopes of inspiring others and myself. And yet when I first considered writing about Josephine Baker, the African-American performer who hit it big in Paris in the 1920s, I expected a romp. I wanted it, in fact. Having wept as I wrote The Sharp Hook of Love, my tragic novel about the 12-century French lovers Abelard and Heloise, I was ready for some light-hearted fun. A pretty woman who danced and made funny faces wearing nothing more than a skirt of bananas seemed just the ticket.
But Ms. Baker, as it turned out, was a lot more than a nude, comic Parisian dancer.
Josephine Baker was a woman who lived life on her own terms, fearlessly and with heart. Raised in poverty by abusive parents, she dreamed big, pursued her goals with passion, and succeeded beyond even her wildest imaginings—and then risked all, even her very life, to make the world a better place.
First as a World War II spy for the French Resistance and then as a trailblazing U.S. civil rights activist, Josephine Baker used her power and her platform to fight for justice and equality against the forces of tyranny and hatred, prefiguring the anti-colorist activism by current celebrities including Colin Kaeparnick, Oprah, and Rihanna.
From the 1917 East St. Louis race riots to the 1963 March on Washington with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to the adoption of a “Rainbow Tribe” of 12 children of various races and cultures, Josephine Baker dedicated most of her life to eradicating racism. Although she felt encouraged by the changes that occurred during her lifetime, she knew the struggle for “her people” was only beginning. She was a fighter to the end, and also a lover—not just of individual men and women, but of all humanity.
When I feel overwhelmed by the vitriol and violence rearing its ugly head in America today, I draw on Josephine Baker’s courage, strength, and determination for the power to persevere. I wrote JOSEPHINE BAKER’S LAST DANCE with the hope that it will inspire others to keep fighting the good fight—to, as she said in her 1963 speech, “light that fire in you, so that you can carry on, and so that you can do those things that I have done.” Given her many remarkable accomplishments, it’s a tall order, indeed.
About Sherry Jones
Author and journalist Sherry Jones is best known for her international bestseller The Jewel of Medina. She is also the author of The Sword of Medina, Four Sisters, All Queens, The Sharp Hook of Love, and the novella White Heart. Sherry lives in Spokane, WA, where, like Josephine Baker, she enjoys dancing, singing, eating, advocating for equality, and drinking champagne. Visit her online at AuthorSherryJones.com.
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Intimate Conversation with Sherry Jones
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Author and journalist Sherry Jones, author of JOSEPHINE BAKER’S LAST DANCE, is perhaps best known for her international bestseller The Jewel of Medina. She is also the author of The Sword of Medina, Four Sisters, All Queens, The Sharp Hook of Love, and the novella White Heart. She lives in Spokane, WA, where, like Josephine Baker, she enjoys dancing, singing, eating, advocating for equality, and drinking champagne. Visit her online at AuthorSherryJones.com.
BPM: It is such a pleasure to have you join us to discuss JOSEPHINE BAKER’S LAST DANCE. Describe yourself in three words.
SJ: I am passionate, powerful, and relentlessly curious. Or I’m cranky, lazy, and highly distractible. It depends on the day.
BPM: Tell us about your body of work. How did you break into publishing?
SJ: My first novel, THE JEWEL OF MEDINA, started as an honors thesis project while I was getting my bachelor’s degree at the University of Montana. This was in February 2002, just a few months after 9/11. I was a non-traditional student, 40 years old, having worked as a print journalist since I was 18. I was upset by news accounts of women’s oppression in Afghanistan, and in my reading of books by, among others, the excellent writer Geraldine brooks, I discovered that the Muslim prophet Muhammad had twelve wives and concubines after his first wife died. The story of his youngest wife, A’isha, whom he supposedly married when she was just a girl, gripped me and would not let go. As I read more about her, I discovered that she was a clever, cunning, cheeky girl with a big heart who became a great leader in her own right.
Entranced, I wrote a novel about A’isha and found an agent in the amazing Natasha Kern, a dear friend now who still represents my work. She sold the publishing rights to it and a sequel to Random House for six figures. What a day it was when I got the news! I called a girlfriend and we chanted, “Random House” as I danced in my kitchen.
In 2008, just a few months before publication, it all came tumbling down. An American professor whose book on A’isha I had used as a source got an advance copy of my novel and sounded alarm bells. “A national security incident,” she called it. “More dangerous than the Satanic Verses or the Danish cartoons.” She told a Wall Street Journal reporter, “You can’t take sacred history and turn it into soft-core pornography.” Well, yes, you can. But that’s not what I had done.
Random House cancelled publication of the book. My British publisher’s home office was set on fire. Some countries have banned THE JEWEL OF MEDINA and its sequel, THE SWORD OF MEDINA, which tells A’isha’s story as an empowered woman after Muhammad’s death and also shows how Islam moved from egalitarianism to the same old patriarchal b.s. when he died.
As you might imagine, I felt devastated to have my books dropped by the biggest English-language publisher in the world. But my commitment to publishing them never faltered. Islamophobia, and the oppression of women in extremist Muslim societies, had only increased since I’d first begun these books. I had come to view them as a potential bridge between cultures, and a wake-up call to women everywhere about religion’s power to turn back the clock on progress. I’m sad to say that my books are as relevant today as they were 10 years ago, or even more so.
Eventually, we found an American publisher. We never found another British publisher, although one or both these books was published in 19 languages around the world, and were best-sellers in many countries. When I moved into the Middle Ages with FOUR SISTERS, ALL QUEENS, Simon and Schuster’s Gallery Books imprint became my publisher, and still is today.
BPM: This book is so well written and I can feel the passion! What’s the backstory as to your decision to bring this book to life?
SJ: I like to write about amazing women whose stories haven’t been told to a wider audience. Josephine Baker is the opposite of that but, like many people, I had long been intrigued by the American dancer in the banana skirt who made it big in Paris. As an arts reporter, I had written about the exodus of black artists from the United States to Paris after World War I because of the terrible racism here. Langston Hughes, Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, Duke Ellington—I was already a fan of these artists and so many others from that era. And Paris is my favorite city in the world, hand-down. So, wanting to immerse myself in that time and place, I began reading about Josephine Baker.
Before I’d finished my first biography of her—THE HUNGRY HEART, by Jean-Claude Baker, who called himself her oldest adopted son and even took her last name—I had second thoughts. This woman seemed over-the-top narcissistic, promiscuous, and mean. Did I want to spend years of my life with her? As I read, though, I came to think that Jean-Claude’s snide comments said more about his relationship with her than about Josephine herself. They had unresolved issues when she died.
The next biographies I read gave me a much different picture: of a woman who suffered terrible abuse and privation as a child and yet followed her dream of performing on stage with verve and heart. She never faltered, never wavered for even an instant. And when, later in life, she had the chance to help save France from Nazi rule, she plunged in without hesitation, giving her all to the cause. Her years as a spy for the French Resistance, hardly a narcissistic cause as Jean-Claude’s book suggests, transformed Josephine Baker into a mature, empowered woman who understood at last what it means to live for something bigger than yourself. And so, after the war, she came to the United States to speak out against segregation. She was a mighty force for change, very inspiring to me, and this is the woman I wrote about.
BPM: Can you share with us a few of the amazing things Ms. Baker accomplished in her life?
SJ: Josephine Baker accomplished many “firsts”: She was the first black woman to dance “nude” on the Paris stage at a time when topless white women filled the city’s music halls such as the Moulin Rouge and the Folies-Bergère. She was the first woman of color to star in a feature film—she made three of them in France before Hollywood had even thought of putting a person of color in a lead role.
Josephine was the first black person to headline at the Ziegfeld Follies, a longtime and very famous revue on Broadway in the United States. She suffered so much discrimination because of her color during that year—1934—that she did not return to this country until 1951, when her nationwide tour included only integrated nightclubs and theaters. In this way, she ended racial segregation in many places.
She was Paris’s first black opera diva, starring in Offenbach’s La Créole. She became the highest-paid performer in Europe, and the highest-paid black performer in the world. Josephine was the only woman to speak at the March on Washington, appearing immediately before Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
BPM: Can you see any parallels between Mrs. Baker’s activism and the celebrities of today?
SJ: When Josephine Baker came to the United States in 1934 after nine years in Europe, she felt keenly the humiliation of discrimination because of skin color—something she had never experienced in Paris except from white American tourists. In New York, booked as a headline act at the Shubert Theater in the Ziegfeld Follies, she traveled from hotel to hotel in search of a room, but none would admit her because of her skin color. After a performance one night, she went out with fellow cast members to a club where the doorman turned her away and suggested she try Harlem, instead. (So she opened her own club, and made a bundle.)
When invited to perform at the Copa City Club in Miami in 1951, Ms. Baker refused unless the owner, Ned Schuyler, integrated the audience. He resisted but ultimately agreed, and bussed and flew people of color in for her shows. Other Miami clubs, seeing the Copa City Club’s success, followed suit. Schuyler became Ms. Baker’s booking agent, and had a tour lined up across the country. Ms. Baker had a press conference to announce that, henceforth, all her venues would be integrated—or she wouldn’t perform in them. True to her word, when she went to Atlanta and got turned away by several “whites only” hotels, she canceled her shows there.
At one point, she had an ingenious idea: she would sit in the front seat of a public bus and refuse to move. Schuyler talked her out of this, saying it would be suicide for her American career and destroy her chances to integrate the clubs and theaters where she was booked. Ultimately, her protests regarding an elite New York City restaurant where she was refused service inspired J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI to begin investigating her as a possible Communist sympathizer—and her bookings got cancelled. She left for Paris, and was informed that she could not return to the U.S. She had been banned.
Josephine Baker used her platform and her presence to make a difference in the world, especially in the United States, where she succeeded in drawing attention to the injustices of racial segregation as no one before her had done. (She was subsequently invited to lead the NAACP, but declined because she didn’t want to leave her family in France.) She demonstrated what even one person can do to heighten awareness of a problem, which is a crucial first step toward change.
Today, we see celebrities of color doing the same: using their fame to draw attention to issues such as police brutality against black people and other forms of oppression and discrimination. Colin Kaeparnick’s taking a knee on the football field; Rihanna’s and Jay-Z’s refusals to perform during the Super Bowl in support of him—Josephine Baker would have proudly supported them, I know.
BPM: The book discusses poverty, colorism, and abuse. What types of research went into detailing her story?
SJ: I read a lot, from a long list of books and articles not only about Ms. Baker, but also about the Harlem Renaissance, the history of racism, and the perspectives of women of color including Maya Angelou and bell hooks.
I also visited Saint Louis, Missouri, Ms. Baker’s hometown, where the wonderful Gwen Moore took me on a driving tour in the rain to try to find the places where Ms. Baker had lived as a child. As we drove from parking lot to parking garage—all that remains of the historic Mill Creek Valley neighborhood today—Ms. Moore told how the city’s (white) leaders had razed 5,000 homes, churches, synagogues, and businesses, including black-owned banks–and displaced 20,000 people, mostly people of color, driving them out of the downtown area for “redevelopment.”
The St. Louis Arch, a sports arena, an apartment complex, and St. Louis University are there now—hardly the economic vitalization the city had anticipated. Ms. Moore, who works at the Missouri Historical Society, told how being forced from her neighborhood and her school changed her life—her story affected me deeply.
But a lot of what I learned about poverty and abuse I have already lived, and known. My parents grew up very poor, and they both abused me in different ways. My mother most certainly has borderline personality disorder, which caused her to draw me close one minute, and revile me (and abuse me) as her “enemy” in the next.
I experienced sexual abuse, as well. So I know what having an traumatic childhood feels like, and the determination that it takes to escape and break the cycle of abuse. I know the shame of being sexualized at a young age, and the behaviors victims engage in to try to miminalize it—sleeping with many men, for instance, so the original abuse feels not as remarkable, or as bad.
BPM: Since so much of her life dealt with race and racism, how did this affect your outlook on the subject?
SJ: Growing up on diverse military bases in diverse neighborhoods and schools, I already knew first-hand that the person we are on the inside is what counts, and that skin color is just pigmentation. Having conservative, Southern parents, I also knew how racially prejudiced people think. And yet—I had never taken that logical step back to imagine my own ancestors as slave owners or part of a lynch mob, or some other atrocity in the South’s ugly racist history.
As part of my research, I made it a point to read works by authors of color. Reading Colson Whitehead’s “The Underground Railroad” really made me think about my North Carolina ancestors’ probable persecution and murder of black people. Given the racist words and sentiments I heard from my extended family so often, I have no doubt that our ancestors perpetuated the ugliest of deeds. I also know who most of my family voted for. It’s one reason why I live across the country, although Election Night reminded me that, again, there’s no running away. Bigotry and hatred surround us wherever we are, and can even be found inside us if we care to look.
While researching this novel online, I came across a photo of black chorus dancers at a baseball game—sitting in the “colored” section. I felt sick to think of those beautiful young women having to endure public sequestration because of their skin color, as though they were dirty or diseased. I read about black people’s being turned away from white hospitals because the only blood on hand was white people’s blood. I just felt so much disgust.
And so, although I have always considered myself to be a person who believes in equality for all regardless of skin color, gender, religion, or any other factor—and I was privileged as a member of the oppressing race to be able to espouse this view–I felt more and more shame and humility and more and more anger as I researched the history of racial relations in the United States.
I understand why black people are angry, and I think that those who are not angry, should be. One African-American friend says I got “woke” from working on this book, but I don’t like to think of it as a one-and-done thing. Staying awake is key, and perhaps the hardest to do—for it entails keeping my eyes and ears always open to the truth, which can be so difficult to face.
BPM: Share one specific point in your book that resonated with your present situation or journey.
SJ: There’s a moment at the Wailing Wall when Josephine Baker is crying and praying to God, after she has helped defeat the Nazis with her work as a spy, when she realizes that her life is now bigger than herself. I had such an epiphany when “The Jewel of Medina” was causing such an uproar, and I was getting threats and criticism from people who hadn’t even read the book. I felt afraid, and tried to run away to a Montana mountaintop. But you know, you can’t run away from yourself: wherever you go, there you are.
Full of despair, I looked out a high window to the blue sky, and summoned my inner angels for help. I saw, in my mind’s eye, the image of A’isha with her sword and long red hair lashing in the breeze, a true hero, and I heard in my soul these words: I am love, peace, courage, and strength. This empowering mantra helped me through the months to follow, which were incredibly trying, when I was attacked by extremists of every stripe.
I’d remind myself what I was about, and why I’d pursued publication of the book—to counter Islamophobia and misogyny—and respond to hatred with love, peace, courage, and strength. I’m far from perfect, but these four pillars support me today, in everything I do.
BPM: Are you involved in any community programs or panels around this book?
SJ: I will read at the Lady Jane’s Salon at Madame X in New York on Friday, Dec. 3, and plan a public launch party on Dec. 7 in Spokane. I do welcome any and all opportunities to talk about Josephine Baker and the era in which she lived, as well as racial and feminist themes in the book.
BPM: What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your book?
SJ: I was shocked when I read that, after World War I, the French government offered free Sorbonne educations to the American soldiers who had fought with the French, but the U.S. government withheld the offer from black soldiers until they’d returned home—but the white soldiers were informed while still in France. I felt horrified and angry. Travel across the Atlantic happened solely by ship, and was expensive. Most of those black soldiers could not afford to return to Europe, so they missed out on a free education, which was no doubt the U.S. government’s intention.
BPM: How can this book spark discussions on racism during these troubled and divisive times?
SJ: We can certainly notice how far we haven’t come as a nation. White people got all complacent, especially those of us who supported (and still love) the Obamas. Many of us thought racism was, if not completely over, at least irrelevant. But progress is fragile, indeed, and there is always a backlash to change from those who benefit from the status quo. And of course, people of color have always known that discrimination and oppression still exist uniquely for them.
Ten years ago, I bought a new car, and gave my Subaru to a less-fortunate friend who was also Latino. Before he drove it home (he lived in Missoula, 200 miles away from me), he had the car meticulously detailed inside and out. I wondered why he didn’t wait until he got home—the car would only get dirty again on the highway. “I have dark skin, and if my car looks shabby that only gives them more reason to pull me over,” he said. I was so surprised by this. All those years driving it, and I never thought of this because it wasn’t an issue for me, a white person. I really had no idea of my own privilege.
So we can look at Josephine Baker’s life and how, even as a world-famous superstar, she suffered terrible discrimination and oppression because she was African-American. She really hadn’t come so far, not in this country, from her grandmother’s situation, being the child of a slave. I know that Ms. Baker would support Black Lives Matter, but would she be surprised that, nearly 25 years since her death, white people still need to hear this message?
And in our system, it isn’t just black people who are suffering. Consider all the brown-and-black-skinned immigrants held in cages—more than 13,000 children, the last I read. Consider the Muslim “travel ban” still working its way through the courts, and the mass slaughter of innocent Jews in a Pittsburgh synagogue. White Christian supremacy has reared its ugly head in a way that we haven’t seen since the 1930s and ‘40s. How do we finally put an end to this hatred? What must we do? Is it even possible, or is our country doomed by its white-conquest beginnings? Did we forfeit our soul by slaughtering the indigenous people we encountered here and decimating the buffalo?
Did we destroy any hope for one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all when we allowed people to be bought, sold, and owned as slaves? What further damage are we wreaking now, and how can we ever recover, if at all?
BPM: African American women are gong through troubled times right now, what were some of the challenges Mrs. Baker faced as a woman, period?
SJ: When Ms. Baker arrived with the troupe of La Revue Négre, she hoped to become a singer like her idol, Clara Smith, draped in feathers and silk and wowing crowds with her passionate, bluesy songs. Instead, the Frenchmen who watched the rehearsals demanded that she dance topless on the stage. She tearfully tried to refuse, and demanded to be sent home. “I’m not a stripper,” she said. The men agreed to send her home on the next ship—two weeks hence—but only if she did as they said, and perform in a costume that consisted of little more than a few feathers. She was a huge hit, in part because of the highly sexual, scandalous dance she performed, and never complained about dancing nude again. In fact, she seemed to embrace nudity. As soon as she could, however, she put away her banana skirt, donned designer gowns, and sang. The consummate survivor, she made the most of her exploitation, but she never forgot that she had been exploited. And for much of her life she was used, objectified as a sex symbol, in spite of her prodigious talent and shrewd intelligence.
And yet, she was never overtly a feminist. She did not speak out for the rights of women. When I first started writing this book, I thought it would be a feminist novel, as my others have been. I wanted to go beyond the banana skirt, so to speak, to find the heart and soul of the woman who danced in it. And when I did, I found that her issue wasn’t gender or misogyny, but race, and colorism. I’m reminded of the time, early in my research, when I asked a panel of black women how we could all pull together, women of every color, and join forces for equality. What a powerful group we could make! And how very naïve I was.
First of all, the women on the panel agreed that they identify first as people of color, and then only secondly as women. This surprised me. As a white person, race wasn’t something I’d ever had to think about, except to decide it shouldn’t matter, while being female meant everything: I’d been shut down, put down, and kept down because of my gender. The editor of the Black Lens News, Spokane’s African-American newspaper, told me that she couldn’t begin to address misogyny and other women’s issues until she’d been heard as a person of color. That was powerful, and it struck me to the bone. I think Josephine Baker felt the same way.
BPM: Moving on to publishing, have you ever received a rejection from an agent or a publisher?
SJ: Yes, I received many agent rejections for my first novel, THE JEWEL OF MEDINA. Part of the problem was that I sent out my first, bloated draft. “Failed to sustain my enthusiasm,” one agent wrote—with good reason. I picked up the manuscript six months later and felt horrified. It was truly awful. Lesson one: never send out your first draft, unless it’s to an editor to help with revisions.
And then, after Random House acquired it and a professor issued warnings of terrorist attacks and the book got dropped, my agent and I had a very challenging time finding another publisher gutsy enough to take it on. Eight or nine publishers expressed interest, but declined because they were afraid—they told my agent so. Of course, my editor at Random House turned out to be the smart one: once the book came out, the furor faded. Because “The Jewel of Medina” is respectful to Islam and Muslims.
BPM: Do you ever have days when writing is a struggle?
SJ: I frequently have insomnia, and if I don’t get seven hours’ sleep, I’m the most plodding writer in the world. Every word ekes out. Often, though, those turn out to be the best words.
BPM: Have you written any other books that are not published?
I wrote an awful autobiographical novel about sex addiction called “Baby Doll” that no one will ever read. But it was good to get it out of the way.
BPM: What projects are you working on at the present?
SJ: I’m pondering my next book—do I want to continue writing about real women who lived, or is it time to branch out and write a memoir or autofiction, or even create characters from scratch? Mostly, though, I’m focusing on giving JOSEPHINE BAKER’S LAST DANCE the readership I hope it deserves. She was so inspiring and so wonderful that I’m still not tired of her, even after four years of eating, drinking, sleeping, dreaming, living, and breathing Josephine Baker. I’m so excited for the book to launch so I can talk and write about her to my heart’s content. If you meet me in person and ask about her, make sure you aren’t in a hurry to do anything else!
BPM: What legacy do you hope to leave future generations of readers with your writing?
SJ: I love to write about the obstacles women have historically faced to reaching their highest potential, and continue to strive to overcome.
I hope that someday my books become irrelevant because society has progressed to the place where we no longer need inspiration from their examples—but that won’t happen during my lifetime. That makes me sad, but I’m writing as fast as I can.
BPM: What is your preferred method to have readers get in touch with or follow you?
SJ: I’ve long been on Facebook, but my author page gets mostly posts about my books while my personal feed—www.facebook.com/authorsherryjones–is where all the authentic action is; I’m very open about my wacky personal life.
I use Twitter primarily as a (super depressing) news feed. I like Instagram and Goodreads best, especially the great communities around books and people who love them. I’m just getting started on Book Bub now, too, and hope to make more reader friends there.
Website: http://authorsherryjones.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sherryjones
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/sherryjones
Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/sherry-jones
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sherryjonesfanpage
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/josephinebakerslastdance
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cybersecuritytechnologywriter
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1219600.Sherry_Jones
Purchase Josephine Baker’s Last Dance in paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats on Simon and Schuster’s website (available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, BooksAMillion, Indiebound, Kobo, and other sites). Learn more about Sherry’s books at www.authorsherryjones.com
Seducing The Pen Tour Stops
REVIEWS FOR JOSEPHINE BAKER'S LAST DANCE
Famous for her sexually charged performances as a scantily clad Paris revue showgirl, Josephine Baker also had a secret career as a pilot and intelligence spy for the French Resistance during World War II, and as a Civil Rights activist who was the only woman invited to speak at the 1963 March on Washington.
In this revealing biographical novel, Sherry Jones revisits Josephine Baker’s difficult childhood in St. Louis, Missouri, and examines some of her many troubling experiences with discrimination that would propel her lifelong fight for racial justice. As Josephine’s star rises in Europe, she finds herself mingling with some of the greatest artists of the Jazz age, including Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, Colette, Cole Porter, and George Gershwin.
Following her extraordinary transformation from “Tumpy” McDonald to Joséphine, “Queen of Paris,” and her momentous decision to become a citizen of France, Baker experiences personal and professional triumphs and disappointments that reveal her fascinating character in all of its complexity.
INTERVIEW AND SPECIAL FEATURES
ARTICLES AND MEDIA SPOTLIGHTS
FOR JOSEPHINE BAKER’S LAST DANCE
[Article] Josephine Baker’s secret life as a World War II spy
The 20th century icon Josephine Baker was so much more than a sex symbol who danced in a skirt made of bananas. Yes, she took Paris by storm in 1925 with her “Savage Dance”—performed in little more than a strategically-placed feather—and went on to increase her fame with the infamous banana skirt which, legend has it, she designed as a joke for her first revue at the Folies-Bergère. Josephine Baker also became, over the next twenty years: a chanteuse, or stage singer, and international star; the first black woman to star in a feature film and to headline in New York’s Ziegfeld Follies; a recording artist; an opera diva, and – the detail that most surprises and fascinates people—a spy for the French Resistance during World War II.
[Article] Black Pearls Magazine Blog
Author Revealed interview with Sherry Jones on the creation of Josephine Baker’s Last Dance.
[Article] Spokane author Sherry Jones finds inspiration in kick-ass women from the past
Sherry inspiring novel that women everywhere will find to be an important piece of literature in helping to bring about total equality in our current world.
[Article] Popsugar: Novels About Badass Women Written by Badass Women
Sherry inspiring novel that women everywhere will find to be an important piece of literature in helping to bring about total equality in our current world.
[Article] Playbill's Guide to Upcoming and Current Broadway Bio-Musicals
Josephine Baker’s Last Dance mentioned as more exciting information about Josephine in a Broadway-bound musical.
[Article] St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Josephine Baker has 'last dance'
Josephine Baker was born in segregated squalor in St. Louis in 1906 but rose to fame in France in the 1920s as a singer, dancer and all-around entertainer.
[Article] Samantha Stevenson St. Louis Magazine's associate editor.
"Josephine Baker's Last Dance," author Sherry Jones weaves milestones from the dancer's real life into a fictional narrative.
[Article] The Seattle Times Book Picks
Calling Jones’ novel “a satisfying life of one endlessly fascinating person,” Kirkus Reviews wrote that “Jones’ deft juxtaposition of Baker’s internal and external worlds throughout the novel is what readers will appreciate most.”
ABOUT SHERRY JONES
Author and journalist Sherry Jones is best known for her international bestseller The Jewel of Medina. She is also the author of Josephine Baker’s Last Dance , The Sword of Medina, Four Sisters, All Queens, The Sharp Hook of Love, and the novella White Heart. Sherry lives in Spokane, WA, where, like Josephine Baker, she enjoys dancing, singing, eating, advocating for equality, and drinking champagne. Visit her online at AuthorSherryJones.com.
Website: http://authorsherryjones.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sherryjones
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/sherryjones
Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/sherry-jones
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sherryjonesfanpage
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/josephinebakerslastdance
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cybersecuritytechnologywriter
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1219600.Sherry_Jones
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