Daryl T Sturgis: Josephine Baker: The Original Black Girl Who Rocked

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Josephine Baker: The Original Black Girl Who Rocked

When I was writing my first novel Solstice one of the reasons I wanted to write it was because I never saw People of Color in fantasy fiction. As a child growing up I was malnourished to see people like myself in the comic books I read and sci-fi movies I watched. I was a rather introverted child so I didn't have many friends. My cousins would visit on the weekend, but often times on a Saturday afternoon after cutting grass and washing cars I was perched in front of the TV. With reruns of Star Trek and Space: 1999 in all their color blocked glory my affinity for the genre blossomed. But something else happened on those lazy afternoons. Not just sci-fi movies were playing. I soon found Spaghetti Westerns, Cheesy Low-Budget Horror, Film Noir. Mid-Century Melodramas and Technocolor Musicals. And that's when it hit me:

Why can't there be stories with fabulously glamorous Black women wearing creations by Adrian or Edith Head, dripping in Joseff of Hollywood jewels; dashingly chiseled Black men with square jaw swagger and broad-shoulder sex appeal. All impeccably dressed and set in a world so magical the backdrop would make Douglas Sirk chartreuse with envy? From that question, Solstice was born to answer it.

Solstice Macaffey is a broad. More Joan Crawford and less Lena Horne. She's pushy, ambitious and has more personality and style than anybody I or you will ever know. My earliest influences were Old Hollywood. Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly, John Gavin, Dorothy Dandrige and Harry Belafonte. If you want to see this fabulousness chronicled look at two of my favorite blogs are Corey@ I'll Keep You Posted and Stirred, Straight Up, With a Twist. When I was writing Solstice I drew inspiration from icons of the past.

What makes an icon? A woman with a true sense of self. Confidence to set trends and not follow them. A taste maker. What she wears to breakfast people will be wearing to lunch. As Iris Apfel, who is an icon in her own right, puts it:

"When you don't dress like everyone else, you don't have to think like everyone else."

So for the next few weeks I am selecting one legendary woman for each decade that I feel epitomizes the outrageous and prodigious, the scandalous and sublime. The complete Ovahness an icon is.