Africa In Paris - Black, White & Brown

Bienvenue à l'Afrique à Paris - Black Blanc Beur*

I’ve witnessed the African district of Paris morph and evolve over the fifteen years I’ve occasionally strolled through it.  It’s vibrant, it’s edgy; it is culture shock to anyone who has spent most of their time in the 'other' Parisian landscape. 

To the mainstream media, the area of Barbès/La Goutte d'Or is labelled ‘problematic’. To the residents though, they are a diverse community surviving through tolerance and a good dose of humor.

Street Mural. The Marianne figure (in red hat)  is the national emblem of France and represents Liberty and Reason.

This corner of the 18^th arrondissement remains very much a mystery to outsiders. It’s long been the landing spot for Black and North African new arrivals yet maintains a strong backbone of traditional Catholic French.

Its narrow streets are chock busy with small businesses offering products from ‘home’. It gets even busier on Saturdays when those who have migrated out to the suburbs return to visit relatives and get news from their villages.   

Trying to wind a way through the open air Déjean market is an obstacle course through fresh produce stands and the sidewalk vendors whose quickly-dismounted cardboard displays spill out onto the adjoining streets.

Déjean Market - when you get there early.

Spill off from Marché Déjean

Dust from new construction blows everywhere. The City has been investing heavily in new subsidized housing for 20 years, their goal is to get rid of the unsafe and unsanitary ‘foyers’ rooming houses. Speculation abounds.   

Community services are plentiful, which gives the district a sense of being a town unto itself, taking care of the health, education, integration and leisure of its own.

Employment, Computer Learning Center

Lessons available for learning to read Arabic - the easiest way!

The Arabic and African mosques, the Saint-Bernard church and the Church of the Nazareen all attract their own. 

 

Funeral services at Eglise Saint-Bernard for world renown Haitian storyteller and local patron Mimi Barthélémy, May 2, 2013.

Fashion designers, locals, and the stylish flock here to have their African-inspired clothes custom made. With pictures torn from magazines, women head for ‘tailors row’ on Rue Myrrha where talented all-purpose tailors turn 6-foot lengths of wax cloth into beautiful, unique pieces. Or they can buy it ready-made, or browse the City-supported Young Designers shops on Rue des Gardes. 

Giving an African touch to an existing design

Works in progress

City subsidized Young Creators workshops and retail space on Rue des Gardes.

I’ve noticed fewer Magrebin businesses this time, which was confirmed by local Jean-Luc Bombeau. As manager of the EcoMusée art gallery and a 20-year neighborhood resident, he says there are fewer artists, too. The area remains however one of the most affordable in the city so artists still gravitate here. Their work is shown at EcoMusée.

 

EcoMusée gallery with Eglise Saint-Bernard in back.

You can stroll through the district on your own, or you can get a whole other level of understanding with a guide. Here's Thierry, one of our guides, a Fulbright scholar living in the neighborhood for a year.

And, expect the unexpected..... this hidden residential enclave is in the neighborhood, too.

If you would like to discover this neighborhood with us, contact us.

* Black Blanc Beur was a street expression popularized in the 90s to symbolize multiethnic France, a comparison to the national flag which is referred to as the Red, White and Blue. Beur is the slang for Arabic.

Upcoming Events

Open Door - L’Echo Musée de la Goutte d’Or

Art gallery that showcases the works of the many neighborhood artists.

Includes film screenings, workshops, concerts.

May 24-25

More info: http://echomusee.fr/programme-portes-ouvertes/

For all ages!

Paroles de Nègres - A Poetry Walk with Amadou Gaye

A very personal and moving interpretation of texts of Aime Césaire, Leopold Senghor,

Leon-Gontran Damas (the fathers of Negritude), Birago Diop, Langston Hughes ... to name a few.

Poems that are sung out, shouted out, personalized.  In French.

June 27

La Reine Blanche, Metro La Chapelle.

More info: http://www.reineblanche.com/category/tous-les-spectacles/page/5/

28^th Annual La Goutte’ Or En Fete - La Goutte D’Or Celebrates

Join in the community-wide activities around the Theme: The Voyage and the Elsewhere

June 28 - 30

Includes - a percussion-based parade, arts exhibits, 5-village display in the park, cooking

Workshops, evening dances.

More info and programme: http://www.gouttedorenfete.org/spip.php?article267

Best of Paris Concerts Past and Upcoming

Paris is passage oblige for any musician who’s reached world status or is reaching for it.  This Spirit of Black Paris blog post showcases some lesser known and some unexpected music venues that take you off the beaten path to great music in Paris. First browse our list + great photos that highlights Black voices that have graced the stages and continued the legacy. Then check out the exciting range of music programmed over the next few months in some of these spectacular temples of music.  

CONCERT HALLS

Salle Pleyel, 252 rue du Faubourg St. Honore, 75008.

Since 1927, this hall has featured some of the biggest international stars of the classic and contemporary music world.

Salle Pleyel's Art Deco Interior

Past Notables - just a few from a very long list:

Josephine Baker, Bal Negre 1927

Duke Ellington gave 3 concerts in July/August 1933. This was the first big jazz event in France.

Louis Armstrong’s first Paris concerts, 1934.

Coleman Hawkins with a French orchestra directed by Arthur Briggs, 1934.

Jamaican Berto Pasuka’s Les Ballets Negres came from London, 1946

The International Jazz Festival in France, May 1949 featuring Sidney Bechet, Hot Lips Page, James Moody, Max Roach, Don Byas and Charlie Parker, his only performance in France.

Langston Hughes’ Black Nativity opened for four weeks with Marion Williams, 1963.

Upcoming: Among the many classic concerts, Mory Djeli Kouyaté / Jean Philippe Rykiel – Oumou Sangaré from Guinea and Mali, June 22.

Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette 30^th Anniversary Tour, July 1^st.

Joshua Redman Quartet, October 6^th.

http://www.sallepleyel.fr/anglais/agenda.aspx

 Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, 15 ave. Montaigne, 75008.

One block from the Champs-Elysées Avenue and surrounded by the most famous designer shops, this theatre and concert hall is celebrating its 100^th anniversary this spring. Its has showcased the world’s best classical musicians, orchestras, opera, jazz and dance. Not afraid of scandal, it was the launching pad for Stravinski’s Afternoon of the Faun 1913 with Nijinksky, and in 1925, La Revue Negre which launched Josephine Baker with Sidney Bechet in the orchestra.

Past Notables:

Florence Mills in Blackbirds, 1927

Katherine Dunham Caribbean Rhapsody, 1951, which chronicled the stages of the black presence in the New World.

Sidney Bechet’s La Vie est une Sorcière, 1954 to 9 encores.

The Jazz Messengers, 1959, recorded as Art Blakely aux Champs-Elysées.

Théatre des Champs Elysées Interior

Upcoming:

**Bal du Centenaire (100^th anniversary Ball) - The 1920s of Josephine Baker, Sidney Bechet and the Theatre des Champs-Elysées Music Hall, July 5^th.

http://www.theatrechampsElysées.fr/danse/bal-du-centenaire-1

L’Olympia, 28 boul. des Capucines, 75009.

Any musician who is anyone has ‘done’ the Olympia - The Beatles, Edith Piaf, The Stones, Jacques Brel…. 

Past Notables:

Sidney Bechet gave a free concert in 1955 to commemorate earning a gold record; the overflowing audience tore up the place.

Adieu Josephine, a farewell tribute staged in 1956.

Quincy Jones with Nat King Cole, 1960.

Mahalia Jackson, 1961.

Nina Simone, Myriam Makeba, 1969.

Also The Nicholas Brothers, The Peters Sisters, Ike and Tina Turner, James Brown, Miles Davis, Dee Dee Bridgewater… the list goes on.

Upcoming:

Marcus Miller, June 27.

Dee Dee Bridgewater & Ramsey Lewis, July 1^st.

George Benson, July 4.

John Legend, July 6.

http://en.olympiahall.com/event-calendar/

 Alhambra Music Hall, 50 rue Amelot, 75011

Once a jewel of Art Deco architecture, this many times renovated music hall now hosts everything from Hip Hop, Rock, Jazz, and Variety  to World Music, even accordian concerts.

Past Notables:

The Peters Sisters, 1953.

Quincy Jones at 25 years old.

Upcoming:

Omar Sosa, May 23.  This Cuban pianist’s fine arrangements hover somewhere between jazz and world music, mixing the beats of Africa, the Caribbean and South America.  

Omar Sosa

 Jose James, May 24^th.   A blend of jazz, rap and soul in a voice that is compared to Gil Scott-Heron.

Edith Piaf interpreted by Jil Aigrot. October 11.  Jil Aigrot is the luminous voice of Piaf in the award-winning film La Mome. This show kicks off its world tour that celebrates the 50^th anniversary of Piaf’s death.

http://www.alhambra-paris.com/index.php

CHURCHES

Churches, with their superior acoustics, are a natural venue for music that lifts the spirit and the soul.

The Saint-Chapelle, Boulevard du Palais, 75001.

Originally the chapel for kings and queens, this Gothic church is situated in the heart of Paris on Ile de la Cité. Its iridescent stained glass windows are said to represent the Heavenly Jerusalem. In a city full of architectural treasures, this one is near the top of the list.

Past Notables:

Marian Anderson gave the last concert of her European tour on Sept 28, 1965. It was a benefit for the World Festival of Negro Arts Dakar.

Upcoming:

Classical concerts of Mozart, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, and Bach’s Golderg Variations.

http://www.classictic.com/fr/specials/concerts_a_la_sainte_chapelle/856/

Cathedral Notre Dame de Paris, Ile de la Cité, 75001.

The most famous church in Paris is celebrating its 850 years in 2013 with the installation of new bells and in at atmosphere of beauty and history, a magnificent overview Festival of Sacred Music.

Past Notables:

Thomas ‘Fats’ Weller gave a private recital with French organist Marcel Dupré in 1932.

Jessye Norman - Christmas recital 1990.

Barbara Hendricks - at the state funeral of President Francois Mitterand in 1996.

Upcoming:

A full season of Festival of Sacred Music and  the Ava Maria, Renaissance and Contemporary Polyphony.

List of concerts and tickets: http://www.classictic.com/en/special/notre_dame_paris/634/

Madeleine Church, Place de la Madeleine, 75008.

Every year, 600,000 people climb the 28 steps that lead to this majestic neo-classic church, many to pay tribute to the relics of St. Mary Magdalene. Resembling a Greek temple from the outside, it has neither bells nor exterior crosses.  It is here, in 1975, that Josephine Baker’s state funeral was held, attracting tens of thousands. 

Upcoming:

A long list of Sunday concerts, mostly classical, in this spectacular setting,

Including:

Gospel Dream April 27, May 14, May 28, June 18, July 23 +.

Oklahoma State University Choir - Sacred and Profane Songs, July 8^th.

Mozart’s Requiem and Bizet’s Te Deum by The 100 voices of Maurice Ravel’s Polyphonic Choir, April 25^th.

http://www.eglise-lamadeleine.com/la-musique

*************

Catch Julia Browne in action:

 For your French-speaking friends and relatives:

Jazz à Paris conference and tour:  For those francophones who would love to learn more about African American history in Paris en français, I will be giving a 1hr presentation and screening from our DVD series "When African Americans Came To Paris" 
Saturday April 20 at 11 a.m. 
Centre d'Animation Bercy, 51 rue Francois Truffaut, 75012. Metro: Cour St.Emilion.

Followed by
The Entertainers in Lower Montmartre - Jazz Comes To Paris 1920s & 30s
Saturday April 20 at 2 pm - 5pm
Meet at Centre d'Animation Bercy.
En français
 

Full programme here: 


And, in partnership with David Burke, writer/producer of Blue Lion Films and author/tour guide of Writers in Paris, we will be presenting the DVD series at the American Library in Paris on April 23rd, 7:30 pm.   Details here

If you're in Paris or know someone who is, we'd love to see you!

April is Jazz Appreciation Month. Snuggle up to some jazz today! 

What's the Focus of Black History Month in Paris?

Ever wonder how Black History Month is marked in Paris and across France? What historical figures do the French admire or revile? What kinds of events are organized?

BHM is observed internationally throughout the entire month of February - from major UNESCO initiatives to the United Nations’ 2013 launch of the Decade of People of African Descent. Then there are dozenss of local events that celebrate, restore or debate Black life, culture and experience.


In Anglophone Paris, there are a smattering of Black History Month events held by the mainstay American cultural institutions such The American Church, The American Library, The American Embassy, or Dorothy’s Gallery. 

But some French organizations go well beyond celebratory soirées and dive deep into tabling still-stinging memories. One hot button is France's colonial history.

Here is an example:

This year, an association called ‘Sortir du Colonialisme - Beyond Colonialism’ is holding their 8th annual Anti-Colonialism  and Anti-Racist Week from February 16 to March 3rd.


Up to this point, it was not part of the Black History Month official events but this year’s dates coincide with BHM. In an effort to develop bridges between militant groups,  the organizers of 2013 Black History Month have invited the ‘Beyond Colonialism’ Association to include their anti-colonial program into this year’s BHM events.

As the event title suggests, the association’s message is not limited to building and commemorating awareness of African Diaspora history. Their anti-colonial spotlight focuses instead on France’s wide net of former colonies, including North and sub-Saharan Africa, South East Asia, Caribbean and Pacific Islands, Middle East and stretches back to the slave trade.

For Black History Month program organizers, this expanded historical focus has made French colonialism one of the themes of BHM.  The theme entitled 'Sortir du Colbertisme - Beyond Colbertism’ covers 400 Years of History - from Royalty to the Republic.

Who is Colbert?: Jean-Baptiste Colbert was the Minister of Finance under King Louis XIV in the 15th century. He was known to be thrifty, and worked hard at creating a favorable balance of trade, and that included increasing France’s colonial holdings.

He also created the first version of the notorious Code Noir. In this 1685 law, he defined the conditions of slavery in the French colonial empire and restricted the activities of free Blacks.

From the Nantes Museum

The final version was passed in 1724 then applied in the West Indies, Guyana, Reunion and Louisiana.

Besides asserting French sovereignty in its colonies, the Code Noir’s primary objective was to secure the future of cane sugar plantation economy.  According to Tyler Stovall, author of ‘Paris Noir’, the Code Noir is “one of the most extensive official documents on race, slavery, and freedom ever drawn up in Europe.” (pg 205)

The ‘Beyond Colbertism’ theme for Black History Month 2013 brings to the table discussions on means used against the black populations: the plans of French colonialism, extermination, deportation, dehumanization, kidnapping, deprivation, exploitation, assimilation. Add to that, insurrections, abolition and decolonialization, and discrimination past and present.


The Collective of Associations lending their support and signatures 2013 Black History Month
•    ANC/BAN : Alliance Noire Citoyenne / Brigade Anti Négrophobie   Black Citizen Alliance / The Anti-Negrophobia Brigade

Anti-Negrophobie Brigade at the May 10th Abolition of Slavery Commemoration in Luxembourg Gardens 2012.

•    C-O10MAI : Comité d'Organisation du 10 Mai (IdF)  Organizing Committee for May 10th **
•    Collectif du 10 Mai : (Nantes)   May 10th Collective (in Nantes)
•    MIR France : Mouvement International pour les Réparations - The International Movement for Reparations.
•    V-V : Collectif Vies Volées (France)  The Stolen Lives Collective.
** May 10th= In 2001, the Senate voted in The Taubira Law, recognizing slavery as a crime against humanity. In mainland France, this is the annual date of commemoration of the abolition of slavery.
It is also, interestingly enough, the death date of King Louis XV, who passed the final Code Noir.


Here are just a few events still upcoming for the Anti-Colonialism & Anti-Racist Week 2013. They include literary, discussions, film screenings, brunch, protest march.



The full program here:or load from this link   http://www.demosphere.eu/node/34367

Researchers: you’ll find here in the program useful names and addresses of organizations, lecture halls.


Sunday 24 February
7 pm Assembly of People Still Colonized by France
Monday 25 February - Debate and film projection: ‘El Problema’ by the Friends of the Democratic Saharan Arabic Republic
Tuesday 26 February  - Anti-Colonial brunch & film
Wednesday 27 February - Film ‘Douce France’, saga of the Arabic (Beur) Movement
Friday 01 March - Conference ‘Discrimination, extreme right wing, islamaphobia’.
Film and debate - ‘Cong Binh’, Vietnamese film
Saturday March 2 - Conference: Colonial Crimes and Memory Gaps - a French Specialty? The case of Cameroon.
Sunday March 3 - Forum on African music.

A note on the image used on the Semaine Anti-Coloniale et Anti-Raciste poster.  The image below is the original packaging for a favorite breakfast drink loved by generations: Banania powder. It is the inspiration for the event poster. Created in 1917 when France used Senegalese marksmen in WWI. The Senegalese soldier in his red fez (they weren’t given metal helmets), is smacking his lips and pronouncing in pidgin French
“‘y’a bon’ -  it’s good”. The French public found the image and the soldiers endearing but the Collective from Antilles, Guyana and  the Reunion Islands declared the slogan racist.

Said Leopold Senghor in an anti-colonial poem, “I will rip the Banania grin from every wall in France.”
Although the image was withdrawn in 1977, the image still provokes debates on France’s colonial past.

Read this enlightening NY Times article on the history and controversy around Banania

Black Paris & Beyond - Goodbye Benny Luke and My French Life #4

 A Tribute To Benny Luke

&

Tripping On The Road, On Canvas, On Screen

2013 starts with a sad event in Paris' African American community. We lost our dear friend, Mr. Benny Luke. Some of you may know him as 'Jacob' in all three  parts of the classic French comedy 'La Cage Aux Folles' (The Birdcage). Others may have seen his cabaret shows, or if really lucky, you saw him dancing on stage with no other than Miss Josephine Baker. 

Benny brought much joy and hilarious laughter to the Paris community.  Whether as the bar manager at the famous Haynes Soul Food restaurant, or later as the gracious host of his own 'Bojangles' club/restaurant a little further in the 9th arrondissement. 
To read more comments, see photos, pay tribute to this fine man, check out the Bojangles Facebook page:

Benny at the Richard Wright 50th anniversary memorial, Père Lachaise cemetery.

Among many fine memories I have of Benny, the last was the most touching. At the beginning of my month long sojourn in Paris last spring, Benny mustered the strength, though he was not doing well at all, to make his way from the suburbs to come have a bite and welcome this rolling stone back home.  

He will be missed!   

 --------------

Our three France-based contributors have stepped out of the box to revive their winter souls: Normandy, Controversial Art, Questionable Films.

You'll find each full bio at the end of this post.


Luna Vincent White  - Student

Sometimes You Gotta Leave Paris to Love Paris.

Paris is starting to turn into a routine for me.  I have a lot of homework every night; I am staying up too late skyping my boyfriend; I am missing my family and friends back at home, and I am going to the same places everyday around the city.  I am not getting enough exercise so I consistently feel tired and heavy.

            Friday morning, feeling groggy and sad, I rush to the meeting place for our excursion to Brittany and Normandy.  I thankfully get there early and find a spot in the back of the bus where I can lay down to sleep.  Reunited with students from my school that I haven’t seen for a while (because of our respective busy schedules), I have a chance to catch up a bit.  We began to leave Paris and about thirty minutes into the ride, I comfortably fall asleep. 

            Waking up a couple times during the bus ride, I catch a glimpse of beautiful rows of corn and other crop and roaming sheep, horses, and cows.  The beautiful views will continue throughout the week-end-long trip.

            Two particularly amazing parts of the trip are the visit to Mont Saint Michel as well as the visit to the landing beaches in Normandy.  The abbey on Mont Saint Michel is incredibly beautiful and had a general peacefulness about it.  Breathing on the top of the hill is like inhaling the cleanest, kindest air possible.  Legend has it that archangel Michael asked for the church and abbey to be built on that specific hill.  It is a place full of legend and tranquilities. 

Mont St. Michel

 Then going to the landing beaches is also peaceful but in a very different way.  We visit Omaha beach which was one of the bloodiest of the landings, where millions of soldiers fought against the Nazis.  The beach is clean and beautiful.  Several feet above it on a hill is a huge cemetery honoring the soldiers who died there.  It makes me think about more important things in life, and what it means to give your life for a cause. 

Omaha Beach Memorial Sculptures

            On the way home I feel so much more willing to face Paris, and experience it in a more positive way.  I decided that I will definitely go to several different French towns and provinces through out this trip.

   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

                                                                        

 Epee Hervé Dingong – Journalist  

This is some crazy sh*# 

Negus in Paris Exhibition

 January 10 - February 23rd

January 10th was a special day for me. First it was my mom’s birthday and she’s 66 now. After a lunch celebration with family, I went to Back Slash Gallery (www.backslashgallery.com) in the third district. 

The event was the exhibit of “Negus In Paris” by Fahamu Pecou (http://www.fahamupecouart.com). I had the information from several friends from Atlanta. Mister Pecou lives in Atlanta and his Parisian exhibition is from January 10^th to February 23^rd 2013. Inspired by the Jay-Z and Kanye West song “Niggas in Paris”, Negus is an Amharic word from Ethiopia who describes the royalty in general. Fahamu Pecou’s wordplay describes and shows the contribution of African Americans in Paris. In his paintings you can see him surrounded by people as James Baldwin, Nina Simone or Josephine Baker. It’s an interesting journey in Fahamu Pecou’s work. 

 Note from editor: Pecou's work takes head on the conflicts relating to Black iconisation as triggered by public debate on such subjects as Negritude, and most recently, the controversial use of the 'n--' word.  Remember theTwitter storm caused by Gweneth Paltrow's posting...

                                     Fahamu Pecou, Negus in Paris, for real (featuring Gwyneth Paltrow), 2012, Graphite, gold leaf and oil stick on paper. 

                                                                                                                                        Back Slash Gallery.

                                                           Fahamu Pecou, A.W.N. (Artists With Négritude), 2012, Acrylic on Canvas. Image via backslashgallery.com

              

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

                                                                 

Anna-Karina Caudevilla, Associate of The Shackles of Memory                   

French Colonial Romanticism or Not?

 
    

This week-end I went to go see the documentary entitled “Comptes et décomptes de la cour” of a photographer and film-maker named Eliane de Latour.  A very simple, straightforward and non-glamorous testimony of five wives married to the same man who, upon becoming nominated Chief of his village, is obligated to lock his five wives away due to tradition.  The first four wives, before their “religious” imprisonment, lived in the city and were free to come and go as they pleased.  Three of these wives were successful business women who traveled far and wide to purchase and sell their goods.  The fourth wife is a nurse and thus accustomed to interacting with people all day long.  Once locked away, the three business-oriented wives established a system so as to be able to continue earning money from commerce, using intermediaries to purchase and sell the goods.  The nurse wife sneaks away to the village clinic to exercise her profession, never allowed to return home.  

Then along comes the fifth wife, young and despised by the other four, so much so that the husband takes her away from the harem and sets her up in a house somewhere else.  The documentary puts forward the assumption that the last wife does nothing all day but put on make-up and wait for her husband, who has eyes only for her and totally neglects the four others who are locked away.  

Inside the court, Eliane de Latour questions the wives about their lives.  Although all of them have very poignant, simple and profound sentiments and thoughts, I could not help feeling that their laughter and non-chalant attitude was simply a strategy of raw survival that forces us to make jokes and laugh rather than to lose our minds when reality is not only disgustingly unjust but worse even, when you know it and can do nothing about it.  They kept on using the words jealousy, patience, old woman, young woman.....

These beautiful women who feel old and ugly and unwanted and jealous because one man does not respect one of the matrimonial foundations of his religion, that of marrying more than one woman only if you can take care of, and satisfy all of, them equally.  As one wife said so deliciously (I’m paraphrasing), these types of husbands will be flogged once they have passed on to the other side and are being judged by Allah, so why not start now, here on Earth?  Why wait until they are dead to judge their wrongs deeds? 

Poster for another film by Latour

My question was, once the film was over and Eliane de Latour was explaining her work and the economic importance of these women for their husband and household, why do some people like to steer the attention towards how important women are who are suffering greatly, and that we should not overlook their contributions, nor forget their immense capacity to turn adversity into benefit.  Hasn’t that been what those who write our Western history always do?  Judeo-Christian manipulation of the social psyche.  

What woman, deep down inside, doesn’t know her plight and what she contributes to society and her unlimited capacity to forge on no matter what patriarchal society throws at us?  Isn’t it more important to ask, how are we going to change all of this?  Something about the presentation of the documentary felt like French, colonial romanticism.  What would the documentary have been like if the film-maker had given the camera to the wives, showed them how to use it and let them direct the film?  What vision would they have presented to us?  What questions would they have asked?  How would they choose to represent themselves?

And these questions pertain to so many......when will history be re-written by those who “have not” instead of those who “have”?

  ------------------

BIO  

Luna Vincent White was born in Chicago and when she was eight she moved to Los Angeles so that her mom could pursue her dreams of writing for television.

  

 Luna goes to the University of Southern California, studying a combination of history and sociology to look at racism (hopefully) with a minor in cinematic arts as well as French. She is also studying film because eventually she wants to become a director, whose films encourage empathy and cultural understanding.

    Luna has always loved traveling, and because she moved so much through out her life, she has grown used to the feeling of changing locations a lot. She was so excited to travel to Paris and has taken French since high school. Her hope is to become fluent and perhaps understand a bit of how racial prejudice and xenophobia play a part in Parisian life.

Epée Hervé Dingong is a freelance writer from Paris, of Cameroonian origin. He graduated from the prestigious C.F.P.J.journalism school in Paris.     During his time as a staff writer and freelancer he interviewed a lot of Hip Hop and R&B artists from US, France, Holland, UK and Germany.

     His work appeared in different print publications such as Radikal magazine, Tracklist, The Source France, Musique Info Hebdo, Lady Caprice magazine, Juice Magazine,  to name a few. He has collaborated with American print magazines and online publications such as The Source magazine, The Ave Magazine, Mugshot Magazine, www.daveyd.com, www.euromight.com and www.thestarklife.com. He writes about music, politics and social issues.

Anna-Karina Caudevilla is a native from Washington DC currently living in Nantes, France (north-west coast).  A long time traveler, insatiable  learner, Jane-of-all-trades and militant believer in living life creatively, she has set up roots in the United States, Spain and France.  

     Anna-Karina is currently finishing a Masters in Art and Cultural Management in Nantes which led her to discover The Shackles of Memory Association – Resource & Study Centre for the Study of the Slave Trade, for whom she is now an active member.