12 minute read
In the Classroom
By HERB BOYD
Special to the AmNews
Last week we profiled Maude Russell and, in the process, dropped the name of Evelyn Anderson, another dancer who often shared the spotlight with Josephine Baker. This being the last week in the celebration of Women’s History Month, we review the life and legacy of the beautiful Ms. Anderson, and her graceful movements on the stage.
Her obituary was published in The New York Times on Nov. 23, 1994, in a short profile by Frank Prial. He cited that she was the last surviving member of the troupe that danced with Baker in the 1920s in Paris as part of “Le Revue Negre.” Anderson, he wrote, died on Oct. 29 at Misericordia Hospital in Philadelphia. The cause of death was pneumonia, and she was 87. Accompanying the notice is a photo of the gorgeous Ms. Anderson and given to the paper from the Jean-Claude Collection.
That the photo would come from Jean-Claude’s collection was no surprise since he had compiled a large archive on his mother and her associates. And he never missed a moment to discuss Russell and Anderson when talking about those glorious moments in Paris when they captivated audiences night after night with their dances and theatrical routines.
As Prial notes in his piece in the Times, Anderson was 18 and had been performing with Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake, probably in “Shuffle Along,” when she was recruited to travel to Paris in a yet unnamed troupe. There may be a bit of discrepancy on just where Anderson was working before joining the Revue. She told Jean-Claude that she and Mabel Hopkins, Bea Foote, and Marguerite Ricks were all working together at a cabaret in Asbury Park when they were hired. Jean-Claude has a rather extensive account of how the troupe was assembled and the motivations of Mrs. Caroline [Dudley] Reagan, as she searched for the right band and lead singer and dancer for her troupe to Paris. According to Prial, Caroline Dudley [Reagan] was a wealthy white woman from Chicago, and sought at first to build the troupe around Florence Mills as the star or the energetic Maude de Forest, but Josephine became the star after she was depicted in posters promoting “Le Revue Negre.” The troupe was all set to appear in Berlin and Moscow after the Paris engagement but was disrupted when Baker signed a contract with the Folies Bergère.
In an interview with Jean-Claude, Anderson recounted those days in Paris. “I
was 18 years old,” she said, “and it was great to be on stage and in France.” Later in the conversation she recounted a number of incidents with the volcanic Baker, including one in which she rushed to the balcony to leap after being rejected by a man she desired. Curiously, during this period, there was another troupe called the Southern Delights, which has mentioned Anderson as being a member. It starred Honey Boy Thompson, Maud De Forest, and Miss King-Reavis. Anderson was among a few of the performers in the troupe who chose to remain in Paris and for the next 15 years she was featured at various clubs and nightspots in Paris and other parts of Europe. In fact, she was starring in the Netherlands and performing in a cabaret in The Hague when World War II broke out. When the Germans occupied the Netherlands, she, along with her partner Harry Watkins and others were deported, Jean-Claude disclosed in his biography “The Evelyn Anderson in 1938 courtesy of Jean-Claude Baker Collection Hungry Heart” with Chris Chase about the mother who adopted him. She recalled that experience with Jean-Claude, telling him what she told her partner, Watkins, after the Germans arrived. “If you see a dark cloud passing by, you’ll know it’s me running.” She and the others were returned to the States in 1943 in a prisoner exchange arrangement and a year later Anderson married Robert Robbins, an orchestral conductor, who resided in the Philadelphia area. And she was survived by two brothers.
ACTIVITIES
FIND OUT MORE
If there’s more beyond Jean-Claude Baker and his research, it would be astounding.
DISCUSSION
Obviously, much more is required about her early years, particularly where she was born and raised and who her parents were.
PLACE IN CONTEXT
She flowered during the Harlem Renaissance and was a special performer in Paris and Europe.
THIS WEEK IN BLACK HISTORY
March 27, 1948: Vocalist Billie Holiday was the headliner for the first time at Carnegie Hall.
March 27, 1934: Arthur Mitchell, the first Black American member of a major ballet company, was born in New York City.
March 27, 1969/70: Grammy-award Singer Mariah Carey was born in Huntington, N.Y.
am delighted to see my vision fulfilled, that vendors and entrepreneurs from our community now have a permanent home which gives both pride and dignity to those who struggled for existence and recognition,” said Dr. Clarke in a statement.
U.S. Rep Yvette Clarke, the former councilmember’s daughter, said she was truly proud of what her mother had founded in Brooklyn for the AfroCaribbean community. “After decades of work, progress, and growth, the revitalization of FCM is finally complete and I am tremendously proud to witness the fruits of my mother’s love and labor be realized,” said Congresswoman Clarke in a statement.
Under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, the site was marked for development into “affordable housing” while it was a single story building and a parking lot back in 2013. But, Urbane, a Black-run community development venture, put their bid in to keep the space true to Dr.
Jersey
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for remedying racial injustice.
“Despite committing most offenses at the same rate, there are 18 Black youth incarcerated for every white youth in New Jersey,” said Kiki Jamieson, president of The Fund for New Jersey. “This is the largest disparity in the nation and it’s even more alarming when you consider that New Jersey’s population is over 70% white.”
IMAGINE MORE launched in February during Black History Month with the first installment focusing on solutions to address Clarke’s vision as it grew.
“It was a labor of love, man, labor of love,” said Urbane Principal and CEO James Johnson-Piett. Johnson-Piett said once Urbane was selected through city planning’s Request for Proposals and Uniform Land Use Review Procedure processes, they took over the property and marketplace in 2017. Vendors were temporarily moved to a location on Flatbush and Clarendon Road for about four years while the main site was finished.
Not only was it difficult to find a temporary space to hold all the vendors and still get good foot traffic in the neighborhood, there was no way they could’ve predicted the onslaught of the COVID-19 crisis in 2020. Many of the vendors are “elder-preneurs,” averaging about 60 to 65 years in age. They started out with 38 vendors and went down to 28. At least two vendors passed away and many others got sick due to COVID, said JohnsonPiett.
“It’s been a challenge but the vendors have really rose to the occasion. They’ve been through a lot and persevered through a lot,” said John-
New Jersey’s racial wealth gap, which is the highest in the nation. The upcoming events will continue to bring together an influential array of leaders to discuss disparities in housing, education and health care.
“Almost exactly two years after Breonna Taylor’s murder and the 2020 racial reckoning, America has yet to confront the racism in our system of justice that led to the protests that ensued,” said Richard Roper, chair of the Board of Trustees at The Fund for New Jersey. “Countless promises and reforms were pledged by politicians and business leaders to address these inequities, however, many have yet to follow through.” son-Piett. “Recognizing it was another storm to weather because these folks came from trauma, they came from poverty. And their existence and business has had that sorta as a backdrop, so this was just another thing.”
Urbane, along with New York City Economic Development Corporation, Department of Housing Preservation and Development, Housing Development Corporation, and BRP Companies, finally finished the market and the rest of the 14-story, mixed-use building in 2021. Johnson-Piett said proudly that they had an “all Black everything team,” or Black architects, Black developers, and Black contractors, designing specifically to the Black diaspora aesthetic. The upgraded facilities have a commercial kitchen, bar, lounge, vendor spaces, and a business development incubator program.
The building also has 255 units of
Budget
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State director, said that the budget process has been used as a tactic to shove in non-financial fiscal items that may not gain popular support of the legislature and therefore holding other key priorities and resources for communities hostage. She said that essentially civil rights and criminal justice bills are being rolled back without any public input as it would have in the regular legislative process.
“There is actually popular, majority support for movement towards a more equal justice system. There’s a movement away from police just being the answer to lots of common social ills,” said Nnaemeka. “The governor by moving in this direction would be answering to a vocal minority, often suburbanites who are moved by clickbait and sensationalist headlines that paint our communities as wartorn, and our neighbors and young people as unruly and unlawful.”
On March 14, the Senate Democratic Majority released their robust one-house budget resolution that was praised for focusing on working people and families, climate change, property tax relief, the suspension of the state’s taxes on gas, mental health services and community violence prevention efforts, childcare, and education. It was pretty widely supported as a solid base for the state budget.
However, on March 23, Hochul and Benjamin published an op-ed in the Daily News claiming that their “10 point plan” makes “targeted changes” to New York’s laws. Namely, rolling back bail reforms and Raise the Age.
Raise the Age started in 2017. The state raised the age a kid could be prosecuted to 18 years old and by 2019 they stopped automatically prosecuting 16- and 17-year-olds as adults. Nnaemeka said studies showed that Black and Brown youth were usually the ones targeted, jailed, and tried as adults.
The Bail Reform bill, which eliminated cash bail for most misdemeanor and non-violent felony charges, was passed by the state legislature also in 2019 and enacted in January 2020. It requires judges to consider a person’s ability to pay in cases where bail is set. The aim of the bill was to cut down on unnecessary pretrial incarceration that disproportionately affected Black and Brown communities.
In a recent Siena College Research Institute poll, most people “believe” that the bail reform law is bad and linked to an increase in crime, though there hasn’t been statistics to support that assumption. “This poll is clear and convincing evidence that New Yorkers have been utterly misled about bail reform. All available data is clear that bail reform did not cause a rise in crime,” said Marvin Mayfield, director of organizing at Center for Community Alternatives.
Another measure that’s gained wide support to be in the state budget is the Clean Slate Act, sponsored by Assemblymember Catalina Cruz.
The act calls for the end of job, housing, and education discrimination against people with conviction records, which Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams had supported. Cruz said that it’s important to not conflate the criminal justice reforms being argued over with the bill. The bill deals with people who have already been through the justice system, she said. “The most important thing to understand is that this is an economic development bill,” said Cruz. “They’ve already paid their dues to society and I am in conversation with my colleagues and leadership in hopes that it’s in the budget and that we have a proposal that really allows folks to move forward with their lives.”
Outside of criminal justice and public safety, politicians are heavily advocating for things such as childcare, affordable housing, mental health, climate change provisions, and Coverage For All, which adds a healthcare safety net for undocumented in the city and state.
Cruz said she is also working to ensure essential workers and small businesses are included in the budget.
“Childcare is huge,” said Nnaemeka, “if we have the opportunity to really invest in accessible, affordable, high quality child care across the state.”
Nnaemeka criticized Hochul’s housing and climate resiliency plans as falling far too short of what is needed.
“100% affordable housing.” The above apartments were available, since the housing lottery capped last August, to households earning between 40% and 165% of the area median income, said BRP Companies. The apartments ranged from $567 a month for a onebedroom to $978 a month for a threebedroom. Johnson-Piett said that the city received over 50,000 applicants.
Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso said he was excited to see the market in a new, permanent building that celebrates Caribbean culture and will also have incubator space to support new small businesses. “I can’t wait to go and try some doubles and roti!” said Reynoso.
Senator Kevin Parker said that the market has been responsible for the success of entrepreneurs in the 21st District for years. He commended the rebranding, and said it would
March 31, 2022 - April 6, 2022 • 23 be helpful to many small business owners who took a hit during the pandemic. “The market not only spurred economic growth but met the needs of the community. I am proud that they were able to still be up and running during this critical time,” said Parker in a statement.
The building is currently in its soft opening phase as it moves in businesses and residents. Johnson-Piett said once the winter wraps, they have a huge celebration planned this spring.
Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member and writes about culture and politics in New York City for The Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting: https:// tinyurl.com/fcszwj8w
Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member and writes about culture and politics in New York City for The Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting: https://tinyurl.com/fcszwj8w
