LE NEGROPHILIE
Written & Performed by
Zakiya Markland
Directed by Tatiana Pandiani
Production Design by
Mariana Vallejo
Vineyard + Teatro SEA
New York, NY
Frank Collymore Hall, Barbados
Ubumuntu Arts Festival, Rwanda
Kampala Int’l Festival, Uganda
In a highly racialized 1910s America, young Josephine Baker is both lauded and taunted for her skin’s brown hues. Internalized racism displayed by blacks around her had young Josephine on the outskirts of stardom on Black Broadway, despite her incredible talent. Never light enough to pass the quintessential “paperbag” test, Josephine leaves the US and found stardom in the land-of-the free Paris, where racism was...well, different than back home.