LTC 447-2021 Black Affairs Advisory Committee MotionsMIAMI BEACH
OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER
NO. LTC # 447-2021 LETTER TO COMMISSION
TO:
FROM:
DATE:
SUBJECT:
The Honorable Mayor Dan Gelber and Members of the City
Commission
A lina T . H udak, C ity M anail
October 19, 2021 V',
Black Affairs Advisory Committee Motions
The purpose of this letter to the Mayor and Commission is to provide an update regarding
a motion made during the October 19, 2021 Black Affairs Advisory Committee ("BAAC")
meeting:
Motion: The Black Affairs Advisory Committee recommends the Mayor and City
Commission name Sunday, November 28, 2021 "Josephine Baker Day".
Motion was made by Diane Connolly Graham and seconded by Troy Wright.
Motion was passed unanimously.
On Sunday, November 28, 2021, 70 years after challenging the segregated audience
rule in Miami Beach clubs, Josephine Baker will be honored at the National Hotel
Miami Beach, in collaboration with Villa Albertine Program for the Arts between
France and the US, the Consulate General of France in Miami, and many others.
As a dancer and a singer, Josephine Baker disrupted conventions and broke down
boundaries for all. A symbol of the Jazz Age and the Harlem Renaissance, Ms.
Baker was an iconic figure of the Roaring Twenties that enflamed imaginations and
forever impacted the music and nightlife in Latin America, the Caribbean and
beyond. She fascinated Cubists, Fauvists, and Surrealists, and posed for Picasso,
Man Ray, Kees Van Donne, or Jean Cocteau, as well as renowned fashion
designers like Christian Dior or Pierre Balmain. In 1951, the Miami Beach Copa City
Club invited her to perform after a tour in Latin America, but Ms. Baker refused to
sign contracts with venues that were segregated. She convinced, the then jewel of
Miami Beach's roaring nightlife, to open its premises to all. Baker's shows in Miami
and Miami Beach were a great success and the start of a new social life for the
communities of the city. Josephine Baker's fashion style was also revolutionary. Her
boldness and sense of glamour resonated with the new Art Deco movement, with its
equally revolutionary architecture, inspired by bold and colorful geometric shapes
and that is now part of the heritage of Miami Beach.
For more information, please contact Heather Shaw at HeatherShaw@miamibeachfl.gov
or x26563.
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