Melvin Van Peebles at the Black Riot Cycle

Five years ago, Melvin Van Peebles created a musical version of his iconic, independent, 1971 film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. He called it an opera.

He wrote, composed, and directed it, and he selected Greg Tate and the Burnt Sugar Arkestra to perform the music. Called Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song – A Hood Opera, it premiered at the Sons d'Hiver Festival at the Maison des Arts de Creteil in the Paris suburb of Creteil in 2010.

Two years later, Sweet Sweetback returned to the Sons d'Hiver Festival in Creteil, this time in documentary form. Called L'opéra rêvé de Melvin Van Peebles, producer Samuel Thiebaut’s film features a behind-the-scenes look at the staging of the opera.

On September 10, 2015, the documentary was screened once again – this time at the MK2 Quai de Seine cinema in Paris. It was showcased as part of the Black Riot cycle of the Jazz à La Villette festival – the screening of several “essential” full-length films such as Black Panthers (1968) by Agnès Varda and Free Angela (2013) by Shola Lynch. The festival’s organizers selected this theme to “echo” the demonstrations that have erupted in the U.S. in reaction to police violence.

MK2 Quai de Seine cinema
© Discover Paris!

Black Riot Cycle at Jazz à la Villette 2015
© Discover Paris!
To open the evening, Van Peebles took the stage to be interviewed and answer questions from the audience.

Melvin Van Peebles being interviewed
© Discover Paris!
Among the topics discussed was the inextricable link between his film career and his experiences in France. During the 1960s, he pub­lished four nov­els and a collection of short stories in French. La Permission, a novel published in 1967, became the basis of his first fea­ture, a black and white French film given the same name. Called The Story of A Three Day Pass in English, this film won the Critic’s Choice Award at the 1967 San Fran­cisco Film Fes­ti­val. In 2001, Van Peebles was named a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor.

Click on the image below to view a teaser for the documentary by Samuel Thiebaut.

Cool, no problem.
Screenshot from L'opéra rêvé de Melvin Van Peebles
After the screening, Van Peebles graciously posed with members of the audience.

Monique and Melvin Van Peebles
© Discover Paris!
He was definitely MVP for the evening...

Melvin Van Peebles with MVP on jacket
© Discover Paris!
Most Valuable Peebles!

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

Entrée to Black Paris!™ is a Discover Paris! blog.

If you like this posting, share it with your friends by using one of the social media links below!

AFRICA ACTS: African Artists Come Together to Combat Stereotypes

A bold and ambitious event is unfolding this week in Paris.

Performed in a range of spaces across Paris, such as museums and contemporary art centers, jazz clubs, university lecture halls, streets, and plazas, AFRICA ACTS is a program devoted to performance arts in Africa and its Diasporas. It is being held in parallel with the European Conference on African Studies that is taking place at the Sorbonne on July 8-10, 2015.

The inspiration behind AFRICA ACTS is the idea that there is much more to Africa than the commonplace images that people in the northern countries hold of the continent. To combat these stereotypes, twelve performance artists have come to Paris to demonstrate through their works that Africa is brilliant, nuanced, and full of passion and pride.

Tom and I were privileged to attend one of the musical events staged as part of this event on Tuesday, July 7. That night, the Musée Dapper hosted a concert by Serge Kakudji, counter tenor and composer of opera, who sang a large selection of baroque music.

Serge Kakudji
© Discover Paris!
Kakudji discovered opera at the age of seven, when he was surfing television channels in his hometown of Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo. He was captivated by the music, even though it was sung in a foreign language. It so inspired him that he asked to join the choir at the church that his parents attended. Self-taught, he developed his talent sufficiently that he was invited to participate in an international competition in Harare, Zimbabwe in 2006. His talent was recognized by Congolese choreographer Faustin Linyekula and he was invited to participate in Linyekula's show Dinozord, which traveled to Brussels, Avignon, and Lisbon.

During a rehearsal of Dinozord in Brussels, American opera singer Laura Claycomb saw Kakudji perform and encouraged him to sing professionally. As a result, he soon found himself enrolled at the Institut Supérieur de Musique et de Pédagogie de Namur (IMEP) in Belgium.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Kakudji gave a masterful performance. He ended the concert with a song called "Nyumbani" from an opera that he and a colleague composed as the first opera in the Swahili language. ("Nyumbani" means "home" in Swahili.)

Qudus Onikeku, native of Lagos, Nigeria and founder of AFRoPARISIAN Network, is another of the twelve performers that AFRICA ACTS has lined up. He has woven a mix of dance, stand-up comedy, and dance class into a performance called Africaman Original, which he will give at the Collège des Bernardins in the 5th arrondissement today (July 9).

Qudus Onikeku
Image courtesy of Qudus Onikeku
Africaman Original incorporates video clips of African dance and film stock of Brazilian and Afro-American performance that are projected on a screen in synch with recorded music. Onikeku invites members of the audience to come onstage to take part in a dance class that he conducts to the rhythms of Fela Kuti, pioneer of Afrobeat.

AFRICA ACTS is organized by Institut des Mondes Africains (IMAF) and Les Afriques dans le Monde (LAM) with support from l’agence à paris. For information about these groups, click HERE.

For the complete schedule of AFRICA ACTS' performances, click HERE.

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

Entrée to Black Paris!™ is a Discover Paris! blog.

If you like this posting, share it with your friends by using one of the social media links below!

Madame Lillian Evanti - African-American Opera Singer in 1920s Paris

In reading Tracy D. Sharpley-Whiting's recently released publication, Bricktop's Paris, I've whetted my appetite for information about the many African-American women who contributed to "Black Paris" during the early 20th century.  One of the brief, but rich and little-known stories that Sharpley-Whiting shares in this book is that of Lillian Evans-Tibbs, aka Madame Evanti.

American operatic soprano Lillian Evanti (1880-1967) in France in 1926

Photo source: Bibliothèque Nationale de France

Evanti's given name was Annie Wilson Lillian Evans.  Born in Washington, D. C. in 1890, she studied music at Howard University and married her professor, Roy W. Tibbs, after her graduation in 1917. She traveled to Paris in 1924 and studied opera under the French operatic soprano, Gabrielle Ritter-Ciampi.  Evanti won the starring role in Léo Delibes' opera Lakmé, which she performed in Nice in 1925 and recreated in Paris at the Trianon theater in 1927.

Cover for Lakmé, Opéra en trois actes

While in Paris, Evanti spent considerable time with three other African-American women, artist Laura Wheeler*, writer Jessie Fauset*, and artist Helen Wheatland.  Evanti, Wheeler, and Wheatland sailed to France together on the SS Homeric, leaving New York on June 21, 1924.  They lodged at the Hôtel Jeanne d'Arc, located at 59, rue Vaneau in the upscale 7th arrondissement.  The following spring, Wheeler would help Evanti design the costume that Evanti wore for her performances in Lakmé. (To see a photo of Evanti, presumably dressed as Lakmé, click here.)

It was Fauset that came up with the stage name "Evanti." She joined Evanti, Wheeler, and Wheatland at a party where Evanti brought up the subject of changing her name to something more "euphonious-sounding." She wrote down a contraction of her maiden name, "Evans," and her married name, "Tibbs," and came up with "Tivani." Fauset suggested "Evanti" instead. Evanti liked this name better and used it from that moment on.

Part of a quote cited by Sharpley-Whiting reveals Evanti's sentiments about what being in France did for her career:

Thank you La Belle France for my debut in Grand Opera. France offered Libert[é], Equalit[é], Fraternit[é] . . . . I was free!

For more information about Lillian Evanti, click here.

* Sharpley-Whiting presents the stories of Wheeler and Fauset in Bricktop's Paris as well.

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

Entrée to Black Paris!™ is a Discover Paris! blog.

If you like this posting, share it with your friends by using one of the social media links below!

Lola Oduwole Brings Sally Hemings to Life

Many know – at least superficially – the story of Sally Hemings and her intimate relationship with Thomas Jefferson, which reportedly began in Paris during Jefferson's tenure as Minister to France. Fewer know that a musical composition based on a fictitious Sally Hemings "diary" was commissioned by African-American opera singer Florence Quivar, written by African-American playwright Sandra Seaton, and set to music by Anglo-American composer William Bolcom. The song cycle* "From the Diary of Sally Hemings" was first performed by Quivar at the Library of Congress in March 2001.

Image from Sandra Seaton Web site

Twelve years later, British opera singer Lola Oduwole and I sat in a Paris café to discuss Oduwole's plans to revive this musical performance in Europe.

Lola Oduwole
Image courtesy of the singer

Of Nigerian descent, Lola was born in London and raised in the south of England until the age of 11, when she returned to London. She spent the rest of her childhood and young adulthood there. She is a classically-trained opera singer, having spent six years studying at the prestigious Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London (4 years in the traditional program and 2 years in the graduate program). She currently lives in Belgium and comes to Paris once a month for voice lessons with a special trainer to further develop her instrument and her technique.

Lola learned about "From the Diary of Sally Hemings" years ago. She found the history of both the composition and the protagonist of the piece intriguing, and is currently researching and rehearsing the role. She has been approached by the Handelsbeurs Concert Hall in Ghent, Belgium to produce the show and sing the role of Sally Hemings. The director of the Flemish Opera company (Vlaamse Opera, with performance venues in Ghent and Antwerp), has also expressed interest.

The task of interpreting Sally Hemings operatically has caused Lola to view Paris in a new light. Hemings and Jefferson spent roughly two years together here (1787-1789) and Lola says that much of the song cycle is based on Hemings' experiences in France. Now, when she comes to Paris, she is "in search of" Sally Hemings. She seeks to walk where Hemings walked and drink in the atmosphere of the French capital with the intent to infuse her performance with it. She would like to produce "From the Diary of Sally Hemings" for Parisian audiences before the show debuts in Belgium.

Lola also sees Paris as a potential place to live. She loves the energy and ambiance of the city and the diversity of its people, and believes that Paris will provide more opportunities to work in her chosen field compared to the idyllic yet provencial town of Ghent, where she currently lives. She is interested in exploring professional activities outside the realm of classical opera and sees more possibilities here. She also says that moving here would provide her with a strong impetus to improve her French!

*A song cycle is a group of songs designed to be performed in a sequence as a single entity.

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

Entrée to Black Paris!™ is a Discover Paris! blog.

If you like this posting, share it with your friends by using one of the social media links below!