josephine baker

English - English

Definition of josephine baker in English English dictionary

(1906-1975) African-American Jazz singer and dancer, member of the Parisian dance troupe "La Revue Negre

orig. Freda Josephine McDonald born June 3, 1906, St. Louis, Mo., U.S. died April 12, 1975, Paris, France U.S.-born French entertainer. She joined a dance troupe at age 16 and soon moved to New York City, where she performed in Harlem nightclubs and on Broadway in Chocolate Dandies (1924). She went to Paris in 1925 to dance in La Revue nègre. To French audiences she personified the exoticism and vitality of African American culture, and she became Paris's most popular music-hall entertainer, receiving star billing at the Folies Bergère. In World War II she worked with the Red Cross and entertained Free French troops. From 1950 she adopted numerous orphans of all nationalities as "an experiment in brotherhood." She returned periodically to the U.S. to advance the cause of civil rights

Related Terms

Sara Josephine Baker

born Nov. 15, 1873, Poughkeepsie, N.Y., U.S. died Feb. 22, 1945, New York, N.Y. U.S. physician. She became the first American woman to receive a doctorate in public health. As the first director of New York City's Division of Child Hygiene (the first public agency devoted to child health), she helped make New York's infant-mortality rates the lowest of any major American city. She helped found the American Child Hygiene Association and organized what became the Children's Welfare Federation of New York. She published five books on child hygiene

Hyphenation

Jo·se·phine ba·ker

Turkish pronunciation

cōsıfin beykır

Pronunciation

/ˈʤōsəˌfēn ˈbākər/ /ˈʤoʊsəˌfiːn ˈbeɪkɜr/