Wednesday, April 17, 2024: Pam Ward's "La Revue Negre"

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Writer/designer, Pam Ward just released her poetry book Between Good Men & No Man At All, World Stage Press. She’s published two novels, Want Some Get Some, and Bad Girls Burn Slow Kensington. A UCLA graduate, recipient of a California Arts Council Fellow, and Pushcart Poetry Nominee, Pam has published in Chiron, Calyx, Voices of Leimert Park and the LA Times and is currently writing a novel about her aunt & the Black Dahlia Murder.




Le Revue Negre    for Josephine Baker


Before Baldwin lifted a suitcase 

before Chester Himes escaped

Josephine packed her bags

& skipped off to France 

severing ties with America 

an umbilical cord 

strangling her neck

she boarded a ship

bailed the US

like bailing the back hand of

a bad, brutal marriage.


This Nubian princess.

This queen of the bait & switch

had everyone going bananas

examining how yellow fruit curves

dancing nude, except for 

her produce-section skirt

fifteen gyrating 

penis-shaped smiling grins

happily tapping that ass.

While everyone studied

her circumference 

which defied gravity & physics 

dreaming of banana nut bread 

banana pudding, banana splits 

Josephine hid Nazi secrets 

on sheet music or brassieres

or the ticklish part of her panties.


This Doll-face

This Venus 

This St. Louis tease

became the biggest star in Europe.

Twerking her galactic hips

living so large, so vast

so spread-eagle wide 

Saturn dropped her shirt 

and slow dragged with Mars

causing Pluto to yell, “I got next!”

Josephine lived so big

clothes couldn’t hold her back.

Boogilooing in her birthday suit

refusing to kowtow or bow

except for her 7th her 10th or 12th curtain call

hoola-hooping till the sun beamed up 

than dropping it like its hot 

touring London, Paris, Rome or Berlin

showing the whole world 

how black girls got down.

Not with dust mops

not in aprons

not the back of the bus 

but infamously untethered

living high on the hog

buying a Chateau, so East 

of the West’s ugly mess

the fire bombs

the German Shepherds

the strange fruit strung on trees

courtesy of Uncle Sam’s

“Welcoming Committee.”


As the zookeepers of America 

gawked or angrily shook their fists

Lady Liberty did a two-step 

and shimmied by the sea. 

Hoisting her worn-out gown

lifting teal she screamed,

“I see you, over there, Josephine!

Go on, girl! Get it, get it!” 

And way across the pond 

nibbling bon bons

ordering prawns

sipping endless flutes 

of Veuve or Moet champagne

The Electric Slide Goddess 

blew a kiss to her rusty friend.

“Mon Chéri, you need to come back with me.”


And all the gorillas back in Africa

eating Chiquitas, beating their chest

doing their best Josephine

between branches and leaves

dancing a Cha Cha

trotting a Rumba

tossing peels in the street

gripping “J” shaped fruit 

in their palms like a spear

honoring all escapees

praying for those still caged.

Remembering the black girl

the one with gumption

the nude émigrés

who had the mendacity

to leave her country

Lil’ Miss Parlez-vous Francais. 

A black woman who ran from home 

shearing her clothes, shoes & hair 

severing herself completely

sailing far, far away

a gold star

lighting the way


 © 2024 Pam Ward

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