"Who Shall Let This World Be Beautiful?": Seeds Of Black Female Creativity In Josephine Baker And Octavia E. Butler

Abstract

This interdisciplinary study examines the intersection of three twentieth century pioneers—Josephine Baker (1906-1975), Octavia E. Butler (1947-2006), and W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963). The premise of this study begins with Du Bois's query in the "Criteria of Negro Art" (1926), "Who shall let this world be beautiful" (18-9). Examining Baker's life as both speculative fiction and social philosophy, this study contends that Baker responds to Du Bois's query through her life and work. Beauty and truth, leadership, and gathering are concepts presented in this study that help contextualize Baker, Butler, and Du Bois. The intersection of these three narratives also extends Du Bois's discussion of Beauty and truth and considers how the transformed identity engages transformative power. The interplay between Baker and Du Bois helps demonstrate how these innovators break boundaries, emerge as Platonic originals, and address race, identity, consciousness, sexuality, and the black female body. This study explores how Baker awakens and births a new world order by means of identity transformation, leadership, and gathered communities. This study also situates Baker in the realm of black feminist thought and argues that she offers a model for transforming black female identity and lifting the Veil of consciousness. This project uses Butler's transformative protagonists in Mind of My Mind (1977), Wild Seed (1980), Parable of the Sower (1993), and Parable of Talents (1998). This study also uses W.E.B. Du Bois's tenets regarding aesthetics, power, and the Talented Tenth to reconsider Baker's life as a text, her iconic role as black female artist, and the meaning behind her compelling performance of beauty, value, and transcendence.