The "new Josephine Baker"
The family of the cabaret performer Miss Bartira have given researcher Adjoa Osei access to photos, fan mail and documents which tell her story from '30s Paris to her death in 1981
Miss Bartira performed across Europe in the '30s with an erotic acrobatic act, which landed her a brief stint in a Swedish prison for indecency and after she tackled a male heckler. During World War II she acted as a spy and the marriage in 1946 of this mixed race Brazilian cabaret performer to a British aristocrat caused a scandal. Researcher and New Generation Thinker Adjoa Osei has been tracing her story with the help of a trove of photographs, letters and documents given her by Miss Bartira's family. We hear from grandson Martin and from the writer Sala Patterson.
Producer: Paula McFarlane
We hear a performance by Miss Bartira of the Brazilian, African-influenced embolada called Bambu-Bambu recorded in a French newsreel and a 1935 Polydor recording that she made with Carlito and his Brazilian orchestra called Chante Gitana
New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by the BBC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to showcase new research in radio programmes.
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