Jenny Alpha (22 April 1910 – 8 September 2010) was a

Martinique Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago: or ) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in th ...

-born French actress and singer, who appeared in more than a hundred theatre productions and movies. Born in

Fort-de-France Fort-de-France (, , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Fodfwans) is a Communes of France, commune and the capital city of Martinique, an overseas department and region of France located in the Caribbean. It is also one of the major cities in the ...

, Martinique in 1910, Alpha moved to Paris in 1929 to pursue a career in teaching but became sidetracked due to her passion for theatre. As well as appearing in theatre, she displayed a variety of talent and became a successful singer, appearing alongside the likes of

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based ...

and

Josephine Baker Josephine Baker (born Freda Josephine McDonald; naturalised French Joséphine Baker; 3 June 1906 – 12 April 1975) was an American-born French dancer, singer and actress. Her career was centered primarily in Europe, mostly in her adopted Fran ...

. At the end of the thirties, she meets Jacques Dessart in Paris who will become her first husband. Since he was originally from the Nice area, they leave Paris during the war to stay with his family, who owned land. He will die prematurely and her in-laws will throw her out. During the war, she played an active role in the

French Resistance The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...

with her husband Noël Henri Villard, a prominent French poet (1904-1984). During the war, while in Nice, she meets

Francis Picabia Francis Picabia (: born Francis-Marie Martinez de Picabia; 22January 1879 – 30November 1953) was a French avant-garde painter, poet and typographist. After experimenting with Impressionism and Pointillism, Picabia became associated with Cubism ...

who will paint her portrait in 1942 now in the collection of the Regional Museum of History and Ethnology of Martinique. In her memories, she explains that she met Henri Matisse who expressed a wish to paint her but later changed his mind since Picabia had already portrayed her. In 1947, Jenny Alpha is chosen as a model by artist Lemagny (grand Prize of Rome) for a French postal stamp to represent the

. In 1956 she attends the first Conference of Black writers where she met

Aimé Césaire Aimé Fernand David Césaire (; ; 26 June 1913 – 17 April 2008) was a French poet, author, and politician. He was "one of the founders of the Négritude movement in Francophone literature" and coined the word in French. He founded the Par ...

, Léopold Sédar Senghor, Richard Wright, Langsthon Hugues. After her career in Jazz club, she gets her breakthrough in theatre in 1984 in ''La folie ordinaire d’une fille de Cham'' by French writer Julius Amédée Laou. Late in life, in 2005, she appeared in the film ''Monsieur Étienne'', and in 2008 recorded a final album, ''La sérénade du muguet''. On 1 January 2009 she was granted the title of Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur by the French government, and in 2010 Alpha celebrated her 100th birthday. She died on 8 September 2010 in Paris, France.
In June 2013, a place was named in her honor in the 15th area of Paris, Place Jenny Alpha, not far from where she lived for three decades.

References

1910 births 2010 deaths People from Fort-de-France French stage actresses Martinican music 20th-century French actresses 21st-century French actresses French centenarians Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur Knights of the Ordre national du Mérite 20th-century French women singers Women centenarians {{Martinique-bio-stub

See also

References