The World Today is a Mess

Little Donna Hightower - Citizen of the World

Donna Hightower in Paris
circa the 1950's- photo by Eddy Wiggins

Donna Lubertha Hightower also known as “Little Donna Hightower”, was born December 28, 1926, in Caruthersville, Missouri. Growing up, she enjoyed listening to Ella Fitzgerald and other legendary jazz artists, but it was never her dream to become a singer.  By the age of 23, she had been married and divorced with two children.

She had been working in a diner in Chicago, when Bob Tillman, a reporter with the Chicago Defender newspaper, heard her singing.  This lead to bookings as a singer at the Strand Hotel and eventually a recording contract with Decca Records where she recorded her first single, "I Ain't In The Mood", in 1951.

During the 1950s she recorded, often accompanied by the Maxwell Davis Orchestra and she toured the US, with the stars like B. B. King, Johnny Mathis, Della Reese, and many others. By 1958, the invitations to perform and tour dried up, so she took a job with a music publishing company in New York where she would record demonstration records of new songs.  This led to a recording contract with Capitol Records and established her international career.

1964 in Europe

In 1959, she moved to Europe, living first in France, then Belgium finally settling in Madrid. In 1971 she won the Costa del Sol International Song Festival, then in 1972, She recorded “The World is a Mess Today” which sold over one million copies worldwide and was a major hit in France where she would perform to sold-out audiences.

In 1990, she returned to the United States to live in Austin, Texas where she was active in the Austin Chapter of the Gospel Music Workshop of America. In 2006 she performed at a jazz festival in Spain.  It was her last performance before her death on August 19, 2013, in Austin in 2013 at the age of 86. 

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Host A Screening of African Americans in Paris

Paris Noir -African Americans in the City of Light, a one-hour documentary by Blue Lion Films, tells that outstanding story of pioneering men and women who found liberté, egalité and fraternité (freedom, equality, and brotherhood) abroad, that they did not find at home in America.

Paris Noir has options for hosting, from educational viewing to screening as a fundraiser.

Choose a screening option that meets your needs:

High definition DVD to host and promote a single community film screening, INCLUDING Skype talk with one of the filmmakers, can introduce the film, the answer questions during a post-viewing Q&A. Includes 10 copies of the companion book African Americans in the City of Light for sale to your attendees.  $250.00.

High definition DVD to host and promote a single community film screening, PLUS one of the filmmakers attend your screening, introduce the film, then answer questions and facilitate a community building exercise after the film. $500.00- + Lodging

Option for multiple screenings is available.  Contact us for more information and pricing.  

Increase your fundraising potential!  Additional books available to sell at your event, or separately to raise funds for your organization. 

Books must be ordered by the organizer in advance. Shipping cost is additional.

The organizer keeps 100% of the revenue from the sale of books. Discounts apply as follows:

10 -19 books = 10% off

20 – 29 books = 20% off

30 or more items = 25% off

For more information or to schedule a screening Email:

info@africanamericansinparis.com
AfricanAmericansinParis.com

Eddy Wiggins - The Lost Historian

Recently a friend introduced me to an incredible book.  Printed in French, and unknown to many, "Eddy Wiggins: Le Noir et Le Blanc", is a loving tribute to a man who captured African Americans in Paris, Gilles LeRoy, published a beautiful book of photographs that would have been lost forever.  Lost, like the history of this man who documented so many incredible moments of African American's in Paris.

Eddy Wiggins in Paris

Eddy Wiggins was born in the Jim Crow South in1904 in Mississippi.  It was a time of racial violence against blacks by white supremacists, but also important gains for African Americans.  In 1904 Mary McLeod Bethune that today is known as Bethune-Cookman University, while Dr. Solomon Carter Fuller, the first Black psychiatrist, was heralded as a pioneer in Alzheimer’s disease research. There were many other significant first, but there was far more violence. 

At the age of eighteen, Wiggins took off for Chicago hoping to escape the violence in the South and sought to work odd jobs.  But by 1933 fed up with the lack of opportunities, and racism that also existed in the North, he left for Paris, never to return. 

In Paris he worked as a journalist for various American magazines, serving as a jazz correspondent.  This gave him access to all the legendary artists from America and France.  He was able to engage with them backstage in concert halls such as the Olympia, or during more casual moments at dinner, bars or the home of friends.  He captured, the spirit of freedom experienced by African Americans in Paris far from shores of segregation in America.

Louis Armstrong at Haynes Restaurant
(LeRoy Haynes in white tee-shirt)

But while he was able to capture and document the history of African American freedom in Paris, his own history seems to have faded into the past.  In his later years Eddy, almost blind, lived in solitude and poverty.

"Eddy Wiggins: Le Noire Et Le Blanc"
Text by Gilles Leroy; Published by Naive

Denis Trinez, a Trinitarian priest and Member of the Association of the Little Brothers of the Poor, cared for him until his death. Denis maintained possession of Eddy’s pictures and prints a collection which represents the essence of his work.   The collection was given to the Atelier des Épinettes, which Denis Trinez had founded to help AIDS patients. Now part of BASILIADE Eddy’s collection was published in a book published by Naïve, "Eddy Wiggins: Black and White", with a preface by Gilles Leroy.  Sale of the book helps to raise funding to support BASILIADE.  Ironically the photographic work in the BASILIADE collection is all the remains to tell the story of this African American genius who captured the spirit of freedom in Paris far from discrimination in the United States.  Now his work helps others who are often alone and in poverty as they fight against AIDS and the stigmatization it often brings upon them.  We may not have much of his history before his death, but he lives on in the aid his photos provide for others.

# # #

Host A Screening of African Americans in Paris

Paris Noir -African Americans in the City of Light, a one-hour documentary by Blue Lion Films, tells that outstanding story of pioneering men and women who found liberté, egalité and fraternité (freedom, equality, and brotherhood) abroad, that they did not find at home in America.

Paris Noir has options for hosting, from educational viewing to screening as a fundraiser.

Choose a screening option that meets your needs:

High definition DVD to host and promote a single community film screening, INCLUDING Skype talk with one of the filmmakers, can introduce the film, the answer questions during a post-viewing Q&A. Includes 10 copies of the companion book African Americans in the City of Light for sale to your attendees.  $250.00.

High definition DVD to host and promote a single community film screening, PLUS one of the filmmakers attend your screening, introduce the film, then answer questions and facilitate a community building exercise after the film. $500.00- + Lodging

Option for multiple screenings is available.  Contact us for more information and pricing.  

Increase your fundraising potential!  Additional books available to sell at your event, or separately to raise funds for your organization. 

Books must be ordered by the organizer in advance. Shipping cost is additional.

The organizer keeps 100% of the revenue from the sale of books. Discounts apply as follows:

10 -19 books = 10% off

20 – 29 books = 20% off

30 or more items = 25% off

For more information or to schedule a screening Email:

info@africanamericansinparis.com