Book Talk and Concert: Black Montmartre in the Jazz Age

Organized by the . Curated by The Californien Agency.

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Join us for an evening exploring (UGA Press, 2026), the newly published book by Robert Tomlinson. A scholar of French literature, Tomlinson offers a vivid, street-level portrait of 1920s Montmartre. The book traces how the neighborhood became a vibrant center for Black expatriate life, jazz culture, and artistic innovation in Paris.

The program features a conversation between Robert Tomlinson and journalist Audrey Edwards, author of (Runaway Ventures, 2020). The event will highlight the influential yet often overlooked African American figures who shaped Parisian culture, including legendary nightclub owner Ada “Bricktop” Smith and pioneering aviator-turned-club owner Eugene Bullard. The evening will also include a live Jazz Age performance by musical duo Flow and Nectar (Lakeia Shaneen and Emmanuel Smith), evoking the soundscape of Montmartre’s clubs and cabarets.

The program will underscore how Black expatriates not only entertained Paris but also built institutions, networks, and cultural spaces that transformed the city’s artistic identity. Their stories reveal a community that found in Paris opportunities denied to them in the United States, while also navigating the complexities of race, modernity, and cultural exchange.

Speakers

Audrey Edwards has achieved professional success in two career fields: media and real estate. A former senior-level editor for the national publications Essence (editor and executive editor), Black Enterprise (executive editor and vice president of editorial operations), Family Circle and More (senior editor), Ms. Edwards’s publishing years were spent mostly in black-owned and women’s-oriented media where for 20 years she assigned, edited, reported, and wrote about issues of race and gender for large, mass-media audiences. Her work has won awards, been used in university courses, and referenced on national television talk shows.

Robert Tomlinson is a Jamaican American scholar and artist born in Brooklyn, New York.  A graduate of Pratt Institute and the City University Graduate Center, he is a professor emeritus of French Literature and Afro-American Studies at Emory University, and author of La Fete galante: Watteau et Marivaux (Droz, 1981) and numerous scholarly articles.  He has also shown widely in Paris, London, Amsterdam and New York and is represented in international private and public collections, including those of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Clark-Atlanta University Museum and the City University of New York.  He figures in 100 New York Painters by Cynthia Dantzic (2006), and Des Américains à Paris: Artistes et bohèmes dans la France de l’après-guerre by Elisa Capdevila (2017), as well as in a Master’s Thesis by Charlotte Barat, Artistes noirs américains à Paris (1945-1969): Vie de bohème, liberté artistique et négociations identitaires.  (2014).  He is also the subject of How to Make a Flower: La Méthode MOBO (Short, 2020), by the well-known documentary film maker Louis J. Massiah.

Musicians

Flow & Nectar (Lakeia Shaneen and Emmanuel Smith) began as a New York–based trio of piano, vocals, and saxophone, later expanding to include bass and drums. After performing for years in Brooklyn and Manhattan, the group’s founders went on to tour across the U.S. East Coast, as well as in China and Europe, with various musical lineups. Their music blends the sounds of soul, funk, pop, jazz, and R&B, infused with the spirit of New York and the South.

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Curation and cultural production provided by The Californien Agency. Founded by Patrick Banks, The Californien Agency is a consultancy specializing in advising and collaborating with artists, creatives, and entrepreneurs in the areas of strategy, cultural production, and business development. Before relocating to Paris, Patrick had a successful career as an attorney in New Orleans. Subsequently, he worked for 15 years as a real estate development executive, contributing to transformative projects in San Francisco. Patrick's diverse professional background and passion for the arts drive his commitment to empowering and elevating the creative community through The Californien.

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This event will take place in Reid Hall’s Grande Salle Ginsberg-LeClerc, built in 1912 and extensively renovated in 2023 thanks to the generous support of Judith Ginsberg and Paul LeClerc.

Reid Hall, the Columbia Global Paris Center, and the Institute for Ideas and Imagination are not responsible for the views and opinions expressed by their speakers and guests.

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