3.8.1. MÉTRO RENOVATION FOR TOURISM?

OVERCROWDED AND DELAPIDATED, THE CHÂTEAU ROUGE MÉTRO STATION HAD TO BE RENOVATED 

Vito

Its tracks lead only to the poor, North African and African area far from the center and have no connecting lines. The renovated station should be as spartan as the city's 302 others. 

But luxurious hand-painted tiles compose the decor now.

They come from the Sèvres National Manufactory, which Louis XV founded in 1740...

     The establishment in 1817 / zoom

 ...that Cameroon's Barthélémy Toguo, a former resident of La Goute d'Or, painted by hand.

 Photo and article (in French) / zoom

 The National Library exhibited his work in 2024.

Roots represent the diversity of residents' origins.

The décor combines royal culture and immigration. 

To welcome outsiders?  

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Next,

3.8.2.

The Barbès hub

III.8. TOMORROW'S DESTINATION?

COULD THIS FORGOTTEN, SUPPOSEDLY FRIGHTENING NEIGHBORHOOD BE A FUTURE TOURISTIC HUB?

Here are reasons for thinking so.

The Institute for the Cultures of Islam

In brief

• Métro renovation for tourism?

• Barbès is already a hub

• The métro station itself

• A 1920's movie theater at the Barbès station too 

• The wash house that literature immortalized

• The couturiers' cooperative, now City-backed

• The Institute for the Cultures of Islam 

• World and urban culture for the planet?

• A portal toward the music of the outskirts

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Next,

3.8.1. 

 A métro renovation designed for tourism?

3.8.2. THE BARBÈS HUB

THE MÉTRO CONNECTS WITH THE REST OF PARIS...

Adapted from the official (RATP) map

...and Gare du Nord,* one stop away, with Euro-Disney, Lille and Lyons, and London, Amsterdam, Brussels and Cologne.

*Northern Station

                                                                                                                                    Adapted from a Google map

Barbès is the most accessible part of the city. 

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Next,

3.8.3.

The Barbès métro station 

3.8.4. A 1920's CINEMA AT THE BARBÈS STATION

THE LOUXOR MOVIE THEATER, NEXT TO THE BARBÈS MÉTRO

The page on the station says more.

Zoom

The theater in 1930

Gone from the web (cropped)

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Next,

3.8.5.

A wash-house that literature immortalized 

3.8.3. THE BARBÈS MÉTRO STATION

THIS INDUSTRIAL MONUMENT OF THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY IS A NEIGHBOROOD SYMBOL...

Zoom

...that provides space for exhibits and performances and a walkway waiting to be put to use:

• Paintings can hang from the ribbon of steel under the rails:

Les Intruses ("The Female Intruders"), by the photographer Randa Marufi for the Institute of Islamic Cultures, 2020 / zoom

• It overlooks a painted path that is adapted to skateboarding, bicycling, training,  performances and exhibits:  

The Compagnie Gaby Sourire and Faun Arts,

 

Installation by Ange et Dam

# # #

An "urban promenade" uniting the Barbès, La Chapelle and Stalingrad stops was planned in 2019...

    Map obtained through the link above

1.28 kilometers

But covid and a press that called it "the great waste, a "court of miracles, requisitioned by peddlers, delinquents and migrants," led to abandoning it.

 A court of miracles? The space in August 2022.

For how a similar passage 

is used elsewhere, please click.

 It waits for new imagination.

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Next,

3.8.4. 

Another monument: a movie house of the 1920's

3.8.6. THE WASH HOUSE THAT LITERATURE IMMORTALIZED

WRITTEN ON THE FACADE: "MADAME MINISTER OF CULTURE, PROTECT THIS THEATER"  

For 20 years a developer tried to obtain the site where Zola set "The Drinking Den's" key scene. When the Socialists won the 2020 municipal elections, the City acquired it instead. 

The Lavoir Moderne Parisien

35 rue Leon 

The novel

Theater poster

Anonymous, 1877 / zoom

The key opening scene  

For the complete fight in Gervaise by René Clément with Maria Schell, 1956, please click.

After an epic combat the heroine joyously spanks her rival on her bare backside. She will take revenge...

# # #

The second floor is used for events. On the ground floor, a bar, a salon and a theater instead of a place a developer owns...

Bar and salon                                            A singer rehearses

Maya, a Voice, a musical in French and English: the story of writer Maya Angelou with Ursuline Kairson 

A characteristic program (end of March, 2023)

...because the City stepped in.

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Next,

3.8.7.

The Institute for Islamic cultures 

3.8.7. THE INSTITUTE FOR THE CULTURES OF ISLAM...

PRESENTS MUSLIM REACTIONS TO THE WORLD

Two sites show how Muslim artists living in France view their cultures of origin.

• At rue Leon

•  A modern portrait and a Persian past 

Cyrus and the Odor of Lilies by Ryan Yasineh, of Iranian origin

• Mounds of tangled threads around which one must tread carefully represent memories to which one must not refer.

"Family Photos" by Oassila Arras, of Algerian origin

• At rue Stephenson

•  Paintings evoke uprooting by linking a Syrian poet's verses to symbols of the sky.

Dialogues by Himat L. Ali, of Iraki origin

 

• Ethnic roots can be emphatically expressed: photos from the web, artists not named.

This photo and the two below by Jérôme Ferembach, tour guide

 

# # #

At rue Leon, place to appreciate North African cuisine

The Institute follows Islam's command for charity:

Please click back.

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Next,

3.8.8.

World and urban music for the planet?

3.8.8. WORLD AND URBAN CULTURE FOR THE PLANET?

THE PARIS 360 MUSIC FACTORY FOCUSES ON URBAN AND WORLD MUSIC...

Web site

32 rue Myrha, at the crossroad mentioned above. 

.

It also proposes cultural events in all domains if they are excellent and principled. 

"A space for popular culture"

"Ethical Fashion Days"

During Paris Fashion Week in February 2022 it presented designers from the African diaspora and emphasized sustainable production.

Other events have included dance, stand-up comedy, workshops for children, performances by residents, readings... for a slammer reading the poetry of Aimé Cesaire, please click.

# # #

Bankers' replies to loan requests:

(In 2008)

• "We'll lend money for a six-story office building, but for a music center, it would be mad!"

-- Podcast, So Sweet Planet

• "We can't assure your security against those drugged-out hoodlums."

-- The police, same source

# # #

Yet a decade later Saïd Assadi, a refugee from the Khomeiny regime and organizer of trans-cultural concerts founded "Le 360" in La Goutte d'Or.

He had no experience of administration or of talking to bankers, but finally persuaded a bank specialized in ethical investments. Other banks and the City, which contributes 15%, followed. 

# # #

Pharaonic projects fail when the population rejects them, as happened to the 13th's Olympiades Towers. But Monsieur Assadi integrates the establishment into the neighborhood by a sidewalk terrace and a salon whose huge windows look out onto the street...

During the "Fete de la Musique," the night for music throughout the city

Neighbors watch the dancers in the background.

A bar and a restaurant whose excellent ethnic cuisine is made on the spot, at prices that are no higher than elsewhere.

Abou and a client.

Celeste and her child.

Meknet from Éthiopia and Raphael from Sénégal.

Free events like these...

An afternoon about Haitian music led by Charles Sadrac, a Haitian poet who lives nearby. 

A soirée by student engineers who install solar panels in a school of Burkina Faso.

Talk by Dominique Vidal, retired editor of the highly respected monthly Le Monde diplomatique and writer on the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

...take place in a lounge whose windows look out onto the street:

Attention to neighbors includes... 

• Monsieur Assadi attending the couturiers' meeting described above, where he spoke of openness to residents' projects and of his wish to collaborate with the area's couturiers.

• Evoking the Sapeur movement during the Ethical Fashion Days: A local shop brought it to Paris and it appeared in the street... 

 

The shop

In front of it, which unfortunately did not survive covid.

• Accessibility. One often sees Monsieur Assadi on the terrace, and meets with him easily.   

Residents' respect:

• A poster in a popular restaurant a few steps away.

• An irrefutable sign of approval: no cigarette butts in the plant containers.

# # #

Monsieur Assidi comes from a culture where illiterate taxi drivers recite 11th-century poetry, which is passed down orally. 

He says of modern Western culture, "You see yourself in the mirror, and realize you're getting fat from standardized food. But that you're also getting stupid from standardized culture doesn't show."

Promoting not-packaged arts 

is his contribution to France.

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Next,

 3.8.9. 

A portal toward the music of the outskirts