Tania de Montaigne is a French journalist, actress, singer, playwright and author who is best known for her books Noire: La vie méconnue de Claudette Colvin (2015) and Assignment: Blacks Don’t Exist (2018)
Wiki/Biography
Tania de Montaigne was born on Friday, December 24, 1971 (age 50; 2021 date), in Paris, France. She spent her early childhood in Draveil, Essonne, a southern suburb of Paris, France. Tania was raised by her mother and her maternal grandmother. Until the age of six, she grew up in her maternal grandmother’s house and was then enrolled in a nearby school.
Tania de Montaigne during her school years
Tania first encountered racism during her school years. Growing up as a black girl in an all-white society with an absent father made Tania’s childhood dreadful. While recounting a memory in which she spoke to her grandmother about racism, in an interview, Tania said:
When I heard: “Ah, she’s black, so she’s dirty”, my grandmother said to me: “What do you think all these people are looking for in the summer? They seek to be black.
As her mother was barely literate, she ensured that Tania received the best education, but she also made sure to make Tania independent. In an interview, while talking about her childhood, Tania said:
My mother didn’t study, and it was very important to her that I did. But her method was special: she wanted me to be autonomous, independent. She never intervened. Today, I realize how lucky it was. At the time, I would have liked her to pick me up like other mothers, with a little snack. I didn’t understand why she wasn’t there.
When Tania was 17, her mother enrolled her in a dance and acting class in Avignon, France. In an interview, while recounting her humble, unprivileged past, Tania said:
I grew up in an environment where there was no money. I only went to the camp for the holidays. We were a group of young people who had never been to the theater or to this festival.
She was first introduced to the theater on the forecourt of the Palais des Papes, in Avignon, where she was enchanted by Patrice Chéreau’s five-hour theatrical production “Hamlet”. During her university studies, she was intrigued by the literary works of French authors Guy de Maupassant and Émile Zola. She learned German and Latin during her high school years. Later, she was admitted to another high school in Essonne, Athis-Mons, where she began to learn Russian. In the Russian class, which had students from diverse ethnic backgrounds, Tania finally felt like she fit in. She pursued a literary bachelor’s degree. Subsequently, she enrolled in the preparatory course to enroll at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris (commonly known as Sciences Po). She then studied political science at the EHESS (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris), while working as a waitress.
Physical appearance
Height (approx): 5′ 6″
Hair color: Noir
Eye colour: Noir
Family
Tania’s grandmother was born in Guadeloupe and her mother is from Martinique. Tania’s father is of American-Congolese origin. Initially, her mother worked as a stenographer, later she was hired by Aéroports de Paris (ADP). Although Tania thought her father had been dead since childhood, much later in life she discovered her father was alive. When her parents met, her father was working in a band. Tania reunited with her musician father in 2010. Subsequently, he recorded Tania’s first album.
Career
After completing her five years of studies, while doing various odd jobs, Tania went to her first job interview for the position of parliamentary attaché but failed to obtain it. Subsequently, one of Tania’s friends, who worked at the French radio station Europe 1, offered her a job. Then, she meets Catherine Malaval, editor-in-chief and producer at Canal J, who is wanted to present a daily program for children. At that time, Tania, who was a volunteer in tutoring at the Draveil social center, proved to be the ideal candidate for the position and passed the Canal J castings. Shortly after, she signed a contract with the television channel Frenchwoman Canal+ after being approached by Jérôme Bonaldi, a French journalist and TV presenter who was then working for Canal+. Thanks to her Canal+ contract, she was able to take out a loan and buy an apartment for her mother. On Canal+, she worked as a columnist in the French entertainment program ‘Nulle partailleurs’ in 1994.
On the French public radio channel France Inter, she worked as a host for the show ‘Ouvert la nuit’ in 2012.
Tania de Montaigne with other radio jockeys at France Inter in 2012
As a writer
His book ‘Les Caractères Sexuels’ (2009) won the prize for best novel on Afro-Caribbean arts.
In April 2018she published the essay ‘Assignment: Blacks do not exist’, for which she received the Botul Prize (2018) and the Secularism Prize (2018).
Tania de Montaigne receives the Secularism Prize (2018)
For her book, Noire: La vie méconnue de Claudette Colvin (2015), Tania de Montaigne received the Simone Veil prize the same year. The following year, she became a finalist for the 2016 ELLE Readers’ Grand Prize. The biographical book tells the story of Claudette Colvin. A pioneer of the American civil rights movement of the 1950s and a retired nurse’s aide, Colvin was arrested on March 2, 1955, at the age of 15, in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up her seat to a white woman in a crowded bus. .
In 2016, she co-wrote with Danielle Mérian the book “We have not finished loving each other”. In January 2019, a comic adaptation of the book Noire: La vie méconnue de Claudette Colvin (2015) was published in collaboration by Emilie Plateau and Tania de Montaigne.
2019 comic book adaptation of the book Noire La vie méconnue de Claudette Colvin (2015)
Tania de Montaigne also wrote a monthly column in the newspaper “Liberation”.
Writings and novels
- Tokyo is far (2006)
- Secondary Sex Characteristics (2009)
- All Families Have A Secret (2014)
- We’re Not Finished Loving Each Other (2016)
- The Assignment, Blacks don’t exist (2018)
As a playwright
She began her journey as a playwright with the theatrical production “Le Plus Beau Jour”, which premiered at the Avignon Festival in 2013, with French actor Xavier Thiam in the lead role.
Noire: La vie méconnue de Claudette Colvin (2015) was adapted for a theatrical production at the Center Dramatique National d’Orléans in December 2016. Her other play ‘Là de’ was created in May 2017 at Ciné 13 as part of the “Encapsulation” series.
As an actress
Television
In 1998, she appeared in “The Last Thirty Minutes” of France 2, which depicts behind the scenes and the setbacks of television programs and its writing such as guests who do not come, dissensions in the team, demands of the public, a small budget, etc.
In 2020, she is showing Poetry (in a world of brutes). The series featured poetry by various artists in different languages and forms.
Movie
She starred as Country Woman in the 2017 French romantic drama film ‘Let the Sunshine In’. The film follows a Parisian artist named Isabelle whose unsatisfying relationship with a married banker leads her to begin a series of other romantic relationships.
Theater
At 48, Tania takes the stage at the Théâtre du Rond-Point to stage the story of African-American civil rights activist Claudette Colvin in the theatrical adaptation of her book “Black: The Unknown Life of Claudette Colvin “.
Tania de Montaigne stages the story of Claudette Colvin at the Théâtre du Rond-Point
As a musician
In February 2010, she released her second album, La Clé.
In 2011, she performed the song “Misunderstanding”, featured in the album “A New York Thing A New York Adventure”.
Favorites
- Writer(s) (American): James Baldwin, David Sedaris
- Writer(s) (French): Guy de Maupassant, Marceline Loridan-Ivens, Blaise Pascal
- Novels): Bel-Ami by Guy de Maupassant, And You Didn’t Return by Marceline Loridan-Ivens, Thoughts by Blaise Pascal, Tout Nu by David Sedaris
- Movies): A Serious Man (2009), Party Girl (2014), Birdman (2014)
- Music album(s): Bach Cello Suites by Paul Tortelier,
- DJ (French): The Tireless Professor
Facts/Anecdotes
- Its name is Martinican ie it exhibits slavery and is characteristic of the Caribbean island of Martinique, an overseas region of France. In an interview, while talking about her name, she said,
My name is Martinican, it comes directly from the history of slavery. Since I was little, people always ask me if that’s my real name, it seems so strange to them that a black woman can be called that.
- On her first day at Canal+, security blocked her for an hour at the entrance because they refused to believe Tania was a host.
- She is a member of Collectif 50/50, a French association that aims to promote gender equality and diversity in cinema.
