A stage production of “The Josephine Baker...

A stage production of “The Josephine Baker Story” will be presented in Gardena on this evening by the Blackwell International Academy of Performing Arts.

Born in St. Louis in 1906, Baker, an African-American, eventually left America and won international acclaim as a singer and dancer in Paris.

“Josephine Baker is a quiet secret within the art community and black community,” said Marlene Dove, who heads Blackwell, a nonprofit group that seeks to involve needy youths in the performing arts. The program is being sponsored by Gardena and the Gardena Hollypark Youth Affairs Alliance in celebration of Black History Month.

Baker served in the French Red Cross during World War II, adopted 12 children and made her home in France. Her experiences were recently the subject of an award-winning biography on cable television.

Dove hopes that the Blackwell production will educate the audience about an important American woman and bring different races and ethnic groups in the city closer together.

“The thing that we can do to bring the different cultures together is the arts,” Dove said. “It’s a universal language.”

Productions such as Sunday night’s performance are part of an academy strategy to develop and train students in the arts. Study of the arts, Dove says, improves the self-esteem of her performers, many of whom come from inner-city schools.

“Being on stage, on camera and performing, it just works,” Dove said. “It really is unexplainable. . . . We want to build character, make better citizens and hopefully help eliminate all this hate.”

The 8-year-old academy was posthumously dedicated to Robert (Bumps) Blackwell, a record producer who worked with Sam Cooke, Little Richard, Herb Alpert and Sonny Bono.

The 5 p.m. show will be at Nakaoka Memorial Community Center in Gardena, 1700 W. 162nd St., one block east of Western Ave. The performance is free and stars Linda Theuss as Baker.

Information: (310) 217-7631.