BLACK WOMEN OF PARIS

NICHOLLE KOBI

Family and origins at the heart of a luminous graphic novel.

Zola, a young woman of Congolese origin, runs the workshop «Noire» in Paris, a concept store where she showcases her own clothing designs. Her friends regularly drop by to see her at the literary brunches that Sahilia, who works in event management,organizes every month. An artist and entrepreneur,Zola is also living a beautiful love story.
Everything changes the day Maurine, a cultural journalist, tells her that her got engaged in Côte d'Ivoire as part of an arrangement between two important local families. Zola is so desperate she considers giving up everything. But Maurine also reveals to her that she will have the opportunity to show her creations to the fashion world, because she is selected for the next Fashion Week in Johannesburg! Zola first feels the need to get to know her grandmother's village in the Congo, which she has never visited. A moment of rare emotion that gives her the energy to go to South Africa to experience a triumph.
Between encounters, disappointments and successes, Zola's journey is above all that of a woman who, through fashion, will have the opportunity to discover who she really is.

Nicholle Kobi is a French-Congolese artist and illustrator who decided in her drawings to honor black women.