Statue of Billie Holiday
A statue of Billie Holiday is installed at Billie Holiday Plaza on Pennsylvania Avenue in the neighborhood of Upton in Baltimore, Maryland, United States.[1]
History and design
Plans for a memorial to Holiday in Baltimore began in 1971; a drug treatment centre and statue were envisioned, but only the statue was eventually built. The statue was part of the planned urban renewal of the surrounding area of Upton.[2] The Royal Theatre, where Holiday performed, originally stood diagonally opposite the statue.[1] Holiday was raised in Baltimore.[2]
The sculptor James Earl Reid was commissioned to design the monument to Holiday in 1977.[2] Disputes over the rising costs of the work led to Reid eventually distancing himself from the piece. Reid had also intended that the statue be placed on a 6-foot (1.8 m) pedestal.[2] It was finally unveiled in 1985, without Reid in attendance at the ceremony.[2] The sculpture cost $113,000 (equivalent to $320,120 in 2023).[2] The statue of Holiday is 8 ft 6 in (2.59 m) in height.[2] Holiday is depicted in a strapless evening gown wearing her signature gardenias in her braided hair.[1] The sculpture was completed in 2009 with the addition of bronze relief panels depicting events in the African-American struggle for civil rights.[1] These panels had been rejected as too controversial at the time of the statue's unveiling in 1985, and their creation had been approved with additional funding of $76,000 in 2007.[1] The statue was rededicated in 2009 with a base of granite. At its 2009 unveiling Reid said that "[Holiday] gave such a rich credibility to the experiences of black people and the black artist".[2]
One of the panels depicts a child with its umbilical cord attached, in reference to the lyrics of Holiday's song "God Bless the Child". A second panel depicts the lynching of an African-American man in reference to the 'strange fruit hanging from strange trees' in the lyrics of Holiday's signature song "Strange Fruit".[1] In reference to the Jim Crow laws, a crow is depicted eating a gardenia. It is situated behind Holiday, and above Reid's signature.[1][3]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Cindy Kelly (10 June 2011). Outdoor Sculpture in Baltimore: A Historical Guide to Public Art in the Monumental City. JHU Press. p. 275. ISBN 978-0-8018-9722-1.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Statue of Billie Holiday". Baltimore Heritage. Archived from the original on 2020-11-02. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
- ^ Rohan, Rebecca Carey (2017). Billie Holiday: Singer. New York: Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC. p. 113. ISBN 978-1-5026-1063-8.
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- Discography
- Awards and nominations
- Billie Holiday Sings/Solitude
- An Evening with Billie Holiday
- Billie Holiday
- Billie Holiday at Jazz at the Philharmonic
- Stay with Me
- Music for Torching
- Velvet Mood
- Lady Sings the Blues
- Body and Soul
- Songs for Distingué Lovers
- Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday at Newport
- All or Nothing at All
- Lady in Satin
- Last Recording
- The Essential Billie Holiday: Carnegie Hall Concert Recorded Live
- Lady in Autumn: The Best of the Verve Years
- Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia 1933–1944
- Lady Day Swings
- Remixed and Reimagined
- "Ain't Nobody's Business"
- "As Time Goes By"
- "Billie's Blues"
- "Blue Moon"
- "Body and Soul"
- "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?"
- "Don't Explain"
- "Easy Living"
- "Embraceable You"
- "Everything Happens for the Best"
- "Everything Happens to Me"
- "Fine and Mellow"
- "Gloomy Sunday"
- "God Bless the Child"
- "Good Morning Heartache"
- "I Cover the Waterfront"
- "I Loves You, Porgy"
- "If You Were Mine"
- "I Thought About You"
- "I'll Be Seeing You"
- "I'll Get By"
- "I'll Never Be the Same"
- "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm"
- "Just One of Those Things"
- "Lady Sings the Blues"
- "Left Alone"
- "Love for Sale"
- "Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?)"
- "Me, Myself, and I"
- "Miss Brown to You"
- "My Man"
- "Moonlight in Vermont"
- "Night and Day"
- "No More"
- "Now or Never"
- "Our Love Is Different"
- "P.S. I Love You"
- "Pennies from Heaven"
- "Please Don't Do It Here"
- "Preacher Boy"
- "Sophisticated Lady"
- "Stormy Blues"
- "Stormy Weather"
- "Strange Fruit"
- "Sugar"
- "Summertime"
- "That Ole Devil Called Love"
- "These Foolish Things (Remind Me of You)"
- "Too Marvelous for Words"
- "Trav'lin' Light"
- "What a Little Moonlight Can Do"
- "What Is This Thing Called Love?"
- "Why Was I Born?"
- "Willow Weep for Me"
- "You Go to My Head"
- "Your Mother's Son-In-Law"
- "Angel of Harlem"
- Lady Sings the Blues
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- Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill
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- The United States vs. Billie Holiday
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