Billie Holiday Essay

The Beginning • Born Eleanora Fagan, Ms. Holiday grew up in the 1920’s jazz filled state of Baltimore (1). • With her parents divorced, and an unstable home life, Billie was often left in the care of others (1). The start of a musical career • As a young teenager, she found solace in music, often performing at Jazz clubs by singing along the records of famous acts such as Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith during afterhours (2) The Start of Billie Holiday • Eleanora followed her mother, whom moved

For me there is one person who I look up to, one of my biggest idols, Billie Holiday. She is one of the greatest musicians in music history. I look up to Billie because she relates her music to what happened in her life. This shows how much emotion she puts into her music; how passionate she was about it. I am a musician myself and as a musician you need emotion. She really taught me how to express emotion when you perform. Billie really impacted the jazz industry in music. She also had hard life

1 10/5/2017 Billie Holiday Movie Review Billie Holiday was an iconic singer in the jazz scene. She was a woman who lived her life the way she wanted to, and did not take anyone’s opinion on how to live it. She made a lot of money from her work, and she spent it all in the ways that pleased her. She was a free soul, one that had been badly hurt at the beginning of her life. The hurt she experienced makes many appearances in her music, and inspires some of her greatest music. Holiday lived a very

According to the NAACP article in the late 19th century racial tension grew throughout the United States. More of this tension was noticeable in the Southern parts of the United States. Lynchings were becoming a popular way of resolving some of the anger that whites had in relation to the free blacks. From 1882-1968, 4,743 lynching’s occurred in the United States. Of these people that were lynched 3,446 were black (“History of Lynchings,” 2017).Many poets and writers took those tragedy’s and decided

very important and still is very important in times of need, support and protest. It helped slaves communicate in song across rivers and escape for their freedom and has inspired many artists today to speak about the injustices of the world from Billie Holiday to Tupac. These songs depicted in this essay conveys the struggles of the sociopolitical issues African American people fought and are still fighting

The poem Strange Fruit by Abel Meeropol, could be described as dark and graphic, as it embodies Southern violence in America. The poem describes the lynching of black slaves, which was generally presented to an audience of whites. Billie Holiday, a black female artist, would sing the poem to a predominantly upper-class white club. But strangely, the poem was written by a white man, Abel Meeropol. Although the last confirmed lynching was in 1968, there are other forms of racially motivated killings

James’ involvement in the crime. He avoided his own hanging and was brought back to prison. The photographs of the two bodies hanging from the tree inspired Abel Meeropol, a teacher, to write the poem and song “Strange Fruit”. In 1939, jazz singer Billie Holiday adapted the song into her set list. With lyrics such as: “Southern trees bear strange fruit, Blood on the leaves and blood at the root, Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze, Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.” It gives the horrific

According to Billie Holiday’s website, her real name is Eleanora Fagan. She “…borrowed her professional name – Billie Holiday – from screen star Billie Dove.” (The Bicycle Music Company, 2016). The textbook, The Enjoyment of Music (12th Edition Shorter), said she was also “known as Lady Day” (Forney, K., Dell’Antonio, A., & Machlis J., 2015). She grew up in Baltimore and later went with her mom to New York, becoming a prostitute (The Bicycle Music Company, 2016). In the 30’s, she started singing

are you going to marry me?" "You know I 'm already married." "Oh hush." She pouted her faded ruby lips on the rim of a martini glass. They lounged on barstools, leaning against the polished wood and nursing their drinks in relative silence. Billie Holiday 's "Don 't Explain" drifted through the hazy smoke of the speakeasy, dipping around to caress each sorrowed soul. "You 'll break a girl 's heart that way." "Marion—" "Don 't. Let 's just be here." She shifted her crossed legs, smoothing down

Although “Strange Fruit” and “The Summer I was Sixteen” have extremely different tones and depict images that seem nothing alike, they both have an underlying theme of discrimination and inequality. Throughout history we have seen the bizarre way humans treat other other humans. Acts from a group of humans towards another can range from violent to more mild, yet still harmful acts. Usually these acts are based on differences in outward appearance, from the color of a person's skin to the gender of