Becoming Billie Holiday

Carole Boston Weatherford

Sep 2022 · RB Media · Kuchazwe ngu-Channie Waites

Mayelana nale audiobook

In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on April 7, 1915, Sadie Fagan gave birth to a daughter. She named her Eleanora. The world, however, would know her as Billie Holiday, possibly the greatest jazz singer of all time.

Eleanora's journey into legend took her through pain, poverty, and run-ins with the law. By the time she was fifteen, she knew she possessed something that could possibly change her life—a voice. Eleanora could sing.

That remarkable voice led her to Harlem nightclubs, the Apollo Theater, and a place in the spotlight with some of the era's hottest big bands. Billie Holiday sang from somewhere inside her that made it seem as if she had lived each lyric, and in
many ways she had. This unique talent is what made Billie Holiday more than a singer. She was an artist.

Through a sequence of raw and poignant poems that form the singer's fictional memoir, award-winning poet Carole Boston Weatherford chronicles Eleanora Fagan's metamorphosis into Billie Holiday. We hear the intimate voice of the artist
as she examines her young life, her fight for survival, and the dream she pursued with passion.

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Floyd Cooper was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma on January 8, 1956. He received a degree in fine arts from the University of Oklahoma. After graduating, he worked as an artist for a major greeting card company. In 1984, he came to New York City to pursue a career as an illustrator of books. The first book he illustrated was Grandpa's Face written by Eloise Greenfield. He received a Coretta Scott King Award for his illustrations in The Blacker the Berry and a Coretta Scott King Honor for Brown Honey in Broomwheat Tea and I Have Heard of a Land. Floyd Cooper illustrator, and author, published over 96 books. On July 16, 2021, he died from cancer in Easton, PA. He was 65.