Call for Art/Images: 100 Ways of Looking at Lady Day/Centennial Exhibition

Billie Holiday, with her beloved dog Mister, gazes at her mirror image in 1947 photo by William Gottlieb for Downbeat magazine. Library of Congress Collection.

To mark the centennial of Billie Holiday’s birth–April 7, 2015–I am hosting an online exhibition of images of her: artist’s renderings, photos and fan tributes in the form of look-alikes. This exhibition will appear on this blog. There is a rolling deadline; images will be posted as they are accepted. There are no fees or prizes. Email submisisons to cbwpoet@gmail.com. I am jurying the exhibition with help from Jeffery Boston Weatherford, a.k.a. Jeffery the Artist. Please share this call with artists, photographers, models and jazz fans.

Billie hits Broadway

Tony award winner Audra McDonald performed in character on The Colbert Report. Hear her sing “What a Little Moonlight Can Do” and “God Bless the Child.”

For my own birthday: Billie sings Born to Love

Empress of the Blues Bessie Smith, born today… perhaps

Depending on whose account you believe, Bessie Smith, the Empress of the blues, was born today, April 15 (1894). A top recording artist of the 1920s, she influenced Billie Holiday. Young Eleanora, as Billie was known then, heard Bessie’s blues on the victrola while working as a towel girl at a Baltimore brothel. In rare footage, Bessie sings W. C. Handy’s “St. Louis Blues.”

Of course, Billie also covered that song. Props to Bessie, but you know I’m partial.

Billie sings “Why Was I Born?” 1937

Today is the 97th anniversary of Billie’s birth.

Another songbird gone too soon…

Who’d have thought we’d be comparing Whitney to Billie? At its peak, Whitney’s range was as wide as Lady’s was small. But Whitney’s demons ran just as deep. How providential that her last public performance was the hymn, “Yes, Jesus Loves Me.”

A Valentine from Billie…