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Billie Holiday was born in Baltimore in 1915 on the 7th of April. Her real name is Eleanora Fagan Gough. Her mother was named Sadie Julia Fagan and had Eleanor as a teenager. Her dad name is Clarence Holiday who became a successful jazz musician as well. When Eleanor was a child she often skipped school, leading her mother to court because of truancy. When holiday was younger she said, "I never had a chance to play with dolls like other kids. I started working when I was 6 years old." She was sent to a school for troubled girls when she was 9 years old. Before her teen years, Billy and her mother moved to Harlem, N.Y. because her mother was searching for a job. Her mother was arrested after that. Billie married and remarried a couple …show more content…
In 1933 Billie audition as a dancer when she was 18, but the judges said she was not good enough so they asked her if she could sing-she could. In 1939 Billy sang at a café called Café Society and the song was “Strange Fruit”. Holiday wanted the song to be recorded but it was forbidden because it was “too inflammatory” Strange Fruit is a song about racism. She did not want to sing it on many radio stations because they banned all the intense words in the song. She could have been killed by the Koo Klucks Klan if she sang that song. Promoters objected Billie Holiday because of her race. The style of her voice-often tries to sound like a horn instrument because she likes the sliding sound. She refused to sing like other singers. Billie slyly said on a radio interview,”I always wanted to sound like an instrument.” She changed her name to Billie Holiday because her favorite film star, Billie Dove. In 1944 Billie Holiday received the Esquire Magazine Gold Award for Best Leading Female Vocalist. She would then receive some more awards in the following years to come. She got the nickname “Lady Day”. She was discovered by John Hammond, a young producer at Monette’s, a Harlem night club. When he heard Billie’s voice he was
“Strange Fruit” by Billie Holiday conveys the inhumane, gory lynchings of African-Americans in the American South, and how this highly unnatural act had entrenched itself into the society and culture of the South, almost as if it were an agricultural crop. Although the song did not originate from Holiday, her first performance of it in 1939 in New York City and successive recording of the song became highly popular for their emotional power (“Strange fruit,” 2017). The lyrics in the song highlight the contrast between the natural beauty and apparent sophistication of the agricultural South with the brutal violence of lynchings. Holiday communicates these rather disturbing lyrics through a peculiarly serene vocal delivery, accompanied by a hymn-like
“Land of the free and the home of the brave.” This line has represented the United States for decades. These words were captured in The Star Spangled Banner by Francis Scott Key and since 1913, the United States has adopted The Star-Spangled Banner as its national anthem. We have used the Red, White, and Blue as one of our nation’s symbols. It has fifty stars, to represent the number of states we have in our Union. The military pledges its allegiance to the flag and the country which it represents at all costs. We are the land of the free and the home of the brave, and we are proud to show it.
Eleanora Fagan (April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959), professionally known as Billie Holiday, was an American jazz artist and artist musician with a vocation traversing almost thirty years. Nicknamed "Woman Day" by her companion and music accomplice Lester Young, Holiday affected jazz music and pop singing. Her vocal style, firmly propelled by jazz instrumentalists, spearheaded another method for controlling stating and rhythm. She was known for her vocal conveyance and improvisational aptitudes, which compensated for her restricted range and absence of formal music instruction. There were other jazz vocalists with equivalent ability, however Holiday had a voice that caught the consideration of her crowd.
Josephine Baker was an exceptional woman who never depended on a man. She never hesitated to leave a man when she felt good and ready. In her lifetime she accomplished many great things. She adopted 12 children, served France during World War II, and was an honorable correspondent for the French Resistance. She fought against fascism in Europe during World War II and racism in the United States. She grew up poor and left home at an early age and worked her way onto the stage. Baker was more popular in France than in the states. Audiences in America were racist towards Baker and that’s when she vowed she wouldn’t perform in a place that wasn’t integrated.
How many Americans recognize the man on the back of the one hundred dollar bill? Do you know who he is and why he is on the back of that bill? If you said George Washington then you are right! It is said that when one begins something that others will follow behind you and in George Washington's case that is correct. George Washington paved the way for many other presidents that followed after him up until the one we currently have today. Without our first president we would not have our current president. George Washington made huge contributions and achievements to our country that still stand today.
On July 22, 1905, social worker and reformer, Florence Kelley, stood in Philadelphia before an audience and presented a speech about the idea of combing the women’s suffrage and child labor issues in order to make more probable advantages in both departments. Her speech was given in away to entice the crowd and motivate them to fix the issues at hand. She was able to effectively able to give her speech by appealing to the crowds emotions and by using ironic diction and syntax to engage the crowd into the words she was saying and backing them up with substantial evidence.
Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit “is probably one of the greatest songs composed telling the chilling story about lynching. A little unknown fact is that it was written by a Jewish man by the name of Abel Meeropol. Initially “Strange Fruit” originated as a poem written by Abel Meeropol, as a protest against lynching of African Americans. Meeropol meet Holiday in a bar, where she read the poem, and decided to make the poem into a song. The record made it to No. 16 on the charts in July 1939. This song is probably Holiday’s most famous song she ever sung throughout her whole life. In the end Strange fruit forces listeners to relive the tragic horrors of living in America as an African American. The vivid lyrics paints a picture that causes a person
Billie Holiday was an African-American jazz singer and songwriter.Billie Holiday was the biological child of Sadie Fagan and Clarence Holiday. Sadie was thirteen when she had Billie. At the same time, Clarence was an irresponsible father who did not care about his daughter's Billie. From Billie's early life, she grew up in a broken family. In other word, she had no father to support throughout her childhood and her mother who was struggling financially as a teen mom that often neglect the time to take care of Billie. Therefore, Billie's childhood was missing love from both parents. Aside from that, Billie traveled from place to place along with her mother in order to survive. For example, Billie's mother worked as a server on the passenger railroad. Holiday was take care by her half-sister aunt named Martha Miller. Holiday was frequently running away from school. As a result of that, she was sent to the House of the Good Shepherd for nine months starting from March 19, 1925.Later on, she was released on October 3, 1925 to her mother who had opened a restaurant called East Side Grill. As a young girl, she did not receive much of formal school and Holiday was forced to drop out of school at the age of eleventh. Holiday's mom discovered that her neighbor named Wilbur Rich was raping her daughter's Billie. Once again, Billie was placed to the House of the Good Shepeard in protective custody as a state witness in the rape case. She was then released in 1927 and worked as an errand in a brothel. One year later, Billie's mother moved on New York City to find a better job as a prostitute in Harlem. On 1929, Billie also moved to Harlem to become a prostitute. Billie was fourteen when she was prostitute for $5 per client. Unfortunately, the...
At that time scientist were unable to keep human cells alive in culture but with Henrietta’s not only were they able to keep them alive but they reproduced every 24 hours and they kept going.
Billie Jean King is known as not only one of the best female tennis players of all time, but also as one of the leading activist in the LGBT community. Billie Jean King was born on November 22, 1943 in Long Beach, California. As a child King decided that she wanted to be the best women’s tennis player in the world, and she accomplished her goal in 1967. She went on to win multiple grand slams and went down as one of the best to ever play the game. King was married for 22 years from 1965 to 1987 even though she came out as lesbian in 1981 amid a lawsuit from her former female lover. King was one of the first openly gay athletes and she did not shy away from the public scrutiny that came along with it at the time. She lost all her sponsorships
Doris Day grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. She was born on April 3, 1924 (Kehoe 120). Her real name is Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff. She was told Kapplehoff was too long for a good music appeal, so she changed her last name to Day after a song that was popular at the time called “Day after Day” (“About Doris;” Kehoe 120). Her mother named her after a silent music actress, Doris Kenyon, because she admired her so much (“About Doris”).
Sojourner Truth was a major activist of the abolitionist movement. She was born into slavery in Ulser County New York to James and Betsey as Isabella Baumfree. It is estimated that she was born in between 1790 and 1800. Her life story helps illustrate why her passion and steed ruminated throughout the abolitionist movement. For once, the African American slave woman could share her thoughts, ideas, experiences and hurts about slavery. Her upbringing and experiences as a slave contributed to many of her great speeches and writings, which helped bring awareness to the monster known as slavery.
In 1960 American Journalist and Politician, Clare Boothe Luce delivered a speech to Journalists at the Women's National Press CLub, criticizing the American Press in favor of public demand for sensational stories. Luce prepares her audience for her message through the use of a critical tone.
Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday were both prominent jazz singer-songwriters during the same time and masters in their own right, but their worlds could not have been further apart. In 1939, while they were both in the midst of experiencing mainstream success, Ella was touring with Ella and her Famous Orchestra and showcasing her perfect pitch and tone to the world while singing songs that would soon become standards to fellow singers and musicians. Billie was singing solo, comfortable with her limited range, and gaining the adoration of audiences nationwide who loved her soulful voice. Both of these historic singers made contributions to the art of jazz, with vocalists and instrumentalists still using elements of their style today. Ella
The movie Lady Day: The Many Faces Of Billie Holiday paints an interesting, and thought provoking portrait of one of jazz and blues most charismatic, and influential artists. The incomparable talent of Billie Holiday, both truth and legend are immortalized in this one-hour documentary film. The film follows Holiday, also referred to as “Lady Day” or “Lady”, through the many triumphs and trials of her career, and does it’s very best to separate the facts from fiction. Her autobiography Lady Sings The Blues is used as a rough guide of how she desired her life story to be viewed by her public. Those who knew her, worked with her, and loved her paint a different picture than this popular, and mostly fictional autobiography.