Description

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 Eleanoras journey into legend took her through pain poverty and runins with the law By the time she was fifteen she knew she possessed something that could possibly change her lifea 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 eras 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 singers fictional memoir awardwinning poet Carole Boston Weatherford chronicles Eleanora Fagans 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