Becoming Billie Holiday by Carole Boston Weatherford - Verse Novel

Bibliography

Weatherford, Carole Boston. 2008. BECOMING BILLIE HOLIDAY. Ill. by Floyd Cooper. Honesdale: Wordsong. ISBN 978-1590785072.

Review and Critical Analysis

            BECOMING BILLIE HOLIDAY by Carole Boston Weatherford is a fictionalized memoir recounted through narrative poetry and written in the first person, of Holiday’s early years. The poems titles are almost exclusively song titles, all but two of which Holiday recorded. The entire verse novel is structured analogous to a song with an introduction, bridge and coda and the poems in between acting as lyrics. Weatherford includes a Table of Contents, Afterword (with her thoughts on the book and Holiday herself), short Biographies of the real life individuals mentioned throughout the poetry, a References list and items for Further Reading and Listening.

          The tones of Weatherford’s poems have a decidedly dark, yet strong and feisty feel. Holiday, born Eleanora Fagan, led a very harsh life from the day she was born. She endured an absentee father, rape, prostitution and reform school. Some of her early performances were in less than ideal clubs and bars. However, through it all Holiday remained strong and fixed on her dream, and Weatherford never lets the reader forget that. She was a unique individual, true to herself, who was not going to let life beat her down. This verse novel does not focus on the success she attained in later years, but the heartache and pain she had to endure in her early life to achieve that success. Weatherford chooses to end the novel with CODA: STRANGE FRUIT which was Holiday’s signature song. It highlights not only Holiday’s arduous rise to the top, but also the difficult existence of African Americans from the 1920’s to 1940’s. The final lines of CODA: STRANGE FRUIT proclaim Holiday a star and say to the reader that this song, as well as her career, were of her own creation.

          Weatherford’s poems are written in stanza form, with no set rhyme scheme. The poems are palpable, they not only envelop your senses, but also fundamentally engage your emotions. As the reader moves through the poems in this novel they experience the emotions right along with Holiday. Weatherford employs repetition and internal narration to great effect in several of her poems. In YOU GO TO MY HEAD Weatherford repeats, with slight variation, the line “I sang my songs.” This suggests several things. How music was a balm for Holiday, how it gave her courage and strength. Also, it presents the idea that she lived and breathed her music. It became all she thought about, which is a reference to the title. All of the poems in this verse novel are first person narrative, however, in several poems Weatherford inserts an element of internal narration by having another person speak to the narrator, Holiday. When this is done, those lines of the poem are written in italics to denote the fact that it is another voice other than Holliday’s speaking. One of the finest examples is IT’S THE SAME OLD STORY where Holiday’s mother Sadie is trying to explain to her why she has to stay with her Aunt Eva, so she Sadie can leave to find work.

          One noteworthy element Weatherford skillfully employs is the use of song titles as words in her poems. An excellent example of this is SOPHISTICATED LADY in which Weatherford has lines like “We answered Duke’s ‘Creole Love Call,’ glimpsed his ‘Black and Tan Fantasy.’” By inserting song titles into the poetry Weatherford reinforces not only the musical tone that weaves throughout the book, but she also highlights aspects of Holiday’s career that eventually made her famous.

            Two poems differ slightly from the musical theme, MATINEE: AMERICAN BEAUTY and MATINEE: EMPEROR JONES. The titles of these two works refer to movies, and they also mark two pivotal moments in Holiday’s life. MATINEE: AMERICAN BEAUTY depicts Holiday’s (still Eleanora Fagan at the time) enchantment with Billie Dove, the movie actress part of whose name she used when she decided to change her own name to Billie Holiday. MATINEE: EMPEROR JONES depicts an early bit part Holiday had in her first movie Emperor Jones.

          Floyd Cooper’s illustrations are in tones of primarily sepia and white, additional colors are used in some illustrations to emphasize significant details of Holiday’s life or to enhance the emotional quality of the book. The illustrations appear at key moments in the narrative and serve to highlight important or altering moments in Holiday’s life; her father’s abandonment, her dreams of a better life and the bus in which she toured the country. Cooper captures the time period exquisitely and dramatically through the detail and style of his illustrations.

Poem Used to Support Critical Analysis and How That Poem Would Be Introduced

INTRO: WHAT SHALL I SAY?

By Carole Boston Weatherford

The way Mom toted around

that magazine with my photo inside,

you’d have thought

I was Woman of the Year.

I don’t blame Sadie. Wasn’t every day

that a colored face, let alone

her only child, appeared in Time.

I was proud too till I read

what that two-bit critic wrote.

Called me “roly-poly”; said I wouldn’t diet,

was stuck on my own voice,

and cared for tunes but not the words.

What did he know

about my taste in food or music?

I never even talked to the cat,

but he’d better not cross my path.

If he dares, he’ll get a mouthful,

hear just how I got to Harlem

and became Lady Day.

Oh, the tales I’d tell.

          Weatherford’s poem INTRO: WHAT SHALL I SAY? establishes the tone of the poetry; strong, sassy, yet with a hint of heartache. The reader hears Holiday’s voice clearly in this poem. Weatherford presents a woman who endured much, but held fast to her dreams. A woman who succeeded in a way that was exceedingly rare for African Americans at that time in history. This poem introduces the first person narrative of the book. It informs the reader that this story will be told in Holiday’s own voice, a voice that has many stories to tell them.

          I would introduce this poem by playing two or three of Holiday’s better known recordings, including STRANGE FRUIT. This would serve as a backdrop for my opening comments. Upon conclusion of the songs I would ask the students if they had ever heard any of her music before, and what they thought of it. Questions like: “Do any of you know this singer?” and “What type of music would you say this is?” would serve as segues into my reading of the actual poem. Before beginning I would preface the reading by saying, “The poem I am about to read you, INTRO: WHAT SHALL I SAY? by Carole Boston Weatherford is a poem that showcases one of America’s greatest jazz singers, Billie Holiday. It is told from a fictional point of view in her own words. Listen to the words, and after the reading we can discuss what you thought of the poem.” I would show the students the most dramatic of the illustrations as I read the poem, and again afterward while we discussed it, so the students could express their feelings about the art and its contribution to the poetry.