The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs has selected six finalist proposals for a new monument that will pay tribute to the legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday in Queens, the New York borough where she once lived and performed. The winning project will be announced over the summer and will eventually be installed adjacent to a reflecting pool on the front lawn of the Jamaica Performing Arts Center (JPAC).
"Of all the music titans who have called Queens home, few stand taller or shine brighter than Billie Holiday,” Donovan Richards Jr, the Queens borough president, said in a statement. “More than 65 years after her passing, her unmistakable voice and dynamic legacy continue to inspire performers across borough, city, state, nation and world. It's only right that she be forever honoured at the Jamaica Performing Arts Center, a venue she would have undoubtedly loved."
Nikesha Breeze’s Lady Sings the Truth: A Monument to Billie Holiday (artwork proposal) Courtesy the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs
The six proposals all come from Black artists, hailing from around the world, invited to submit designs after a site visit and meeting with scholars and relatives of the late singer. Finalists include the Bahamian conceptual artist Tavares Strachan, La Vaughn Belle from the US Virgin Islands, the Brooklyn-based sculptor Tanda Francis and Nikesha Breeze from Portland, Oregon. Rounding out the list are the British artist Thomas J Price, whose monument to a Black woman in Times Square became a political talking point last year, and Nekisha Durrett from Washington, DC, whose work features at the Obama Presidential Center and Museum in Chicago.
The artists’ designs vary from realism to abstraction, at times falling somewhere in between. Belle imagines Holiday in a pensive mood before performing, while Breeze portrays a triumphant Lady Day in towering black marble with her signature white gardenia tucked behind her ear. Durrett takes the gardenia to another level—fusing a profile of the singer with a flower petal in white marble with a glistening gold underside.
Francis also chose to focus on the singer’s expressive face, envisioning blood-red tiles in the reflecting pool to represent her pain. Meanwhile, Price created abstract bronze forms inspired by a photograph of Holiday snuggling her dog. Finally, Strachan’s proposal is both an abstraction and a profile—a stone sculpture that looks like a vessel but, upon close inspection, the large vase is revealed as the negative space between two facing profiles of Holiday.
Tavares Strachan’s The Very Thought of You (artwork proposal) Courtesy the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs
"Lady Day has one of the greatest and most distinctive voices in musical history,” Bevan Dufty, the singer’s godson, said in a statement. “Just as important is Billie Holiday's courage, repeatedly refusing to accept racial discrimination. Her song Strange Fruit put a light on the continued lynchings of Black men and women in the 1940s and 1950s South. Holiday paid a heavy price as law enforcement colluded to destroy her career, ending her life far too soon.”
The public is encouraged to provide feedback on the proposals before the end of this month. The renderings will be on view in the JPAC's lobby until 31 May.
