1. Identify and briefly define important words, terms, concepts, or characters.
Call- girl- Prostitute., In this chapter Holidays decides that she is done being a prostitute. This begins to put her on the road to becoming a “lady.”
Money- throughout the book Holiday has an obsession with money. Her ways of securing it have evolved. She gets it through her father by embarrassing him. She gets it from the audience by making them cry with her singing. Holiday acquires money generally to take care of her mother who might otherwise be tossed out onto the street. While at first like the rest of the performers she would take money off tables, afterwards she would only accept what people actually gave her. People started to refer to her as a “lady” (in a derogatory way) because of this.
Mother- Her mother appears to be the most important character in her life. She was the motivation that sent Holiday on the path which led to her first singing job. Portrayed as well-meaning, but misunderstanding she once gave Holiday her own money back in tips which she then had to split with the piano player.
Father- Holiday’s father on the other hand is portrayed as not caring about anyone. The only reason he gives the family the money they need to survive is to avoid humiliation. The father serves as a foil for the mother.
2. Summarize the main idea, theme, action, or event of the reading. Be sure to include quotation that best captures the overall feeling or mood of the reading.
“bitch, That aint your mother.”
After all her work for Mother, it is insulting to have her mother’s identity doubted. The entire chapter basically details the various ways that Holiday protects and provides for her Mother. Perhaps this is not evident on the surface but the lengths that Holiday will go to protect her Mother shows this.
3. Formulate a question for discussion. The question should be relatively substantial, based upon a specified passage or scene from the text, and capable of sustaining a thoughtful discussion.
Holiday was forced to think outside the box when searching for a job and took to basically begging for a job from anyone. She tried to be a dancer but failed miserabley. Luckily however, the pianist asked her to sing and she was hired at livable wages, thus starting her career as a singer.
Her mother was about to be thrown out on the street when this happened.
How has Holidays protection of her Mother led her to current singing career? Was this because of specific actions of her mother or a result of Karma, “what goes around comes around?”
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Yuliya - Chapter 14
1. Identify and briefly define important words, terms, concepts, or characters.
Gardenias- any evergreen tree or shrub belonging to the genus Gardenia, of the madder family, native to the warmer parts of the Eastern Hemisphere, cultivated for its usually large, fragrant white flowers
52nd street between 5th and 7th avenue is mostly known for jazz clubs and lively street life
Sanatorium is a hospital for the treatment of chronic diseases, as tuberculosis or various nervous or mental disorders.
Narcotics Bureau was established in the Department of the Treasury by an act of June 14, 1930 consolidating the functions of the Federal Narcotics Control Board and the Narcotic Division.
Squawked- to utter a loud, harsh cry, as a duck or other fowl when frightened
2. Summarize the main idea, theme, action, or event of the reading. Be sure to include quotation that best captures the overall feeling or mood of the reading.
Billie Holiday mentions Tony Golucci who was one of her good friends. He had respect for her, not like her other so called friends. He said that he would always help/ support her financially. Holiday goes around looking for a sanatorium and finds one in Manhattan. It would cost them two thousand dollars for three weeks stay and everything there was promised to be confidential. As she finishes her three week course, she sees a man that she believes is a cop and is tailing her. Holiday thinks that someone in the hospital told the police and betrayed her. She goes on to talk about how there was a scandal in New York in the 1920’s dealing with the Federal Narcotics Bureau.
What really got to her was that when she was a nobody, no one cared about her, and no one bothered her. She’ll never forgive the people that changed her life.
3. Formulate a question for discussion. The question should be relatively substantial, based upon a specified passage or scene from the text, and capable of sustaining a thoughtful discussion.
After going through the sanatorium and finding out that someone told the law about her problems, how does that affect her trust in others?
Gardenias- any evergreen tree or shrub belonging to the genus Gardenia, of the madder family, native to the warmer parts of the Eastern Hemisphere, cultivated for its usually large, fragrant white flowers
52nd street between 5th and 7th avenue is mostly known for jazz clubs and lively street life
Sanatorium is a hospital for the treatment of chronic diseases, as tuberculosis or various nervous or mental disorders.
Narcotics Bureau was established in the Department of the Treasury by an act of June 14, 1930 consolidating the functions of the Federal Narcotics Control Board and the Narcotic Division.
Squawked- to utter a loud, harsh cry, as a duck or other fowl when frightened
2. Summarize the main idea, theme, action, or event of the reading. Be sure to include quotation that best captures the overall feeling or mood of the reading.
Billie Holiday mentions Tony Golucci who was one of her good friends. He had respect for her, not like her other so called friends. He said that he would always help/ support her financially. Holiday goes around looking for a sanatorium and finds one in Manhattan. It would cost them two thousand dollars for three weeks stay and everything there was promised to be confidential. As she finishes her three week course, she sees a man that she believes is a cop and is tailing her. Holiday thinks that someone in the hospital told the police and betrayed her. She goes on to talk about how there was a scandal in New York in the 1920’s dealing with the Federal Narcotics Bureau.
What really got to her was that when she was a nobody, no one cared about her, and no one bothered her. She’ll never forgive the people that changed her life.
3. Formulate a question for discussion. The question should be relatively substantial, based upon a specified passage or scene from the text, and capable of sustaining a thoughtful discussion.
After going through the sanatorium and finding out that someone told the law about her problems, how does that affect her trust in others?
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Igor - Chapter 21
Identification and definition of the important words, term concepts or characters
“If you’re doing something wrong, you know it and you’ve got at least one eye peeled
looking for trouble” (par1). Billie Holiday says that some body who do something wrong in purpose is aware of the consequence of his act and is prepared to face or avoid them.
“You’re just a pigeon” (par1). “A person who is easily flooded or cheated; dupe”
(htt//dictionary.infoplease.com).
I met a cat in a 52nd street club where I was working” (par2 ). She says that she met a man.
“He was over the hill form some camp down south” (par2). He has left his military camp for a long time without leave.
“To knock some sense into his head” (par2). To make him to behave in a more sensible
way”(wordReference.com).
“The number of his outfit”(par3). The number of “his military company”
(http//ardictionary.com).
“Tough looking white characters” (par4). She means two aggressive white persons
“ hiding a G.I who was AWOL”(par4). A AWOL is a soldier or other military person who is absent from duty whiteout leave (htt//dictionary.infoplease.com).
"Somebody had set me up" (par5). That means Somebody fooled me.
“I was not using anything and I wasn’t thinking about using anything”(par6). She says that she was not in drug and did not want to take some.
“I’ve got one strike against me I can’t beat it, so let me take the rap”(par12). She says she is in a bad position. And that she will take the blame for the bad thing that happened. (http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com).
It was Joe Tenner, boss of the club, who went to bat and called Jack Ehrich, a famous San Francisco criminal lawyer(par19). She says that Joe “supported or helped her” (http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com).
"Picturesque criminal cases" (par 19). It her criminal case was striking or interesting in an unusual way. (http://www.answer.com).
The clincher that I had a record (par21). “clincher is a point, fact, or remark that settle something conclusively; a decisive factor (http://www.answer.com).
“I guess Mr. Ehrlich figured this would bring me to my sense about John Levy, and it did”(par30). He convince her that John Levy was not a good man.
The summary of the man idea, them, action or event
The thesis of Billie Holiday is to be naïve can be very dangerous, “you can get in just as much trouble by being dumb and innocent as you can by breaking the law… if you are doing something wrong… your in position to protect yourself. The other way, you’re just a pigeon”(par 1). And she illustrate that by two examples coming form her own life. The first one take place during the world war II when she met a musician soldier. Who was a deserter. She locked him in her room and told him that she will helped him “ I told him I’d call his sergeant on the phone and see if I couldn’t fix it up for him to get back without getting in trouble”(par2). when she came back two white person said to her that they knew she was hiding a soldier and that they will denounce. So she bribe them “ I tried offering them money…if they let me alone and let that poor little soldier head back to the camp. They were very big about that”(par5).
Then she realized she get tricked “when I saw them running across the rooftops with my money, I knew I’d been had”(par5).
The in the second story she get caught by the police in possession of the opium her manager told her to throw in the toilet….. She got “Arrested on Narcotics Charges” (par16) later she her lawyer made her realized that her manager Mr. Levy was an informatory of the “the man in charge of the raid the famous Colonel George H. White”(par28) was in fact the a trick made by John levy. “john Levy was an informer on other people and bragged about it. What was there to stop him from informing on me?”(par30).
The question
Billie Holiday was an artist who did not have a good education. She learned by experience that to be innocent can be dangerous. But if she had been to college would she been fool the same way? What is the contribution of the theoretical knowledge to the building of the mid of an individual ? Is it more important than the experience?
“If you’re doing something wrong, you know it and you’ve got at least one eye peeled
looking for trouble” (par1). Billie Holiday says that some body who do something wrong in purpose is aware of the consequence of his act and is prepared to face or avoid them.
“You’re just a pigeon” (par1). “A person who is easily flooded or cheated; dupe”
(htt//dictionary.infoplease.com).
I met a cat in a 52nd street club where I was working” (par2 ). She says that she met a man.
“He was over the hill form some camp down south” (par2). He has left his military camp for a long time without leave.
“To knock some sense into his head” (par2). To make him to behave in a more sensible
way”(wordReference.com).
“The number of his outfit”(par3). The number of “his military company”
(http//ardictionary.com).
“Tough looking white characters” (par4). She means two aggressive white persons
“ hiding a G.I who was AWOL”(par4). A AWOL is a soldier or other military person who is absent from duty whiteout leave (htt//dictionary.infoplease.com).
"Somebody had set me up" (par5). That means Somebody fooled me.
“I was not using anything and I wasn’t thinking about using anything”(par6). She says that she was not in drug and did not want to take some.
“I’ve got one strike against me I can’t beat it, so let me take the rap”(par12). She says she is in a bad position. And that she will take the blame for the bad thing that happened. (http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com).
It was Joe Tenner, boss of the club, who went to bat and called Jack Ehrich, a famous San Francisco criminal lawyer(par19). She says that Joe “supported or helped her” (http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com).
"Picturesque criminal cases" (par 19). It her criminal case was striking or interesting in an unusual way. (http://www.answer.com).
The clincher that I had a record (par21). “clincher is a point, fact, or remark that settle something conclusively; a decisive factor (http://www.answer.com).
“I guess Mr. Ehrlich figured this would bring me to my sense about John Levy, and it did”(par30). He convince her that John Levy was not a good man.
The summary of the man idea, them, action or event
The thesis of Billie Holiday is to be naïve can be very dangerous, “you can get in just as much trouble by being dumb and innocent as you can by breaking the law… if you are doing something wrong… your in position to protect yourself. The other way, you’re just a pigeon”(par 1). And she illustrate that by two examples coming form her own life. The first one take place during the world war II when she met a musician soldier. Who was a deserter. She locked him in her room and told him that she will helped him “ I told him I’d call his sergeant on the phone and see if I couldn’t fix it up for him to get back without getting in trouble”(par2). when she came back two white person said to her that they knew she was hiding a soldier and that they will denounce. So she bribe them “ I tried offering them money…if they let me alone and let that poor little soldier head back to the camp. They were very big about that”(par5).
Then she realized she get tricked “when I saw them running across the rooftops with my money, I knew I’d been had”(par5).
The in the second story she get caught by the police in possession of the opium her manager told her to throw in the toilet….. She got “Arrested on Narcotics Charges” (par16) later she her lawyer made her realized that her manager Mr. Levy was an informatory of the “the man in charge of the raid the famous Colonel George H. White”(par28) was in fact the a trick made by John levy. “john Levy was an informer on other people and bragged about it. What was there to stop him from informing on me?”(par30).
The question
Billie Holiday was an artist who did not have a good education. She learned by experience that to be innocent can be dangerous. But if she had been to college would she been fool the same way? What is the contribution of the theoretical knowledge to the building of the mid of an individual ? Is it more important than the experience?
Caren - Chapter 20
“No-Good Man” as the title of this chapter, at the beginning, reader will think it means “No, he is a good man”.
In 1948 John Levy, a owner of the Ebony club on 52nd street got Billie out of jail, and gave her a job when no one else dared. In Billie’s eyes, Mr. Levy is a very good man. Billie had Bobby Tucker and his great group backing her; she still got a fancy dress with very expensive jewelry from Mr. Levy.
“I never had had a mink coat in my life, John Levy bought me my first one… the biggest surprise of all was that he never once suggested or insisted that I go to bed with him”.
Mr. Levy also fixed Billie’s relationship with her husband---Jimmy, and chased Jimmy away from her. Everything happens too fast and perfect. Billie had a car and chauffeur to drive her around; she got a fabulous place in St. Albans Queens, and furnished in modern stuff and antiques. All these make Billie feels like she is the most lucky and happy woman in the world. She thought this had to be part of a build-up and the love eyes had to come later.
But reader forgets another meaning of the title of this chapter; “No-Good Man” also means “no man is good”.
After happiness, trouble was coming. Billie had to start to work seven days a week, five shows a day. She lost her freedom, and became a machine of money maker. And Mr. Levy became a nightmare of her. Things are clearer and clearer that Mr. Levy used Billie to make money for him, and he does not love her at all.
“I was making thirty-five hundred dollars a week, but I didn’t have a nickel in my pocket. John handled all the finances, and I wasn’t even allowed to draw five bucks”.
Outside, people thought Billie is great, famous and successful, she has a great life. But the fact is she can not do what she wants, she lost herself, all she had to work over and over. Finally, she made a decision to end relationship with Mr. Levy. “This was the beginning of the end with Mr. Levy, I decided”.
My question is, have you ever got hurt from love? When you fall in love with someone, could you distinguished is it true love? Did anyone fooling you and use you before? If he or she just used you, how have you deal with it?
In 1948 John Levy, a owner of the Ebony club on 52nd street got Billie out of jail, and gave her a job when no one else dared. In Billie’s eyes, Mr. Levy is a very good man. Billie had Bobby Tucker and his great group backing her; she still got a fancy dress with very expensive jewelry from Mr. Levy.
“I never had had a mink coat in my life, John Levy bought me my first one… the biggest surprise of all was that he never once suggested or insisted that I go to bed with him”.
Mr. Levy also fixed Billie’s relationship with her husband---Jimmy, and chased Jimmy away from her. Everything happens too fast and perfect. Billie had a car and chauffeur to drive her around; she got a fabulous place in St. Albans Queens, and furnished in modern stuff and antiques. All these make Billie feels like she is the most lucky and happy woman in the world. She thought this had to be part of a build-up and the love eyes had to come later.
But reader forgets another meaning of the title of this chapter; “No-Good Man” also means “no man is good”.
After happiness, trouble was coming. Billie had to start to work seven days a week, five shows a day. She lost her freedom, and became a machine of money maker. And Mr. Levy became a nightmare of her. Things are clearer and clearer that Mr. Levy used Billie to make money for him, and he does not love her at all.
“I was making thirty-five hundred dollars a week, but I didn’t have a nickel in my pocket. John handled all the finances, and I wasn’t even allowed to draw five bucks”.
Outside, people thought Billie is great, famous and successful, she has a great life. But the fact is she can not do what she wants, she lost herself, all she had to work over and over. Finally, she made a decision to end relationship with Mr. Levy. “This was the beginning of the end with Mr. Levy, I decided”.
My question is, have you ever got hurt from love? When you fall in love with someone, could you distinguished is it true love? Did anyone fooling you and use you before? If he or she just used you, how have you deal with it?
Shenwei - Chapter 19
1. Identify and briefly define important words, terms, concepts, or characters.
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, it is one of the most famous venues in the United States for classical music and popular music. In the early chapters, Billie mentions she felt exciting and happy to be there.
Fishman and Glaser are the two agents that were fighting over Billie Holiday , at the end, Billie sign contract with Glaser.
Bobby Tucker is Billie Holiday’s accompanist also her close friend.
Sarah Vaughan was an American jazz singer, very famous at that time.
Lena Horne was a legend singer and actress, “people like Lena took the sting out of other little people.”
Helen Hironimus worked for the federal government, Helen Hironimus tried to buy something for Billie, and such movement make Billie sick and angry.
2. Summarize the main idea, theme, action, or event of the reading. Be sure to include quotation that best captures the overall feeling or mood of the reading.
Chapter 19 of Billie Holidays autobiography Lady Sings the Blues, Billie first described the excitement of performing a show at Carnegie Hall at the night before Easter. Usually, the night before Easter is the worst night in show business, but there were thirty-five hundred people went to Billie’s show. Before the show she was excited but also unconfident, but after seeing so many audience, she realize Americas could accept her after she got out the jail. The public acceptance is always a anonymous thing to her. She went to Sarah Vaughan’s concert, and Sarah did not even look at her, it makes Billie very sad. “ I broke down and cried, Sarah made me wish I’d never left jail or, worse, like I was still in or carried the bars around me.”
And in the end of the chapter, Billie also mentioned the people that really cares about her, people like Lena and John, they made Billie felt happy and at least Billie not felt been discriminated, she gained some confidence from that relationship, she felt she was really existing, and there were people who cares about her. It was a hard time for Billie after got out of jail, as a black female and a jailbird, she could not get a cabaret card, and without the card, no one would hire her.
After Billie got back to Philadelphia, she met Helen Hironumus, they went shopping and Helen tried to buy everything for Billie, Billie hates that, “ if I’d gone to jail I’d have killed you and they could have had me for murder.”
I think this chapter is talk about the relationship and the people around Billie Holiday, after Billie got out of jail, she had a hard time, and she also found out who was really friends of her, and who was not. The quotes best summarize this chapter is “ Being around New York those first few days as a jailbird sure separated the sheep from the goats as far as my friends and colleagues were concerned, I’ll Never forget their reactions, and nothing can change or make me forget the way they treated me.”
3. Formulate a question for discussion. The question should be relatively substantial, based upon a specified passage or scene from the text, and capable of sustaining a thoughtful discussion.
Who are Billie’s best friends, are they going to be with Billie Holiday at the end?
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, it is one of the most famous venues in the United States for classical music and popular music. In the early chapters, Billie mentions she felt exciting and happy to be there.
Fishman and Glaser are the two agents that were fighting over Billie Holiday , at the end, Billie sign contract with Glaser.
Bobby Tucker is Billie Holiday’s accompanist also her close friend.
Sarah Vaughan was an American jazz singer, very famous at that time.
Lena Horne was a legend singer and actress, “people like Lena took the sting out of other little people.”
Helen Hironimus worked for the federal government, Helen Hironimus tried to buy something for Billie, and such movement make Billie sick and angry.
2. Summarize the main idea, theme, action, or event of the reading. Be sure to include quotation that best captures the overall feeling or mood of the reading.
Chapter 19 of Billie Holidays autobiography Lady Sings the Blues, Billie first described the excitement of performing a show at Carnegie Hall at the night before Easter. Usually, the night before Easter is the worst night in show business, but there were thirty-five hundred people went to Billie’s show. Before the show she was excited but also unconfident, but after seeing so many audience, she realize Americas could accept her after she got out the jail. The public acceptance is always a anonymous thing to her. She went to Sarah Vaughan’s concert, and Sarah did not even look at her, it makes Billie very sad. “ I broke down and cried, Sarah made me wish I’d never left jail or, worse, like I was still in or carried the bars around me.”
And in the end of the chapter, Billie also mentioned the people that really cares about her, people like Lena and John, they made Billie felt happy and at least Billie not felt been discriminated, she gained some confidence from that relationship, she felt she was really existing, and there were people who cares about her. It was a hard time for Billie after got out of jail, as a black female and a jailbird, she could not get a cabaret card, and without the card, no one would hire her.
After Billie got back to Philadelphia, she met Helen Hironumus, they went shopping and Helen tried to buy everything for Billie, Billie hates that, “ if I’d gone to jail I’d have killed you and they could have had me for murder.”
I think this chapter is talk about the relationship and the people around Billie Holiday, after Billie got out of jail, she had a hard time, and she also found out who was really friends of her, and who was not. The quotes best summarize this chapter is “ Being around New York those first few days as a jailbird sure separated the sheep from the goats as far as my friends and colleagues were concerned, I’ll Never forget their reactions, and nothing can change or make me forget the way they treated me.”
3. Formulate a question for discussion. The question should be relatively substantial, based upon a specified passage or scene from the text, and capable of sustaining a thoughtful discussion.
Who are Billie’s best friends, are they going to be with Billie Holiday at the end?
Jonathan - Chapter 16
Words and Terms
Federal agents - also known as "the fuzz." The Federal agents are most likely agents from
the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and they tail Billie Holiday because of her past
drug usage and want to find bust her again.
hunch - a strong "gut" feeling one has about what future events will transpire but not with
an identifiable reason
Welfare Island - an island, now known as Roosevelt Island, in the East River of New York,
and located between Manhattan and Queens. In this chapter it refers to the prison on
Roosevelt Island, and is noted for the being a place whose people treat the inmates
there well, if the inmates show their good side.
Jimmy Asundio – a young man who was Billie Holiday’s road manager at the time.
Joe Guy – Billie’s drug dealer who she fell in love with while she was still married to Jimmy
Monroe.
Summary
One night in May of 1947, after Billie finished a show at the Earle Theater in Philadelphia, she had a hunch that the cops would be waiting back at her hotel room to arrest her together with Bobby Tucker and Jimmy Asundio. She tried convincing them not to go back but they brushed her off. Upon pulling up to the hotel, they saw the lobby full of cops. She ordered the chauffeur to drive a little distance, but they were met by a FBI agent. Billie took the wheel, for the first time in her life, and got away, finally making it to New York.
Once there, Billie performed as scheduled at the Onyx Club, and did not have to worry about the feds bothering her until the end of the week. She decided that rather than run, and never have peace, she would give herself in. She went to the hotel where, surely enough, two agents were waiting for her. They arrested her and Joe. These officers were nice though. As she said herself, "I wasn't too much of a drug addict for some of these federal men not to make passes at me."
What is Billie's real motive for turning herself in? Could it be so that once she is released she can get back to her drug abuse?
Federal agents - also known as "the fuzz." The Federal agents are most likely agents from
the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and they tail Billie Holiday because of her past
drug usage and want to find bust her again.
hunch - a strong "gut" feeling one has about what future events will transpire but not with
an identifiable reason
Welfare Island - an island, now known as Roosevelt Island, in the East River of New York,
and located between Manhattan and Queens. In this chapter it refers to the prison on
Roosevelt Island, and is noted for the being a place whose people treat the inmates
there well, if the inmates show their good side.
Jimmy Asundio – a young man who was Billie Holiday’s road manager at the time.
Joe Guy – Billie’s drug dealer who she fell in love with while she was still married to Jimmy
Monroe.
Summary
One night in May of 1947, after Billie finished a show at the Earle Theater in Philadelphia, she had a hunch that the cops would be waiting back at her hotel room to arrest her together with Bobby Tucker and Jimmy Asundio. She tried convincing them not to go back but they brushed her off. Upon pulling up to the hotel, they saw the lobby full of cops. She ordered the chauffeur to drive a little distance, but they were met by a FBI agent. Billie took the wheel, for the first time in her life, and got away, finally making it to New York.
Once there, Billie performed as scheduled at the Onyx Club, and did not have to worry about the feds bothering her until the end of the week. She decided that rather than run, and never have peace, she would give herself in. She went to the hotel where, surely enough, two agents were waiting for her. They arrested her and Joe. These officers were nice though. As she said herself, "I wasn't too much of a drug addict for some of these federal men not to make passes at me."
What is Billie's real motive for turning herself in? Could it be so that once she is released she can get back to her drug abuse?
Friday, May 1, 2009
Jan - Chapter 12
This chapter of Billie Holidays autobiography captured a major transitional period in her life. As quickly as the second paragraph she started to describe a young man named Jimmy Monroe. She was clearly infatuated with him because she said “he was the most beautiful man I have ever laid eyes on”. After giving this man such a flattering description, she followed up by stating her doubts a possible interest for her “he was a big deal, I figured what would he want with me?” She spent a bit of time with him every now and then “going around” with him. Billie Holiday had then discovered her mother and Joe Glaser felt he would never marry her. This fueled her to pursue the man everyone thought she couldn’t get.
Billie and Jimmy get married and she shoved the marriage certificate in both their faces. The marriage was full of abuse and eventually Billie “got wise” that something was going on. Jimmy turned from having affairs with other women to experimenting with drugs. Things worsened but the couple moved to Los Angeles together anyway.
It was not long after moving when Jimmy got into “trouble” and Billie was left with no husband to support her. She moved back to her old city and lived alone in an apartment close to her mother. It was not long until she met a new man named Joe Luke Guy, who was a musician from Alabama. They were set to ride a tour bus in a few weeks. Her mother was lonely and insisted on her to move back in with her, but Billie mets the offer half way by staying three days a week with her mother and the rest of the week with Joe Luke. Billie gave her mother a dog named Rajah Ravoy. That dog kept her mother company until the day it died from old age. Billie recalled her mother saying “that dog was all I had to live for”. When on tour with Luke Guy and her newly formed band Billie found out that her mother died. No one verbally told her the news, she just felt it. With no husband, and no mother left, she told Joe Luke Guy “ god dammit you better be good to me because your all I have left now”.
My question is as follows, does it seem that in the beginning of the chapter Billie is looking for independence? Did she try too hard and not cherish the only woman who ever cared for her? In the end of the chapter is she “alone” or “independent”?
Billie and Jimmy get married and she shoved the marriage certificate in both their faces. The marriage was full of abuse and eventually Billie “got wise” that something was going on. Jimmy turned from having affairs with other women to experimenting with drugs. Things worsened but the couple moved to Los Angeles together anyway.
It was not long after moving when Jimmy got into “trouble” and Billie was left with no husband to support her. She moved back to her old city and lived alone in an apartment close to her mother. It was not long until she met a new man named Joe Luke Guy, who was a musician from Alabama. They were set to ride a tour bus in a few weeks. Her mother was lonely and insisted on her to move back in with her, but Billie mets the offer half way by staying three days a week with her mother and the rest of the week with Joe Luke. Billie gave her mother a dog named Rajah Ravoy. That dog kept her mother company until the day it died from old age. Billie recalled her mother saying “that dog was all I had to live for”. When on tour with Luke Guy and her newly formed band Billie found out that her mother died. No one verbally told her the news, she just felt it. With no husband, and no mother left, she told Joe Luke Guy “ god dammit you better be good to me because your all I have left now”.
My question is as follows, does it seem that in the beginning of the chapter Billie is looking for independence? Did she try too hard and not cherish the only woman who ever cared for her? In the end of the chapter is she “alone” or “independent”?
Jennifer - Chapter 9
Important Words
segregation - the act or practice of separating different people or the state or condition of being segregated.
racial prejudice - the hostile attitude towards or judgement of people based on their race.
cosmopolitan - free from local, provincial, or national ideas, prejudices, or attachments; at home all over the world.
taboo - a prohibition or interdiction of anything; exclusion from use or practice.
lynching - to put to death, esp. by hanging, by mob action and without legal authority.
"Strange Fruit" - Billie Holiday's song based on a poem written by Lewis Allen which describes the situations that caused her father's death.
Local 802 - a welfare organization that her mother went when she stopped working at a cheap restaurant in order to "go legit " (actually cheat on welfare money) and to make her own new restaurant.
Uptown and Downtown Manhattan - Uptown Manhattan symbolizes the ghetto and immigrant areas (especially African-Americans) in Harlem and Downtown Manhattan symbolizes the rich and luxurious areas that are well-integrated and culturally diverse.
Summary
In Chapter 9 in Lady Sings the Blues, Billie Holiday moves in from the ghetto Harlem in Upper Manhattan to Sheridan Square, Fourth St. in the luxurious Downtown Manhattan which she found a nightclub with no segregration and no racial prejudice. In other words, she found a haven where there's a diversity of famous celebrities, rich people, and artists.
As she performed the song, "Strange Fruit", everyone applauded her although the song had several flashbacks of her turbulent past. The song itself symbolizes prejudice of different people in terms of race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. As she became a celebrity, things become different for her since she is in a new environment of an upper-class society. Things become culturally different as she befriends a white upper-class woman named Brenda. Brenda wants to help Billie with her life, including her relationship with her mother which later refused to lend money to Billie for the new restaurant. As for revenge, she composed this song called, "God Bless The Child" in order to cause wrath to her mother. Finally, Billie took a vacation and convinced Barney Josephson to hire Hazel Scott as a lounge singer at Cafe Society.
Quotation
"God bless the child that's got his own..."
- Billie Holiday
Question
What was Billie Holiday trying to insinuate or infer when she says "God bless the child that's got his own."? In other words, what does she mean by saying this back to her mother?
segregation - the act or practice of separating different people or the state or condition of being segregated.
racial prejudice - the hostile attitude towards or judgement of people based on their race.
cosmopolitan - free from local, provincial, or national ideas, prejudices, or attachments; at home all over the world.
taboo - a prohibition or interdiction of anything; exclusion from use or practice.
lynching - to put to death, esp. by hanging, by mob action and without legal authority.
"Strange Fruit" - Billie Holiday's song based on a poem written by Lewis Allen which describes the situations that caused her father's death.
Local 802 - a welfare organization that her mother went when she stopped working at a cheap restaurant in order to "go legit " (actually cheat on welfare money) and to make her own new restaurant.
Uptown and Downtown Manhattan - Uptown Manhattan symbolizes the ghetto and immigrant areas (especially African-Americans) in Harlem and Downtown Manhattan symbolizes the rich and luxurious areas that are well-integrated and culturally diverse.
Summary
In Chapter 9 in Lady Sings the Blues, Billie Holiday moves in from the ghetto Harlem in Upper Manhattan to Sheridan Square, Fourth St. in the luxurious Downtown Manhattan which she found a nightclub with no segregration and no racial prejudice. In other words, she found a haven where there's a diversity of famous celebrities, rich people, and artists.
As she performed the song, "Strange Fruit", everyone applauded her although the song had several flashbacks of her turbulent past. The song itself symbolizes prejudice of different people in terms of race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. As she became a celebrity, things become different for her since she is in a new environment of an upper-class society. Things become culturally different as she befriends a white upper-class woman named Brenda. Brenda wants to help Billie with her life, including her relationship with her mother which later refused to lend money to Billie for the new restaurant. As for revenge, she composed this song called, "God Bless The Child" in order to cause wrath to her mother. Finally, Billie took a vacation and convinced Barney Josephson to hire Hazel Scott as a lounge singer at Cafe Society.
Quotation
"God bless the child that's got his own..."
- Billie Holiday
Question
What was Billie Holiday trying to insinuate or infer when she says "God bless the child that's got his own."? In other words, what does she mean by saying this back to her mother?
Ricky - Chapter 8
Artie is the head of the band that Billie has joined in this chapter. He sticks up for Billie because she’s black and is mistreated almost everywhere they go. He has his own his problems, but he doesn’t bother the others with them, and Billie respects that he has his own moods.
Most of the characters in this chapter are people they met while they were going around the United States trying to find gigs for them to be in. Most of the “white cats”, as Billie calls them, in the band respect Billie, and would stick up for her when needed. However, there was this other vocalist who didn’t like her because she was black and that vocalist thought she was being discriminated against.
“I’m the girl who went West in 1937 with sixteen white cats, Artie Shaw and his Rolls-Royce – and the hills were full of white crackers.”
I feel that this sums up the chapter because it was basically talking about her time with Artie Shaw and the band. When she was traveling with them, she met all kinds of people, white crackers she called them. They were people who didn’t like Negroes; they would call her names, wouldn’t allow her to stay in a hotel, or would tell her to go through the back door. At this time, racism is still a huge problem, and while traveling to the South, where racism is most prominent at this time, it became a huge problem for her. What hit her the hardest, however, was when she reached New York, her home town. She said that she liked it better when the people in the South would just tell her up front that they didn’t like her because of her skin color. However, in New York, they backstabbed her, and slowly made her go off air. In the end, she just fired herself though.
My question is, have you ever suffered racism in your life? If so, how have you dealt with it, and did you have friends there to help you through it? How does it feel to suffer racism? I myself know exactly how it feels, and I must say, it’s horrible.
Most of the characters in this chapter are people they met while they were going around the United States trying to find gigs for them to be in. Most of the “white cats”, as Billie calls them, in the band respect Billie, and would stick up for her when needed. However, there was this other vocalist who didn’t like her because she was black and that vocalist thought she was being discriminated against.
“I’m the girl who went West in 1937 with sixteen white cats, Artie Shaw and his Rolls-Royce – and the hills were full of white crackers.”
I feel that this sums up the chapter because it was basically talking about her time with Artie Shaw and the band. When she was traveling with them, she met all kinds of people, white crackers she called them. They were people who didn’t like Negroes; they would call her names, wouldn’t allow her to stay in a hotel, or would tell her to go through the back door. At this time, racism is still a huge problem, and while traveling to the South, where racism is most prominent at this time, it became a huge problem for her. What hit her the hardest, however, was when she reached New York, her home town. She said that she liked it better when the people in the South would just tell her up front that they didn’t like her because of her skin color. However, in New York, they backstabbed her, and slowly made her go off air. In the end, she just fired herself though.
My question is, have you ever suffered racism in your life? If so, how have you dealt with it, and did you have friends there to help you through it? How does it feel to suffer racism? I myself know exactly how it feels, and I must say, it’s horrible.
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