Who Should Design NYC’s New Billie Holiday Monument?
Thomas J Price, Tavares Strachan, and Tanda Francis are in the running for a sculpture honoring the legendary jazz vocalist at the Jamaica Performing Arts Center.
At long last, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) has revealed six commission proposals for a monument celebrating the legacy of groundbreaking jazz vocalist Billie Holiday. Through the Percent for the Art program, Holiday's monument will be installed outside the Jamaica Performing Arts Center in Queens, where the singer lived and performed.
DCLA has invited members of the public to share their input on the conceptual designs by Thomas J Price, Tanda Francis, Nekisha Durrett, La Vaughn Belle, Tavares Strachan, and Nikesha Breeze to help inform the final selection. Renderings of each artist's proposal and supporting text are available on the DCLA website, depicting the myriad ways in which Holiday's legacy can be interpreted and represented.
The plan to commemorate Holiday with a public monument emerged in 2018, when the DCLA announced the She Built NYC initiative in an effort to remedy the lack of historical monuments dedicated to influential women in the city. The jazz vocalist was highlighted alongside Staten Island's historic Robbins Reef Lighthouse keeper, Katherine Walker; schoolteacher and civil rights figure, Elizabeth Jennings Graham; and pediatrician, educator, and reproductive rights activist Helen Rodríguez Trías. The COVID-19 pandemic stymied the initiative's progress for several years, but DCLA revitalized the project in 2024.
Holiday was born in Philadelphia and endured a traumatic childhood in Baltimore until 1929, when she joined her mother in Harlem and began performing at nightclubs as a teenager. Without any formal training, she became one of the first Black women to sing alongside a White orchestra, and her iconic, instrument-like voice greatly influenced the jazz and swing genres as they developed. Holiday's haunting recording of “Strange Fruit” (1939), a protest poem-turned-song directly confronting the lynching of African Americans, cemented the singer's legacy in both music and civil rights history.
In her proposal, Francis balances Holiday's powerful impact with the hardships she endured and the trauma she carried until the end of her short life. The artist's rendering includes a large bust of Holiday at the base of a shallow, blood-red tiled pool, with sculpted petals from the singer's signature gardenia blossoms spiraling from above her ear down to the pool's edge. Community members would inscribe the petals with their own triumphs and tribulations, emphasizing Holiday's power as a collective voice.
The gardenia blossom is central to Durrett's proposal as well. The artist would depict Holiday's face on the edge of a petal on a circular plinth that takes the form of a record. The singer's beloved chihuahua Pepe is included in the rendering as well, gazing adoringly at Holiday.
Price also references the singer's memorable bond with Pepe, but his concept design takes a more abstract approach compared to the realistic figurative sculptures he's known for in an effort to capture Holiday the person rather than Holiday the legend. The design is based on an intimate photograph of Holiday pressing her face into a little dog.
Conversely, Belle's proposal explores the space between woman and legend with a pensive depiction of Holiday at the edge of a reflective pool, preparing for a public performance with a final moment of privacy. Strachan's concept design is informed by the vocalist's profile, creating an architectural vessel that holds Holiday's memory, sound, and presence.
Lastly, Breeze's concept design depicts a figure of Holiday carved from black marble, inviting viewers to sit at the base while singing in perpetuity.
In addition to the online feedback form, an exhibition of the proposal renderings will be on view at the Jamaica Performing Arts Center through the end of May.
The DCLA noted that the Percent for the Art program's deciding panel for the commission, which has a $600,000 budget, is comprised of “representatives from City agencies, local leaders, community members, public art professionals, and stakeholders dedicated to preserving Billie Holiday’s legacy, including family members and scholars.”
The winning proposal will be announced this summer.
