Becoming Billie Holiday

The stunning voice and hard life of legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday is revealed through evocative, accessible poetry.

In 1915, Sadie Fagan gave birth to a daughter she named Eleanora.

The world, however, would know her as Billie Holiday, possibly the greatest jazz singer of all time.

Eleanora's journey to become a legend took her through pain, poverty, and run-ins with the law.

By the time she was fifteen, she knew she possessed something that could possibly change her life--a voice.

Eleanora could sing. Her remarkable voice led her to a place in the spotlight with some of the era's hottest big bands.

Through a sequence of raw and poignant poems, New York Times best-selling and award-winning poet Carole Boston Weatherford chronicles the singer's young life, her fight for survival, and the dream she pursued with passion.