Billie Holiday's voice and image are used to sell cars and clothing; evoke atmosphere in restaurants, coffee shops, and bookstores; and set the mood for films, plays, novels, and poems.  She is widely recognized as one of our nation's major jazz artists.  Her image is also a familiar symbol to many who know little of her life or her work.  As part of a larger study of the circulation and commodification of the Holiday image, myth, legacy and voice, Farah Jasmine Griffin will explore Holiday's own contribution to the various myths that have been constructed around her. "What interests are served, what moods are evoked, in the various Holidays that are currently in circulation?" Such questions reveal a great deal about the place of jazz music and culture in the United States.

Farah Jasmine Griffin is the author of Who Set You Flowin'? The African American Migration Narrative (Oxford University Press, 1995) and editor of Stranger in the Village: Two Centuries of African American Travel Narratives (forthcoming from Beacon Press) and Beloved Sisters and Loving Friends: The Rebecca Prius-Addie Brown Correspondence (forth-coming from Alfred A. Knopf).

Cosponsored by: School of Music, Department of English, Department of History, Department of Political Science, Department of Theatre, Afro-American Studies and Research Program, Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities, Unit One/Allen Hall, Women's Studies Program, African-American Cultural Program, YWCA of the University of Illinois