Billie's got the Blues

For school today, Dahin and her classmates dressed up as the historical figures they studied for their Harlem Renaissance projects. Dahin and two other girls dressed as Billie Holiday (note the flower in the hair; quite the required accessory). The kids were super excited and super cute. Kids showed up in fedoras and suspenders as Langston Hughes, sparkly dresses as Billie Holiday, and with instruments in hand as either Duke Ellington or Louis Armstrong, etc. One boy dressed up as Bessie Smith. Kids leveled massive amounts of grief at him in the classroom, but he really did not seem to mind. He wore his sister's skirt and cloche hat with dignity and did a great job talking about Bessie Smith later during their table presentations. There were plenty of girls dressed as male figures, so I thought it was refreshing to see the boy in a skirt. The kids sat at tables with their project reports and props displayed and answered questions about the lives of their figures as if they were the figures themselves.

Preparing for the project took some work both on my part and Dahin's part. The teacher sent home a bio of Holiday and she hinted strongly that parents should probably read the bio with their children and explain (ahem! edit) some parts. I ended up editing out a lot. I made the decision not to explain about Billie's time in reform school, her stint as a prostitute, or her abusive 'husbands'. Instead, I chose to focus on her gifts as an artist and her contributions to the world of music in Harlem and beyond. Well, let me tell you; all that careful editing went out the window today. Dahin shared her table with another "Billie" who happened to know ALL the details; I mean all. It started with a parent asking about the flower in her hair. The other child (let's call her "Billie 2") explained that, because Billie burned her hair while ironing it, she wore a gardenia in her hair to cover it up. She continued to wear flowers because she liked the way it looked. That was ok, pretty mundane. But then all hell broke lose when the parent said, "Billie Holiday had a pretty hard life, huh?" to which Billie 2 responded, "Yeah, she got locked up. And, when she was in reform school, she was in a room with a dead body." At that point, my gaze panned to Dahin who, eyes wide, said, "I didn't know that." "Uh-huh, and she took lots of drugs and alcohol and died because of it," said Billie 2 to which Dahin responded (again), "I didn't know that." "Yeah, and to make money, she was a prostitute before she knew she could sing." The other parent and I were silent while Dahin said, "Wow--I didn't know any of this." The parent next to me said, "Something can be said for having a hard life but still making beautiful art." One thing for sure, tonight, I have a lot of explaining to do.