Presenter: Peter Drewniany
Authors: Peter Drewniany
Faculty Advisor: Glenn Webb
Institution: Dixie State University
Last year saw the release of the biopic “The United States vs. Billie Holliday”. Lady Day was once again a feature of conversation. Her story is now instrumentalized in two discrete ways: Holiday's “Strange Fruit” served as a mournful rallying cry during the civil rights era, helping to energize a movement and to figuratively paint the horrific images with which many southerners had become too familiar; her fate at the hands of Harry Anslinger’s FBI is a tale that may make for a new generation of disaffected youths. For my research I have been exploring Holliday’s position within the NYC jazz scene and attempting to reconcile these contrasting tales as I reconstruct her role therein. My research had led me to explore a venue where Holliday made her name: Café Society. I have also begun to learn much more about the intersections between the jazz scene, the United States Communist Party, and New York high society. I begin to find certain incongruities that get elided in jazz and music history courses. Though we recognize the utility provided by their grand narratives, we find that the finer details have plenty to teach in their own right. Those issues which may be labeled as the commodification and commercialization of subcultures, or perhaps the harmonization and assimilation of novel cultural forms, continue to provide lessons. It is also instructive to look at the power differentials created between club owners, critics, agents, and musicians, and how they all fit into the cultural fabric of society. I hope that my research will provide further contextualization for a complex period of American history, and through this might offer peers and readers an increased sense of agency in determining the fate and shape of contemporary trends and their sociopolitical effects.