NYC Department of Cultural Affairs Releases Six Artist Proposals for a Permanent, Public Artwork Honoring Billie Holiday in Queens

For Immediate Release: May 19, 2026

Contact: [email protected]

NYC DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS RELEASES ARTIST PROPOSALS FOR A PERMANENT, PUBLIC ARTWORK HONORING BILLIE HOLIDAY IN QUEENS

The public is invited to provide feedback on designs honoring legendary jazz icon and civil rights trailblazer through May 31, 2026

The designs will also be on display at the Jamaica Performing Arts Center, where the public artwork will be installed

The artist proposals are available here for download

Queens, NY - The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) today announced the release of proposals from six artist finalists for a permanent public monument honoring Billie Holiday, one of the most influential jazz artists in American history. The project is being commissioned through DCLA's Percent for Art program. As part of the selection process, the public is invited to review the six finalist proposals and submit feedback through the end of May 2026. The selection panel will consider this input in its deliberations before choosing a final design, which will be announced later this year. The monument will be installed at the Jamaica Performing Arts Center, managed by the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning in Queens, celebrating Holiday's enduring artistic legacy and her deep ties to the borough where she lived and performed.

Born Eleanora Fagan Gough, Billie Holiday rose to prominence in the 1930s and transformed American music through her singular voice, emotional depth, and groundbreaking performances. Throughout her career, she collaborated with celebrated musicians including Count Basie and Artie Shaw, while also breaking racial barriers as one of the first Black women to perform with integrated white bands. Her haunting recording of "Strange Fruit," a protest against lynching, remains one of the most powerful works of political expression in American music, and was named by Time magazine as "the song of the century." Holiday's legacy has been recognized with numerous honors, including multiple Grammy Awards and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

"Billie Holiday was an artist of rare talent whose courage to face down the racial barriers of her time forged new paths for countless artists of color to follow," said Cultural Affairs Commissioner Diya Vij. "We're honored to work with the local community and people connected to Billie Holiday to commission this lasting tribute to her legacy in the borough she called home."

"Of all the music titans who have called Queens home, few stand taller or shine brighter than Billie Holiday. More than 65 years after her passing, her unmistakable voice and dynamic legacy continues to inspire performers across borough, city, state, nation and world," said Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. "It's only right that she be forever honored at the Jamaica Performing Arts Center, a venue she would have undoubtedly loved. Thank you to the incredible artists who have put forth stunning proposals honoring Billie's memory, and I encourage all our neighbors to make their thoughts known through the end of the month."

"Billie Holiday's voice, artistry, and impact helped shape American music and culture in ways that continue to resonate generations later. Honoring her here in Queens, where she lived, performed, and contributed to the cultural life of the borough, makes this project especially meaningful," said Deputy Speaker Dr. Nantasha Williams, 27th Council District. "Public art plays an important role in how we tell the story of our city and who we choose to recognize within it. This monument is not only an opportunity to celebrate Billie Holiday's extraordinary artistic legacy, but also to create a lasting cultural landmark that connects residents and visitors alike to the history, creativity, and influence rooted in Queens. I'm especially proud that this installation will be housed at the Jamaica Performing Arts Center and supported through the work of the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, an institution that has played an important role in sustaining and expanding access to arts and culture in Southeast Queens for generations. I also appreciate that this process includes public engagement and community feedback. As neighborhoods continue to grow and evolve, it is important that the people connected to the culture and history of those spaces remain part of how that legacy is represented and preserved moving forward, and I look forward to seeing how this process continues to take shape through community participation."

"Daunting is the word I think of when imagining a permanent public monument to the peerless Billie Holiday," said Leonard Jacobs, Executive Director of the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning. "Billie, our Lady Day who sang the blues. Billie, a national treasure linked to 'Strange Fruit,' 'God Bless the Child,' 'Lover Man' and so many songs of searing, searching, and soul. Billie, that transcendent talent once called 'the most honest jazz singer alive.' How can a monument summarize and celebrate such a gifted, complex, tragic, quintessentially American musical icon? Yet somehow all six proposals do. We welcome the public not only to add their comments, but to revel in the sense of wonder and inspiration that is Billie Holiday's legacy, and to take pride in the connections of Queens to her indelible life and remarkable body of work."

Following an open call for artists, an initial Percent for Art panel convened in late 2025 and selected six finalists to develop proposals for the monument. Finalists participated in a site visit, orientation, discussions with Billie Holiday scholars and family members, and ongoing consultation with DCLA staff as they refined their concepts.

The six finalist artists are:

Billie Holiday : Still, at the Crossing (working title)

Billie Holiday: Still, at the Crossing presents Billie Holiday in a moment of self-possession. Emerging from the ground at the edge of a reflective pool, the figure occupies a threshold between her public and private self, memory and presence, stillness and becoming. Celebrated for her singing and performance, the work shifts attention toward a pre-stage moment with Holiday elegantly dressed for a public appearance but wrapped in a private garment. At this threshold, the work honors the interior life, self-fashioning, and emotional authority that shaped her voice and artistic legacy. She is a figure held within herself.

Lady Sings the Truth: A Monument to Billie Holiday (working title)

Carved in Nero Marquina marble, this monument honors Billie Holiday: world-class voice, icon of elegance, song stylist, fighter for racial justice, and Queens own. Black marble is intentional, worthy of her legacy and power. She stands mid-song, face radiant, gown cascading around the integrated seat that acts as a stone amphitheater and resonance chamber. An invitation to gather, amplifying the voice like a perpetual microphone, as she amplified generations. White marble gardenias rest in her hair and float as offerings in the reflecting pool. Engraved: "Sing the Truth." A mandate to honor her truth. A voice for all time

Bending the Note (working title)

Bending the Note reimagines Billie Holiday as a white marble gardenia petal rising on a slender stem, its gentle bend revealing a luminous gold underside that catches and casts light. Subtle ripples across the surface resolve into her profile. Below, a circular granite plinth turns her life into concentric revolutions of memory, sound, and story, etched in gold and silver and shaped in collaboration with her family to "set the record straight." At the base, her beloved Pepe gazes upward, standing in for generations captivated by her voice-held in the glow of her beauty, presence, and enduring myth.

Blood at the Root (working title)

This monument honors Billie Holiday's spiritual godmother role to those who suffered as she did. Gardenia petals spiral from her crown above a healing pond where water cleanses and bears witness. Blood red tiles ground the base, honoring the pain at the root. Community members inscribe their tribulations and triumphs on the petals in workshops, speaking truth to power through their words. Technology integrates seamlessly, allowing social media to amplify these voices beyond the site, creating a living record of resilience, witness, and collective voice.

Held Within (working title)

This sculpture takes its starting point not from the icon, but from the woman: a private photograph of Billie Holiday pressing her face into that of a small dog she loved, wholly unguarded, entirely herself. Two radically simplified bronze forms mirror that gesture, stripped of likeness, costume, and era. The smaller form is deliberately ambiguous; dog, child, beloved person. Against decades of projection and mythologizing, what remains when everything superfluous is removed is warmth, intimacy, and complete mutual trust. Not a monument to legend. A portrait of authentic joy in its purest form.

The Very Thought of You (working title)

The Very Thought of You is a stone sculpture inspired by Billie Holiday. Based on a historic photographic profile, the work transforms her silhouette into an infinite vessel-like form where mirrored profiles face one another across a central void. Part vessel and part architecture, the sculpture acts as a container for memory, sound, and presence. Named after Holiday's recording The Very Thought of You, the work proposes a monument rooted not only in permanence, but in the enduring transmission of emotion, history, and human connection across generations.

"For much of her life, Billie Holiday considered New York City her creative home. It's appropriate the city is now honoring her with a monument that will symbolize her enduring contribution not only to the city but to American culture," said Paul Alexander, Author of "Bitter Crop: The Heartache and Triumph of Billie Holiday's Last Year."

"Lady Day has one of the greatest and most distinctive voices in musical history. Just as important is Billie Holiday's courage, repeatedly refusing to accept racial discrimination," said the Honorable Bevan Dufty, godson of Billie Holiday. "Her song, Strange Fruit, put a light on the continued lynchings of Black men and women in the 1940s and 1950s South. Holiday paid a heavy price as law enforcement colluded to destroy her career, ending her life far too soon."

"Being Billie Holiday's goddaughter, I was pleased and touched to be included in this process. My parents treasured Billie," said Lorraine Feather, lyricist, vocalist, and three-time Grammy Award nominee. "I know that this monument will be a powerful testament to her creative spirit as well as to her sweetness and warmth as a human being."

Members of the public are invited to review the finalist proposals and share feedback through an online form. The process is intended to gather community perspectives and reactions to the proposals. Feedback collected through the survey will be shared with the Percent for Art selection panel to help inform the final decision.

The exhibition of proposal renderings will also be on view in the lobby of the Jamaica Performing Arts Center (JPAC, 153-10 Jamaica Ave, Jamaica, NY 11432) throughout May, viewable at the following times:

• May 22-25: 11 AM-10 PM
• May 27: 4-10 PM
• May 28: 9 AM-3 PM
• May 31: 7:30 AM-1 PM

The final design will be selected by a Percent for Art panel composed 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 selected artist will be announced in Summer 2026.

Following selection, DCLA will work closely with the chosen artist to further develop the design through the City's public review and approval process, including review by the Public Design Commission, prior to fabrication and installation.

For more information and to submit feedback on the finalist proposals, visit http://nyc.gov/billieholidayproposals.

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About NYC Department of Cultural Affairs

The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) is dedicated to supporting and strengthening New York City's vibrant cultural life. DCLA works to promote and advocate for quality arts programming and to articulate the contribution made by the cultural community to the City's vitality. The Department represents and serves non-profit cultural organizations involved in the visual, literary, and performing arts; public-oriented science and humanities institutions including zoos, botanical gardens, and historic and preservation societies; and creative artists at all skill levels who live and work within the City's five boroughs. DCLA also provides donated materials for arts programs offered by the public schools and cultural and social service groups, and commissions permanent works of public art at City-funded construction projects throughout the five boroughs. For more information, visit www.nyc.gov/culture.