Queens elected officials and community members are calling for a
statue of music icon Billie Holiday to be placed in St. Albans.
Photo via Flickr Creative Commons/www.songsimian.com
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TIMESLEDGER | Q 2 NS.COM | JULY 9-JULY 15, 2021
BY JULIA MORO
Assemblywoman Jenifer
Rajkumar invites Queens
children to join the Assembly’s
annual Summer Reading
Challenge, a partnership between
the Assembly and New
York State Libraries.
The Summer Reading
Challenge aims to counteract
the “summer slide,” a phenomenon
where kids’ reading
proficiency regresses over the
summer months. After over a
year of students isolating at
home and distance learning,
Rajkumar said this program
is more important than ever.
“Reading is fundamental
to our young people’s education
and success in life,” Rajkumar
said. “It opens the door
to opportunities and transports
us to myriad worlds of
experiences. Summer break
is the time to make sure children
read all year long — and
all life long.”
Children must read a book
for a minimum of 15 minutes a
day for at least 40 days during
July and August to complete
the challenge. Participants
will receive a calendar from
Rajkumar and mark off days
where they read.
Upon completing the challenge,
kids can send the calendar
back to Rajkumar’s office.
Then, she will award each
child the Assembly Excellence
in Reading certificate.
Maribell Perev-McDaniel,
co-president of District 27
President’s Council, has two
daughters participating in
this year’s reading challenge.
Her two daughters, one in
fourth grade and the other a
senior in high school, will be
encouraged to find books that
pique their interest.
“Reading is always great,
and especially now with everything
that’s happened over
the last year and a half there
have been a lot of challenges
emotionally and academically,”
Perev-McDaniels said.
“I thought it would be a great
time to remember, while we
want to have fun playing outside
this summer, reading is
fun and two, it’s important to
keep our brains going.”
Perev-McDaniels will also
be participating in the reading
challenge.
“As a parent, we have to
lead by example,” she said.
“The challenge is geared towards
children, but I feel like
if my kids see me participating
as well, it will encourage
them to do the same and it
won’t feel as much of a chore.”
Those in need of books are
encouraged to visit their local
Queens Public Library branch.
There, they can check out one
or more books at a time. To
find the nearest branch, visit
QueensLibrary.org.
Rajkumar, who representsWoodhaven,
Ridgewood,
Richmond Hill, Ozone Park
and Glendale, will participate
in the challenge herself as
well.
For more information
about the Summer Reading
Challenge, individuals can
contact Rajumar’s office at
rajkumarj@nyassembly.gov or
718-805-0950.
BY BILL PARRY
Southeast Queens community
leaders have pushed
the city to erect a statue of
trailblazing jazz legend Billie
Holiday in St. Albans,
where she lived with her
second husband John Levy
at 176-06 Linden Blvd. from
1950 to 1951.
Queens Borough President
Donovan Richards
joined the effort by sending
a letter to Women.nyc Deputy
Director Jasmine Baker
Taddeo asking for the city to
place the planned statue in
the famed Addisleigh Park
historic district, a neighborhood
in St. Albans that was
home to numerous notable
African Americans in the
jazz world including Ella
Fitzgerald, Count Basie and
Lena Horne, as well as baseball
legends Jackie Robinson
and Babe Ruth.
“As our city and the great
borough of Queens continues
to reopen, we are excited
to move forward with this
meaningful art campaign
and the installation of a
monument honoring iconic
late singer Billie Holiday,”
Richards wrote. “We are
aware that Borough Hall was
suggested as the home of the
monument in preliminary
conversations. However,
in full appreciation of the
founding principle of the She
Built NYC initiative, which
highlights the importance
of representation and elevating
stories often pushed far
from the mainstream narrative,
a group of local leaders
and our office agree that
placing the statue at Queens
Borough Hall would be a
missed opportunity to honor
the community of Addisleigh
Park, the historic southeast
Queens neighborhood Billie
Holiday called home.”
The Southeast Queens
Coalition has long favored a
concrete NYC Parks triangle
at Linden Boulevard and
Murdoch Avenue as a preferred
location for the Billie
Holiday statue.
Addisleigh Park was developed
in the 1920s and was
originally a segregated area
for white people, until the
1930s when African Americans
began to move into
the area.
“The historic district of
Addisleigh Park was built
as an exclusively white community
and despite racist
restrictive covenants prohibiting
the sale of properties
to Black people, in the 1930s
composer Clarence Wiliams,
singer Eva Taylor, jazz icon
Fats Waller, actress Lena
Horne and jazz musician
Count Basie were among the
first to establish Addisleigh
Park as a safe haven of the
African American middle
class,” Richards wrote. “In
1948, the U.S. Supreme Court
held that racially restrictive
covenants violated the Equal
Protection Clause and more
Black residents were able to
move into the area.”
Before long, Addisleigh
Park was home to John Coltrane,
Roy Campanella, Joe
Louis and W.E.B. Du Bois.
Holiday married her third
husband Louis McKay and
relocated to south Flushing,
where they lived in a garden
apartment from 1951 to
1958. But Richards believes
the memorial statue would
be best suited in southeast
Queens.
“Addisleigh Park is an irreplaceable
piece of Queens
and its evolution from an
exclusively white area into
a historically distinguished
community for luminaries
and leaders of the African
American community illuminates
the story of struggle
and achievement of civil
rights and homeownership
for Black New Yorkers,”
Richards concluded. “Addisleigh
Park holds the onceresidence
of Billie Holiday,
Ella Fitzgerald and Lena
Horne as a point of pride and
as such there could not be a
more appropriate location
for the monument in their
memory in Queens.”
Reach reporter Bill Parry
by e-mail at bparry@schnepsmedia.
com or by phone at
(718) 260–4538.
Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar encourages summer reading
challenge for kids in Queens. Photo courtesy of Rajkumar’s offi ce
Queens assemblywoman
encourages summer
reading challenge
Richards joins push for statue of
Billie Holiday in Addisleigh Park
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