Grayson Dantzic Curator’s Tour: ASMP Legend Jerry Dantzic’s Billie Holiday Smithsonian Exhibit at The Newark Museum of Art

Archivist, ASMPNY Board Member, and Author, Grayson Dantzic will give his curator’s tour for ASMP NY members of his late father, ASMP Legend Jerry Dantzic’s Smithsonian Institution Traveling Service [SITES] exhibit, “Billie Holiday At Sugar Hill: Photographs By Jerry Dantzic,” currently at The Newark Museum of Art thru 8/21/2022.  In April 1957, photographer Jerry Dantzic had an assignment from Decca Records to photograph Billie Holiday during a weeklong run of performances at the Newark, New Jersey, nightclub, Sugar Hill. What unfolded was an unexpected and intimate journey into her private and public worlds. His photos comprise the largest collection of images from any single Billie Holiday club engagement. “Billie Holiday at Sugar Hill: Photographs by Jerry Dantzic” presents 56 remarkable images of the jazz icon that challenge the tragic narrative that frequently defines her.

Event timeline
Sunday, July 31st 12:30-2:30pm
12:30pm ASMP + Guests Meetup
1-2:30pm Tour + Book Signing

Here is how to get to the event: Train + 8min Walk

• Pennsylvania Train Station
• Morris & Essex Line (Dover) – two stops (19 minutes)
• Arrive Newark Broad Street
• Walk on Broad Street; turn right on Washington Street to #49
• Arrive at Newark Museum of Art

RELEVANT LINKS

Newark Museum of Art, Jerry Dantzic’s Smithsonian Exhibition “Billie Holiday At Sugar Hill: Photographs By Jerry Dantzic.”

SITES exhibition link

Jerry Dantzic: Billie Holiday At Sugar Hill link, the exhibition companion book. 

Newark Museum of Art’s gift shop link for Grayson’s book.

Jerry Dantzic: Billie Holiday at Sugar Hill: With a reflection by Zadie Smith

BIO

GRAYSON DANTZIC is an author, archivist, curator, documentary videographer, musician, photographer and poet. He is a graduate of Brandeis University and the Palmer School of Library Information Science of Long Island University. He is the special projects archivist for the Warner Music Group Archives and the Paul Seligman Collection at the Metropolitan Opera Archives, archivist for the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) and has worked with many photographers and their collections. In 1999, he and his mother, Cynthia established the Jerry Dantzic Archives. He edited and wrote text for the books Jerry Dantzic’s New York : The Fifties in Focus (Edition Stemmle, 2002) and Jerry Dantzic: Billie Holiday at Sugar Hill (Thames & Hudson, 2017). He has curated many photographic exhibitions, and is co-founder and Executive Vice President of the American Photography Archives Group (APAG) since it began in 2000. Currently he is working with Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) on Billie Holiday at Sugar Hill: Photographs by Jerry Dantzic, a traveling exhibition based on the companion book of his father’s unseen Lady Day photographs from 1957 in Jerry Dantzic: Billie Holiday at Sugar Hill.