Strange Fruit

"Strange Fruit" is a song performed most famously by Billie Holiday, who first sang and recorded it in 1939. Written by teacher Abel Meeropol as a poem and published in 1937, it protested American racism, particularly the lynching of African Americans. Such lynchings had reached a peak in the South at the turn of the century, but continued there and in other regions of the United States. Meeropol set it to music and, with his wife and the singer Laura Duncan, performed it as a protest song in New York venues in the late 1930s, including Madison Square Garden.

The song continues to be covered by numerous artists, and has inspired novels, other poems, and other creative works. In 1978, Holiday's version of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. It was also included in the list of Songs of the Century, by the Recording Industry of America and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Poem and song

"Strange Fruit" was originated as a poem written by American writer, teacher and songwriter Abel Meeropol under his pseudonym Lewis Allan, as a protest against lynchings. In the poem, Meeropol expressed his horror at lynchings, inspired by Lawrence Beitler's photograph of the 1930 lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana. He published the poem under the title "Bitter Fruit" in 1937 in The New York Teacher, a union magazine. Though Meeropol had asked others (notably Earl Robinson) to set his poems to music, he set "Strange Fruit" to music himself. His protest song gained a certain success in and around New York. Meeropol, his wife, and black vocalist Laura Duncan performed it at Madison Square Garden.

Strange Fruit (disambiguation)

"Strange Fruit" is a poem written by Abel Meeropol, first performed by Billie Holiday and then covered by many other performers.

Strange Fruit may also refer to:

Arts, entertainment, and media

Film

Literature

Music

Businesses

Slang

See also

Strange Fruit (club)

Strange Fruit is an indie club night that started in Oxford, United Kingdom in November 1998, moved to London in November 2000. It ran until ending on its fifth birthday in November 2003. During the five years the club was in existence it evolved from being a straightforward club for dancing to an independent promoter putting on regular shows in London. Strange Fruit put on early shows for bands who were later to become more established such as The Futureheads, British Sea Power, The Postal Service and Motormark. Strange Fruit also organised two festivals, on its fourth and fifth birthdays.

Origin: Strange Fruit Oxford

Strange Fruit was started by six Oxford-based DJs, namely Paul Haswell, Verity Clarkson, Peter Vickerman, Andy Clyde, Steve Jefferis and Rebecca Shatwell. These DJs were fans of obscure independent and experimental music, and had tired of the samey nature of independent music following the Britpop boom of the mid-1990s.

Naming themselves the "Strange Fruit Collective" (and taking the Strange Fruit name from a Northern Soul compilation owned by Peter, not from the John Peel-founded Strange Fruit Records as many assumed), the DJs started a small club taking place in Oxford every week playing a mix of popular indie at the time, northern soul, but for the most part obscure (and sometimes unlistenable) indie. Favourite bands included Stereolab, The Flaming Lips, Add N to (X) and Quickspace.