STRANGE FRUIT

Did you know “Strange Fruit” was actually written by Abel Meerpol. A Jewish Highschool teacher from the Bronx and fun fact, James Baldwin was one of his students! The poem was originally entitled “Bitter Fruit” before it became a song that was recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939. There was a particular lynching captured in a news paper that occured in Marian, Indiana in 1930 that inspired Abel to write this poem. I had actually seen the picture before, a “cultural carnival.” A crowd of white people and a man in the center pointing up at black bodies with a fufilled smile on his face. It was extremely creepy. But in the late 1940’s the poem was sent to every member of congress in support of an anti lynching bill but were constantly being destroyed by filibusters. In discovering all of this information, I couldnt help but realize where we are today and how grateful I am for pioneers like these before us. The Pear in my piece represents immortality so essentially my message through my piece is that,

you can’t kill us.