He published it in a union publication in 1937 and then set it to music. The words to Strange Fruit (where the poem was titled Bitter Fruit) reveal the tragic nature of some of the darkest times in American history. This poem has not been translated into any other language yet. Strange Fruit is a song performed most famously by Billie Holiday, who first sang and recorded it in 1939. (The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,). Billie Holiday first sang it in 1939, while performing at the popular cabaret club, Café Society, New York City, whose owner had heard about a new protest song written by Lewis Allan (the pen name of Abel Meeropol), With some hesitation, perhaps because of the gravity of the song’s content, Billie agreed to close her set with it. ( Log Out /  For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck, Bitter Fruit. She said that singing it made her fearful of revenge but she continued to sing the piece, making it a regular part of her live performances, Racism was common in American clubs at the time. Here is fruit for the crows to pluck, For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck, For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop, Here is a strange and bitter crop. Such lynchings had occurred chiefly in the South but also in other regions of the United States. The images portrayed here are meant to move the reader to his core. Black body swinging in the southern breeze, He published the poem under the title “Bitter Fruit” in 1937 in the magazine The New York Teacher, and set it to music. The usual relationship between black performer and white audience was turned upside down by “Strange Fruit” . Scent of magnolia, sweet and fresh, “Meeropol wrote "Strange Fruit” after seeing a photograph of the 1930 lynching of Tom Shipp and Abe Smith in Marrion, Indiana" The poem: Bitter Fruit Strange Fruit originated as a poem written by Abel Meeropol, as a protest against lynchings. The audience at Café Society was mostly white; the music was mostly black; and Meeropol was the Jewish “middleman” bringing the two together. It was most famously performed by Billy Holiday, who first sang “Strange Fruit” in 1939. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Lynching was considered sport in some ways and postcards were taken of crowds of people picnicking under hanging bodies, proud of what they’d accomplished We accept submissions from those ages 12+ Please send us an email at bitterfruitreview@gmail.com, with the subject as your last name, first name, the title of your piece, and the genre of the piece. The club, which opened in December of 1938, made a name for itself by offering a kind of antiracist satire of “high society.”:it was a progressive club for progressive people, Rather than softening black music for white ears, Meeropol made it harder. Change ), When Pasternak had to decline the Nobel Prize.

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