Billie Holiday : The Strange Fruit

By O Yemi Tubi (MOYAT)

Caption Of Artwork: Southern trees bear a strange fruit

Blood on the leaves and blood at the root

Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze

Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant South

The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth

Scent of magnolia, sweet and fresh

Then the sudden smell of burning flesh

Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck

For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck

For the sun to rot, for the tree to drop

Here is a strange and bitter crop.

This painting “Billie Holiday Strange Fruit” was influenced by the life of Billie Holiday and the song that propelled her to fame – “Strange Fruit” originated from a poem about lynching by Abel Meeropol which is an influential anthem of the civil rights movement.

In the bad old days of American history, Billie Holiday rose to fame as an award-winning jazz singer. Her life was pricked with many thorns – the thorns of her turbulent childhood, the thorns of racial injustice against African Americans and her personal thorns of drug abuse that pricked her to death and brought an end to her rosy and successful music career prematurely.