That was really beneficial! Originally a poem called Bitter Fruit, it was written by the Jewish school teacher Abel Meeropol under the pseudonym Lewis Allen in response to lynching in US southern states. They are certainly sweet-smelling, and after the brutal description of the bodies, this description of the sweet scent of flowers serves to further exemplify the tragedies that have occurred in these beautiful southern states. Holiday zögerte anfangs, Strange Fruit in ihr Programm aufzunehmen – zu sehr wich das Lied von ihrem sonstigen Repertoire ab. As the song became a feature of her sets, Holiday witnessed a range of reactions, from tears to walkouts and racist hecklers. Die im Lied angesprochene Strange Fruit ist der Körper eines Schwarzen, der an einem Baum hängt. Such lynchings had occurred chiefly in the South but also in other regions of the United States. Besonders einflussreich in der Rezeption war Angela Davis' Buch: Blues Legacies and Black Feminism. The use of the word “bitter” in the last line of this poem connects with the previous descriptions of the bodies and leaves the reader to ponder the bitterness of these untimely and unjust deaths at the hands of those who believed they could take the law into their own hands. “In June of 1983, at the Fifth Annual Gay and Lesbian Health Conference in Denver, Colorado, a group of about a dozen gay men with AIDS from around the U.S. gathered to share their experiences combating stigma and advocating on behalf of people with AIDS [...] They wrote out a manifesto, now known as “The Denver Principles,” outlining a series of rights and responsibilities for healthcare professionals, people with AIDS, and all who were concerned about the epidemic. (…) Das von Abel Meeropol komponierte und getextete Lied gilt als eine der stärksten künstlerischen Aussagen gegen Lynchmorde in den Südstaaten der USA und als ein früher Ausdruck der US-amerikanischen Bürgerrechtsbewegung. A prominent AIDS advocate and supporter of queer liberation in the 1980s and 1990s, Leonard’s multimedia work explores mortality and displacement within the urban landscape. “Every once in a while there’s some horrific moment but lynching has become kind of a metaphor and, in that sense, the song has become more metaphorical than literal over the decades.”.

Have a correction or comment about this article? The Bizarre Marvels of Segundo de Chomón, Father of Spanish Cinema, When the English Witnessed Battles in the Sky, The Decapitation Experiments of Jean César Legallois, COVID-19 Causes Some Patients’ Immune Systems to Attack Their Own Bodies. YouTube. Holiday wünschte sich die letzten beiden Worte des Lieds, Bitter Crop (dt. Pastoral scene of the gallant South, “Zoe Leonard: Archivist of Feeling.” The Paris Review, https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/03/16/zoe-leonard-archivist-of-feeling/.

Es brachte das Thema Lynchjustiz dem breiten … Publikum nahe.“[8], Der Titel dieses Artikels ist mehrdeutig.

Preserving impermanent works is a fundamental practical challenge for museums. Ein Biograph von Holiday bemerkte dazu: „Bei vielen Coverversionen hat man das Gefühl, eine hervorragende Aufführung eines hervorragenden Songs zu hören; wenn Billie sang, hatte man das Gefühl, direkt am Fuß des Baumes zu stehen.“ Diese Interpretation sprach ein weit größeres Publikum als bisher an und schaffte es, über die ohnehin interessierten Kreise hinaus Beachtung zu finden. In Strange Fruit, the tree was used to bring death to innocent people, and thus it is a symbol of death. Integer posuere erat a ante venenatis dapibus posuere velit aliquet. One of the most horrendous truths about the history of lynching in America is that the bodies were often left to rot for days so that people could not help but look up and notice.