Strange Fruit

• Cast: Dorothy Thigpen, Milton Gabler, Farah Jasmine Griffin, Pete Seeger, Ethel Rosenberg
• Duration: 57 minutes
• Genre: Music, Documentary
• Rating: N/A/10
• Release Date: 2002-05-20

In 1937, after seeing a photo depicting the lynching of a black man in the south, Bronx-born high school teacher Abel Meeropol wrote a poem entitled "Strange Fruit" that begins with the words: "Southern trees bear a strange fruit / Blood on the leaves and blood at the root." He set the poem to music and a few years later convinced Billy holiday to record it in a legendary heartbreaking performance. Intertwining jazz genealogy, biography, performance footage, and the history of lynching, director Joel Katz fashions a fascinating discovery of the lost story behind a true American classic. Written by Excerpted from Coolidge Corner Theatre Program Update