It should not be so hard to write both poetry and fiction. Both arts, after all, make use of the same materials, words and punctuation. Poems...
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Recorded by jazz legend Billie Holiday in 1939, "Strange Fruit" is considered to be the first significant song of the civil rights movement and the first direct musical assault upon racial lynchings in the South. Originally sung in New York's Cafe Society, these revolutionary lyrics take on a life of their own in this revealing account of the song and the struggle it personified. Strange Fruit not only chronicles the civil rights movement from the '30s on, it examines the lives of the beleaguered Billie Holiday and Abel Meeropol, the white Jewish schoolteacher and communist sympathizer who wrote the song that would have an impact on generations of fans, black and white, unknown and famous, including performers Lena Horne, Eartha Kitt, and Sting.
Synopsis:
Recorded by jazz legend Billie Holiday in 1939, "Strange Fruit" is considered the first significant song of the civil rights movement and the first musical assault against racial lynchings. The author discusses his revealing account of the song, chronicles the civil rights movement from the 1930s on, and profiles Holiday and songwriter, Abel Meeropol. Photos.
David Margolick is a contributor to Vanity Fair and the former National Legal Affairs Editor for the New York Times. A four-time Pulitzer Prize nominee, he is the author of Undue Influence and At the Bar. He lives in New York City.
dogismycopilot, October 27, 2011 (view all comments by dogismycopilot)
I read this book after using the California Newsreel/Independent Lens DVD by the same name in several of my college courses. The book is insightful and very interesting. My only complaint is that I wish it was even more in depth!
"Synopsis"
by Libri,
Recorded by jazz legend Billie Holiday in 1939, "Strange Fruit" is considered the first significant song of the civil rights movement and the first musical assault against racial lynchings. The author discusses his revealing account of the song, chronicles the civil rights movement from the 1930s on, and profiles Holiday and songwriter, Abel Meeropol. Photos.
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