Artistic Responses to
Social Injustice
Pearl Primus and Strange Fruit
“Strange Fruit”
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http://acceleratedmotion.wesleyan.edu/pri
mary_sources/video/identities_stage_fruit
/stage_fruit.php?vid=stage_fruit_sm&siz=s
m
What was that?
What is the dance about?
 How can you tell?
 What movements were particularly
meaningful to you?
 What does the costume tell you about
the character?
 Who do you think the woman is?
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“Strange Fruit” by Lewis Allan
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“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”
“Strange Fruit” by Lewis Allan
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“Pastoral scene of the gallant south, the
bulging eyes and the twisted mouth, scent
of magnolias, sweet and fresh, then the
sudden smell of burning flesh.”
“Strange Fruit” by Lewis Allan
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“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.”
Discussion
How do you feel after hearing and reading
the poem by Allan?
 What do you know about the South in
the early 20th century?
 Do you have any guesses about the life of
author?
 Do you have any guesses about the life of
the choreographer?

“Strange Fruit” by Pearl Primus

http://acceleratedmotion.wesleyan.edu/pri
mary_sources/video/identities_stage_fruit
/stage_fruit.php?vid=stage_fruit_sm&siz=s
m
Discussion
How do you feel now? Is there a greater
impact with the poem and the dance
together?
 What role do you think the woman plays?
 Is art of this sort important to our
society? Why or why not?
 What will you take away from this
experience?
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Pearl Primus
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Born November 29, 1919 in Trinidad
Raised in New York City
Earned BA in Biology, 1940
Began studying dance in 1941 with the New
Dance Group, first interracial arts
organization
Choreographic debut 1943
Dances were political statements
Story in “Strange Fruit” told from a white
woman’s perspective
Abel Meeropol
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Born February 10, 1903 in New York City
Jewish schoolteacher, social activist, writer
Known for adopting Robert and Micahel
Rosenberg, orphaned children of executed
communists Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
Wrote “Strange Fruit” under pseudonym
Lewis Allan, as response to gruesome
photograph of a lynching
Poem was set to music and first recorded by
Billie Holliday in 1939
Sources
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Allen, Z. (2001). A Tale of Two Pioneers. Retrieved
from
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/freetodance/behind/behi
nd_tale2.html
Margolick, D. (September 1988). Strange Fruit.
Originally published in Vanity Fair. Retrieved from
http://www.ladyday.net/stuf/vfsept98.html.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/freetodance/biographies
/primus.html
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/b/billie+holiday/strang
e+fruit_20017859.html
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/strangefruit/f
ilm.html