This is a piece I choreographed and performed for ‘Black Excellences Night’ at Wright State University in the Jubilee Directing Lab

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Originally a poem called ‘Bitter Fruit’ was written by the Jewish school teacher named Abel Meeropol under the pseudonym Lewis Allen. He wrote ‘Bitter Fruit’ was written in response to lynching in US southern states.

“I wrote Strange Fruit because I hate lynching, and I hate injustice, and I hate the people who perpetuate it,” Meeropol said in 1971.

"Strange Fruit” is a euphemism for the lynched bodies of African Americans hanging and swaying from trees.