← Back
Throughline August 22, 2019 30m

Strange Fruit

NPR

Summary

Billie Holiday's life story is a powerful narrative of resilience, artistic brilliance, and resistance against systemic racism, focusing on her groundbreaking performance of the protest song "Strange Fruit." The transcript details her challenging early life, including childhood trauma, racial oppression, and her emergence as a transformative jazz singer who used her art to challenge societal injustices. Her performance of "Strange Fruit," a poetic and haunting song about lynching, became a profound act of musical protest that drew significant government attention and ultimately positioned her as an early victim of the war on drugs.

View original episode ↗