Tag Archives: Billie Holiday
Seamus Heaney: More Strange Fruit
August 8, 2012 This week I’ve been listening to many versions of “Strange Fruit”: Nina Simone, Jeff Buckley, Gil Evans and the Sting. I have to say: I still prefer Billie Holiday. But I had no idea Seamus Heaney also … Continue reading
Posted in African-American literature, collaboration, Comparative literature, contemporary poetry, Diaspora, Gender, globe, Irish literature, lyric, Modernist poetry, Music, Race, Racial violence, Remediation, Rock music, slavery, Translation, twentieth century art, Twentieth century literature, World history, world literature, YouTube videos
Tagged " Jutland, " Seamus Heaney, "Punishment, "Strange Fruit, Billie Holiday, Denmark, Gil Evans, Jeff Buckley, Nina Simone, North (1975), Northern Ireland, the Sting
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Billie Holiday, Abel Meeropol: Black/Jewish Strange Fruit
July 25, 2012 Billie sang it, but the music and lyrics were Abel’s. He had first written it as a poem, after seeing the photograph of the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Indiana on August 7, 1930. … Continue reading
Posted in adaptation, Black-Jewish alliances, Cities, collaboration, Educational institutions, Ethnicity, Jewish literature, lyric, Media, Music, Newspapers, print medium, Publishers, Race, Racial violence, slavery, Twentieth century literature
Tagged " Café Society, "Strange Fruit, Abel Meeropol, Abram Smith, Billie Holiday, Columbia Records, Commodore, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, Indiana, Lady Sings the Blues, Laura Duncan, Lewis Allan, Madison Square Garden, New York Teacher, Robert and Michael Meeropol, Sonny White, Thomas Shipp
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Gertrude Stein and Richard Wright
November 2, 2011 When Richard Wright applied for a passport in January 1946, he was turned down. The State Department did not look favorably on left-leaning Americans (in this case, an ex-Communist) leaving their country and maligning it from abroad. … Continue reading
Posted in Paris
Tagged Add new tag, Billie Holiday, black English, Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright, Saul Bellow
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