About this item
The audience was completely silent the first time Billie Holiday performed a song called "Strange Fruit." In the 1930s, Billie was known as a performer of jazz and blues music, but this song wasn't either of those things. It was a song about injustice, and it would change her life forever.Discover how two outsiders Billie Holiday, a young black woman raised in poverty, and Abel Meeropol, the son of Jewish immigrants combined their talents to create a song that challenged racism and paved the way for the Civil Rights movement.
About the Author
A visual artist, musician, and psychotherapist, Gary Golio is the author of the New York Times- bestselling JIMI: Sounds Like A Rainbow - A Story of the Young Jimi Hendrix, recipient of a 2011 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award. His other books include When Bob Met Woody: The Story of the Young Bob Dylan; Spirit Seeker: The Musical Journey of John Coltrane; Bird & Diz - Two Friends Create Bebop; Strange Fruit - Billie Holiday and the Power of a Protest Song; Carlos Santana - Sound of the Heart, Song of the World; SMILE - How Young Charlie Chaplin Taught the World to Laugh (and Cry) ; Dark Was the Night - Blind Willie Johnson's Journey to the Stars; and Sonny Rollins Plays the Bridge. His forthcoming books include Everywhere Beauty is Harlem - The Vision of Photographer Roy DeCarava (2023) , and Only A Friend - How Walt Whitman Touched Ten Thousand Lives in the American Civil War (2023) . Each of these books highlights an artist's roots and influences, promoting the idea that artists are models of persistence and commitment, embodying values of imagination, hopefulness, and self-acceptance.
