Strange Fruit: Words Protesting Lynchings and Burnings
Strange Fruit: Words Protesting Lynchings and Burnings
Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr., Jubilee Press
1994
Materials
Letterpress, offset lithography, and handmade abaca paper, uneditioned
Size
6 1/4 x 4 7/8 x 3/4 inches
Racine Art Museum, GIft of Elizabeth Lackey in memory of Dr. Jeanne E. McCarthy
About the artwork.
Amos Kennedy’s artists’ book Strange Fruit: Words Protesting Lynchings and Burnings exemplifies his engagement with social concerns and underscores his identity as a “social printer.” “Strange Fruit” is the name of a poem written in 1937 by Abel Meeropol that served as the basis of a protest song and, ultimately, Billie Holliday’s well-known song. Meeropol, like other artists of the 1930s, felt compelled to respond to injustice and violence against Black people in the United States.