Strange Fruit Movie Screening!
Tuesday, September 6, 2016 @ 7:00 p.m.
The Athol Public Library presents
Strange Fruit Movie Screening
Tuesday, September 6, 2016
7:00 pm
Large Program Room
7:00 pm
Large Program Room
Join us on Tuesday, September 6, at 7:00, as Athol Daily News columnist Allen Young hosts a screening of Strange Fruit at the Athol Library.
(From pbs.org): STRANGE FRUIT explores the history and legacy of a song unique in the annals of American music. Best-known from Billie Holiday's haunting 1939 rendition, the song "Strange Fruit" is a harrowing portrayal of the lynching of a black man in the American South.
The film tells a dramatic story of America's past by using one of the most influential protest songs ever written as its epicenter. The saga brings us face-to-face with the terror of lynching as it spotlights the courage and heroism of those who fought for racial justice when to do so was to risk ostracism and livelihood if white - and death if black. It examines the history of lynching, and the interplay of race, labor, the Left and popular culture that would give rise to the civil rights movement.
The tale of "Strange Fruit" - its genesis, impact and continuing relevance - is an amazingly complex one that weaves together the lives of African Americans, immigrant Jews, anticommunist government officials, civil rights leaders, radical Leftist teachers and organizers, music publishers, record company executives and jazz musicians. In many ways, the story of the song and its writer and interpreters is as moving and oddly haunting as the song itself.
Made possible by the Friends of the Athol Public Library.
Free and Open to the Public.
Light refreshments.
Please call 978-249-9515 to reserve your spot.
Light refreshments.
Please call 978-249-9515 to reserve your spot.
Posted: to Athol Library News on Tue, Aug 23, 2016
Updated: Wed, Aug 24, 2016
