Strange Fruit - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

• The 1944 novel Strange Fruit by author Lillian Smith, was said to have been inspired by Holiday's version of the song.

• In the 1995 film, Tales From The Hood, the song is featured during the Rogue Cop Revelation segment.

• The short film, Strange Fruit, written and directed by Christopher Browne.

• The Seattle literary magazine the strange fruit is named after the song.

• American drama TV Show Touched by an Angel: Episode 7 series 7: "God Bless the Child", performed by Paula Jai Parker as Billie Holiday. Air date: November 26, 2000.

• A 2005 episode of the crime drama series Cold Case bears the title "Strange Fruit". The plot concerns the murder of a young African-American man who was active in the civil rights movement in 1963.

• The opera Strange Fruit was adapted from the novel by Lillian Smith (above). A commissioned work, it premiered on June 15, 2007 at the Long Leaf Opera Festival in Chapel Hill, North Carolina starring:, baritone, and Erina Newkirk, soprano. Chandler Carter was the composer and Joan Ross Sorkin was the librettist.
• The British playwright Caryl Phillips named his first play after the song.
• Avenda Burnell Walsh's novel Strange Fruit was inspired by and named for the song.
• The song, "Strange Fruit", written and performed by Common and John Legend. Produced by Kanye West.
• The choral song "Ain'tcha Gotta Right to the Tree of Life?", by Paul Caldwell and Sean Ivory, includes the lines, "Once upon a time the trees bore strange fruit / but then a dream of justice came and it took root."
• The poem "Strange Fruit" by the Irish poet Seamus Heaney.
• The poem "Strange Fruit" by Joy Harjo.
• The song "Strange Fruit" produced by Pete Rock performed by Tragedy Khadafi, Cappadonna & Sticky Fingaz
• The song "Strange Fruit" by Zomby. Related in name only.
• The song "Strange Fruit", performed by Katey Sagal, was featured in a montage on the TV show Sons of Anarchy.
• The song "Strange Fruit" is played on the radio in the second volume Arctic Nation of the graphic novel Blacksad
• Rapper Danny! recorded "Strange Fruit," a song about his encounter with a racist hotel manager who prevents him and his friends from checking into a reserved room after discovering they were black.