#EORCA's #BlackHistoryMonth celebration of Jazz continues on with a deeper look at the genre as a vehicle for social change. This week, we focus on the legendary BILLIE HOLIDAY and one of her most iconic and important songs - "Strange Fruit." 🎤 Born in Philadelphia in 1915, Holiday is regarded as one of the greatest jazz singers of all time. But one of her most famous songs was one she almost didn't perform. 🍇 "Strange Fruit" was originally written as a poem by a Jewish American named Abel Meeropol after he saw a photo depicting the lynching of two Black teens in Indiana in the 1930s. Meeropol ended up turning the poem into song and performed it with his wife Anne and another African American singer, Laura Duncan, before Holiday heard about it while working at New York's first integrated nightclub, Cafe Society. 🤔 Initially fearful of reprisals for singing such a polarizing song, Holiday eventually recorded it alongside the Cafe Society Band in 1939 - not with her primary recor...