“Strange Fruit” for Our Times from Koh and Tines

This past Friday Voices of Hope presented a new music film conceived to distill the history of Asian American oppression and highlight the untold story of solidarity between Asian Americans and the Black community. The film has been uploaded to YouTube, where it will be available for viewing through this coming May 31. The music is provided by the duo of violinist Jennifer Koh and operatic bass-baritone Davoné Tines with electronics provided by Berkeley-based composer Ken Ueno.

The score for the film is basically an arrangement of the song “Strange Fruit,” first recorded by Billie Holiday for the Commodore label on April 20, 1939. Ueno composed the arrangement, preceding it with a solo violin introduction. The lyrics were taken from a poem by Abel Meeropol that provided an uncompromising depiction of the lynching of Black Americans. The poem was published under Meeropol’s pseudonym, Lewis Allan. He then worked with his wife, Laura Duncan, to compose music for his text, which Holiday then recorded (with Commodore crediting the song to Allan).

The visual content of the film was conceived by dramaturg Kee-Yoon Nahm. It is definitely not for the faint of heart. The images basically interleave photographs of the lynchings that inspired Meeropol’s poem with both photographs and video of brutal acts of violence against Asian Americans. The sound track is limited entirely to Ueno’s score, serving to provide a context for images that could not be more blunt in speaking for themselves.

In Ueno’s setting neither Koh and Tines ever deliver a straightforward account of either the music or the words for the original “Strange Fruit” setting. To some extent Ueno’s arrangement appeals to those already familiar with Holiday’s recording. However, those lacking that familiarity will still “get the message” of the parallel between past treatment of the Black community and the current acts of violence against Asian Americans. As one with that familiarity, I have to note that I was impressed with how Tines’ delivery of Ueno’s arrangement begins with a subtle “insinuation” of Meeropol’s music, with the words becoming clearer as, more and more, they underscore the impact of the visual content.

The introduction to this film on Koh’s Facebook page notes that the “program contains graphic images that some viewers may find disturbing;” but, when it comes to putting out the word about this film, I have to side with Albert Einstein, who said about conditions in Nazi Germany, “If I were to remain silent, I’d be guilty of complicity.”