to Strange Fruit Arts Center
The mission of Strange Fruit is to connect people with African American art through innovative, unique art, and art education by local African American artists where talents are exposed to the community. In turn, artists share their gift and love of art by educating other art enthusiasts from beginners to advanced classes and pop-up events which would enrich and contribute to the economic development of the community.
Featured Artists
Pame' Sawyer-Smith
Pame’ Sawyer-Smith is a self-taught abstract artist originally based in the Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina area and later made Georgia her home. She uses her God-given talents to create textured, mixed-media abstracts of fluid movements in vibrant and festive hues or delicately soft spectrums of pastel colors.
Artis Hill-Williamson
Artis Hill-Williamson is a ceramics sculptor based in Atlanta, GA. In 2015 she began sculpting and found her passion. She finds intrigue in creating imaginative and stylized sculptures focusing on African Americans. Her sculptors have been shown at local exhibits and most recently her sculptures are in two Juneteenth exhibits in the Atlanta Metro area.
Emari Gray
Born and raised in Queens, NY I practiced sketching and learning the basics and fundamentals of art.
It has become more than just a passion but a lifestyle I plan to never give up. It has helped me to communicate and express myself in numerous ways.
About Us
The song, ‘Strange Fruit,’ written by Abel Meeropol in 1937, and made popular through the unique voice of legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday, represents the horrific lynching of black people in the American South during the early 1900’s.
The song exposed the harsh brutality and dirty little secret of racism in America. In stark contrast to the metaphor of the song, the idea of changing the narrative of Strange Fruit was born and transformed into Strange Fruit Arts Center.
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