Stranger Fruit is an art exhibition that will feature photographs by Jon Henry at the Pool Art Center. The opening reception will be Friday, March 1 from 5 – 8 p.m. Directly following Black History Month, this exhibition is meant to draw attention to an issue that directly affects the lives of African Americans in our country on a daily basis: the rate at which black men specifically are shot and killed by police.

Henry’s exhibition features photographs of black women holding their sons and family members posed to emulate the form that police violence towards this minority group often takes.

According to a statement made by Henry, “Lost in the furor of media coverage, lawsuits and protests is the plight of the mother. Who, regardless of the legal outcome, must carry on without her child.”

He focuses on an aspect of these acts of violence that is not often covered in the fervid but brief onset of social media conversation and hashtags that often follow these tragedies – the way that the mothers of these black men must go on with their lives after such a senseless act.

The name of this exhibition references a song by Billie Holiday that was popularized in a time when black men faced the violence and fear of being targeted by lynchings. The title of this exhibition draws a clear comparison between the threat of lynching and the threat of police violence exhibited today, as both are acts that specifically target black men.

Henry stated that, “Instead of black bodies hanging from the Poplar Tree, these fruits of our families, our communities, are being killed in the street.”

The threat of police violence, despite social media outcry, is as relevant a threat now as it was several years ago to the African American community.

Henry asks, with his photography,

“Who is next? Me? My brother? My friends?” and “How do we protect these men?”

Written by Lauren Barclay.