Stranger Fruit

Our relationship to ancestry, labor, drugs, and mass incarceration told through archival footage and experimental sound.

Watch the Performance

 

Reflection Questions

  1. The Growth Eternal shares that often he needs to block out a day where there is “no goal other than enjoying living” as a way to reclaim humanity. When can you carve out a time —whether days, a day, or a block of time within a day — to simply be and exist? And what would you do, or not do, with that time and spaciousness for yourself?

  2. This piece shows real archival footage of exploitation of Black bodies to expand a white supremacist agenda — including wealth built on exploitation, mass incarceration during the “war on drugs,” and colonialism. If you are in the philanthropic sector, have you had conversations about these topics in relation to philanthropic wealth? What action steps can be taken towards reparation? As an individual, have you had these reflections?

About The Growth Eternal

The Growth Eternal in the middle of a blue and yellow banner with flowers.

Byron Crenshaw

Composer and Musician

@thegrowtheternal

The Growth Eternal is Tulsa-native Byron Crenshaw — a descendant of Black Wall Street pioneers. Currently, he resides in Los Angeles and is a jazz bassist, vocodorist, producer/songwriter/composer, and artist. 

Interview with The Growth Eternal

What are three records you go to for inspiration?

Stevie Wonder - Innervisions

Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly

Hiatus Kaiyote - Choose Your Weapon

What does radical rest and radical joy mean to you and how do you weave those into your practice?

To doing what I want when I want without regard for schedule/money. I have to block out days where I don’t have a goal other than enjoying living.

What elders, movements, thought leaders and change-makers inform and support your work as an artist?

Right now: my parents, psychedelia, fusion jazz, Octavia Butler, James Jamerson, Erykah Badu, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, Kendrick Lamar, Thích Nhật Hạnh, Yuval Noah Harari, Bootsie Collins, Roxanne Gay, Noam Chomsky, Dr. Carl Hart, Toni Morrison, Kilindi Iyi, James Baldwin, Donald Glover, Solange Knowles.