Poetess and author Simone ‘Fruit Tree’ Dewar is pleased with the early response to her latest release, Black and Naked, a poem that is a rhythmic celebration of the African heritage and the beauty and power of the black skin.

“I’m at 1000 streams with the single which honestly for a poet that’s pretty freaking good. I’m grateful, it shows that my brand is definitely growing,” she said.

Beauty, resilience, pain and identity are common themes used to articulate the black experience in literature and Dewar’s Black and Naked mirrors this common experience: resilience and invention inspired by pain.

“Black and Naked is a piece about the power of the melanin, and how we are supercharged by the sun, blessed by the rays, forever black and naked…this is me in 2023, paying homage to my ancestors, saying this is me, my authentic self, proud to be in my natural state. We, as black people, have used every obstacle to our advantage, they put us in the sun, and regardless of what they’ve done, we’ve turned it around, we’re sun people, we are still here! We excel in every situation, with our melanin, our blackness,” she added.

Black and Naked was released in June.

Dewar is known for other singles such as Life Lessons, Online Love, the racy Coming, Adam and Eve and Leader.

These songs will be part of an EP called Collections which will be released later this year. In the meantime, she has been performing the pieces at live poetry readings all over the Corporate Area.

“One of my favourite spots is the poetry night dubbed Poetry Plus every Thursday at AC Marriott. The last time I did Black and Naked there, the audience loved it,” she said.

A former legal manager, Dewar walked away from her chosen vocation to pursue her art, and she hasn’t regretted it.

“Poetry found me 10 years ago. I was unhappy with how mundane my life had become, and I reached a point where I would go home and turn off lights and sit in silence and ask myself: ‘Simone, why are you here? What is your purpose?’ I was compelled to write. It was an awakening moment and it came with poetry, and I wanted to write,” she said.

She has released four books — Fruits and Truth, two children’s books, plus a novel titled Carry Her Burdens. They are all available on Amazon.

“I am just bringing the fruits with my words, I am bringing the seeds of knowledge,” Dewar said.