Strange Fruit

We recorded our 200th episode in front of an audience this week at the Green Building in Nulu! Guests Karter Louis and Leah Halston joined us to dish about everything from problematic superheros to some truly disturbing candy preferences. We took questions from the audience, then danced the night away!

Was it Ellen's Puppy Episode? The formation of the Mattachine Society? The Repeal of DOMA? Or Muriel Hemingway locking lips with Roseanne? The Kentuckiana Pride Festival is this weekend, and to celebrate, we each count down our favorite Pride moments on this week's show — from academics and activism, to politics and pop culture. Let us know what you think of our choices, and tweet us your own!

Last week we talked about a new song and video by New Orleans-based rapper Fly Young Red. "Lorraine" deals with the challenges faced by trans women of color, from violence to poverty. On this week's show, Fly Young Red joins us and reveals the song's very personal, real-life inspiration. Fly's gay sister, a trans woman named Chyna Gibson, was shot and killed in late February, at just 31 years old. "I felt like I had the responsibility to go ahead and do this song, to tell the story of those girls so I can help save somebody," Fly says. "Because it happens all the time." In our Juicy Fruit segment this week, WFPL's digital editor Jonese Franklin joins us and we talk about everything from foster care for trans kids in Canada to the 40th anniversary of everybody's uncle's favorite hairstyle: the Jheri curl.

Ten years ago, Brian Buford was put in charge of the LGBT Center at the University of Louisville. That same year, UofL created its Audre Lorde Chair in Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality Studies — a position held ever since by our own Dr. Story. The campus wasn't openly hostile to gay students, but it wasn't explicitly inclusive, either. And those at the intersections of queer and Black were feeling even more unsure of where to find belonging. Buford says he knew they had their work cut out for them. "How do we go from a quiet acceptance to a campus where we're actively advocating for you," he says. "We're sending a message of welcome and inclusion and support." Now, ten years later, UofL has been held up as a nationwide example of LGBT inclusion — from the Bayard Rustin Themed Living Community to their program teaching medical students how to interact with their future LGBT patients. Buford was just named Grand Marshall of this year's Kentuckiana Pride Parade in honor of his work (He says he was visiting his parents' house when he got the news, and he woke them up to tell them, like a kid on Christmas morning!). And even in the midst of his excitement, he makes it a point that it took a lot of academics, volunteers, students, allies, and others to make the school what it is today. "I think we share this as a campus community," Buford says. "The work has been all of our work." He joins us this week to talk about that work, what he still hopes to accomplish, and what in the world he's gonna wear to the parade (it'll be hard to top last year's fairy wings and rainbow tights).

He's one of the great Black thought leaders of our time, especially when it comes to black masculinity. So of course, when we had the chance to talk to Dr. Mark Anthony Neal about anything our hearts desired, we brought up rompers.

This week, longtime Louisville activist and artist Tan Hazelwood joins us for an all-Juicy-Fruit episode! We talk about Lavinia Woodward, the Oxford student who stabbed and otherwise assaulted her boyfriend during a drug-induced argument. A judge delayed her sentencing and likely won't give her jail time because she's studying to be a surgeon and her future is so bright. She's young, slim, pretty, and white, in case you hadn't guessed. Sounds like a case of what we on this side of the pond would call "affluenza." Fruitcakes, do you have Hoteps in your life? Are they popping up on your timeline with poorly-thought-out arguments about the emasculation of the Black man, and how #BlackLivesMatter isn't for them because it was started by queer women? We listen to and analyze a passionate rebuttal by Mouse Jones, from Slay TV's show The Grapevine. "Let them lead! They're trying to make sure we're not shot no more," Jones says in the video. "You're not doing it. I can't do it. A lot of us can't do it." Author Feminista Jones also had us cracking up this week when she tweeted, "Piss a man off today: tell him you agree with his compliment of you." What followed was a flurry of screenshots of women doing just that, and a conversation about why women are not only expected to look flawless, but to somehow not think or know when they do.

This is Mother's Day weekend, and we decided to have two very special guests on the show to celebrate: our moms! Jaison interviewed Kaila's mom, Sylvia, and Kaila interviewed Jaison's mom, Jackie. Embarrassing baby stories ensued. We also invited some of our fruitcakes to tell stories about their moms, and what they shared will make you laugh, cry, and want to hug your mom.

When you invite your mamas onto the radio, anything could happen. We learned a lot about each other, and we asked some of our friends to share stories about their mamas, too. Catch the full episode this weekend at strangefruitpod.org.

"When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Hip-Hop Feminist Breaks It Down" came out in 1999. It was the age of the video vixen, and feminists were decrying the objectification of women in hip-hop imagery and lyrics. Then Joan Morgan published her groundbreaking book examining the complexities of life as a black woman, feminist, and music lover in the age of hip-hop. This year, the book turns 18. Last month, a new edition was published with a forward by Brittney Cooper and an afterword by Treva Lindsey. It's also just been released as an audio book, read by actor Joy Bryant. It's clearly a work with enduring relevance, but its initial reception wasn't all positive. "There were a lot of elder feminist stateswomen who basically just dismissed the book as, 'this person is not really a feminist because if she was really a feminist, she couldn't possibly love hip hop,'" Morgan says. "So finding my tribe years later - the people who actually find value in the book, has been such a precious gift to me. It's incredible to me that it still has a place in the culture." One member of that tribe is our own Dr. Kaila Story, who first read "Chickenheads" as a college senior. "It made me confirm that I belong in feminism," Doc says. "That I am a feminist. That I can bring my whole self, my entire self, to the professoriate, to my classes, and to the work that I do." Joan Morgan joins us this week to talk about what's changed in black feminism between now and 1999 — and what still needs to.

Derby Week is finally here! With it come fancy hats, random celebrity sightings, tardiness to work, and parties all night, every night. Derby events come in all shapes, sizes, and degrees of swankiness. This week, we learn about a two-part Thurby night party that's raising money for a cause dear to our own hearts. The Rainbows & Roses Soirée is a fundraiser for the LGBTQ+ Coalition of Louisville, the brainchild of artsits Josh Miller and Theo Edmonds, who join us this week to tell us more. The coalition came together just over a year ago, with members from Louisville Youth Group, Kentuckiana Pride Coalition, Trans Women National, and IDEAS xLab. They have an ambitious five-year plan to create an LGBTQ+ Community Center. Theo Edmonds says they wanted to focus on what people actually want and need before putting any bricks on the ground. "The important part of a community center is that first word: community," he says. Edmonds say they decided to spend a year assessing those needs, so they've held a series of town hall meetings with LGBTQ Louisvillians. "We've had them in nightclubs, we've had them in churches, we've had them on Saturday mornings and Tuesday nights and at the Urban League." What did they learn? How diverse our community really is. "The LGBTQ community is not a monolith. We are as varied as the colors on the rainbow flag. So we wanted to make sure we were hearing from everyone." Proceeds from the Rainbows & Roses Soirée will go towards building the community center. The party will feature performances from LouisVogue and RuPaul's Drag Race All-Star Latrice Royale. Details and tickets are on the coalition's website. Joining us for Juicy Fruit this week is one of our favorite local photographers, Sowande Malone. We tackle the Shea Moisture debacle and hair hate. We also examine People Magazine's choice for most beautiful woman of 2017... Julia Roberts? As you might imagine, we have some picks of our own. Listen to this week's show in the player above, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Is it ok for a woman to cry in public? What about a man? What about an NBA player on the bench before a playoff game? According to former player Charles Barkley, it's "not a good look" — even if the player's sister was just killed in a car crash. On today's show we're talking about this and other recent episodes of public figures attempting to police behavior based on gender. Joining us to talk through it is Explore Kentucky founder Gerry James.

The news has been full of stories in the past few weeks relevant to what we cover here on Strange Fruit. So rather than put them into a Juicy Fruit segment, we decided to do a whole news round-up show, to provide some analysis of the systemic and historic context behind the current headlines. We cover Dr. David Dao's rough treatment by United Airlines, and White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer's remarks about Hitler. Both include examples of soft language, where "re-accommodation" means a concussion, a broken nose, and two missing teeth, and "holocaust centers," are better known as concentration camps. The phrase concentration camp conjures up images that are unspeakably awful but seem safely behind us, but reports out of Chechnya this month call that safety into question. Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta reports that gay men in Chechnya are being subjected to torture, forced into camps, and in some cases, killed. The Chechan government says those reports can't be true, because there are no gay people in Chechnya. “You cannot detain and persecute people who simply do not exist in the republic,” government spokesperson Alvi Karimov told Interfax news agency. “If there were such people in Chechnya, the law-enforcement organs wouldn’t need to have anything to do with them because their relatives would send them somewhere from which there is no returning.”

This just in, Fruitcakes! Racism is over. Kendall Jenner solved it by giving a cop a soft drink in a commercial. We're talking, of course, about the commercial Pepsi released (and has since pulled) wherein Jenner attends a Black-Lives-Matter-style protest, offers a police officer a Pepsi, and there is much rejoicing and U-N-I-T-Y all around. We talk about the many ways in which this is problematic this week on Strange Fruit. Our guest is Minda Honey, sex and relationship advice columnist for LEO Weekly. She's writing a book about the dating misadventures that have befallen her as a woman of color. While we had her in the studio, we couldn't resist telling a few tales of our own dating disasters. If you have a sex or relationship question, you can ask Minda at AskMindaHoney@leoweekly.com (Jai's already signed up for several anonymous email accounts, so watch your inbox, Minda).

Almost as soon as the new Dave Chappelle comedy specials hit Netflix, we could tell there were problems. Our twitter timelines lit up with people talking about homophobia, transphobia, and jokes about sexual assault. We watched, and we agreed. Whatever Dave's been doing for the last twelve years, it didn't involve evolving along with the rest of us. Also this week, RuPaul spoke about something that's been a scourge of gay bars ever since straight people found out about them: bachelorette parties. And Bill O'Reilly had the nerve to come for America's favorite Auntie, Congresswoman Maxine Waters - not by challenging her policies or political positions, but by saying she wore a "James Brown wig." The clap back could be heard from outer space, and continues to reverberate through every dusty corner of the internet and cable TV. Finally, closer to home, the Kentucky General Assembly wrapped up its session this week. One bill that made it through the session was SB 120, which seeks to address some of the challenges faced by incarcerated and formerly-incarcerated people. We learn more this week from Holly Harris, Executive Director of the U.S. Justice Action Network.

Gospel singer Kim Burrell performed on the song "I See Victory" on the soundtrack to the award-winning film "Hidden Figures." She was scheduled to perform the song, along with Pharrell Williams, on the Ellen DeGeneres Show. But then, a video of one of her sermons went viral. "Everybody in this room who’s filled with the homosexual spirit, pray to God to free you," the sermon warned. "You play with it! What does that mean? You’ll die from it. You’ll die! You play with it in God’s house in 2017, you’ll die from it." And just like that, everyone was talking — again — about homophobia in the black church. And on this week's episode, so our we, with guest is Dr. Michael Brandon McCormack, Assistant Professor of Pan-African Studies and Comparative Humanities at the University of Louisville. Dr. McCormack says at the root of some of homophobia in black congregations lies an old familiar culprit: respectability politics. "There's a sense in which black Christians have always wanted to seem rather orthodox in terms of their doctrinal beliefs and convictions," McCormack says. "We are true believers, but more than that, our morality is not to be questioned. There would be a push to take holiness very seriously. That comes across against the backdrop of the racialization of black bodies as being deviant, as already being violent and already being hyper-sexual, so there's this whole notion of respectability politics that is pushed by a certain kind of religious orientation toward what it means to be holy or what it means to be right with God."