Strange Fruit

Coming up this week on our 150th episode: Jill Scott!

It's our 150th episode! And who better to celebrate with than legendary soul singer Jill Scott? Scott performed in Louisville this week, and she took some time out of a busy touring schedule to visit with us on Strange Fruit. We wanted to know how she maintains her integrity in an industry that seems to value marketability more than artistry. "Anytime I go outside of the realm of who I am intrinsically, I start feeling funny, I get sick, I ain't right," she explains. "I just won't do it. 'Cause my spirit will knock me out - believe it." She also told us how she kept her son from getting separation anxiety when she left for work - by turning the electrical breaker off, so he could understand what would happen if she didn't earn a living. "It was a huge lesson for him," she said. "The next day, he was like, 'Mommy, can you go to work?'" We covered amazing black motherhood in our Juicy Fruit segment too, with special guest Jason Walker (who was a guest on our very first episode!). Erykah Badu recently made a joke at Iggy Azalea's expense at BET’s Soul Train Awards. Then this week, saying her daughters love Azalea, she issued a hilarious "apology" (http://thegrio.com/2015/12/08/erykah-badu-issues-hilarious-apology-to-iggy-azalea/). And of course, we recap The Wiz LIVE on NBC: what worked, what didn't, and how it stacked up to other versions of the iconic show. (Image credit: jillscott.com)

[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/236107218" params="color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /] This week, on World AIDS Day, we reflected on those we've lost, and those who are still fighting — against both HIV/AIDS itself, and the ignorance that leads to shame and criminalization. We also learned about a piece of AIDS history we never knew before: This week on Entertainment Tonight, model Kathy Ireland revealed that Dame Elizabeth Taylor ran what was essentially an underground drug ring and safe house to help HIV positive people. At the time, healthcare for AIDS patients was abysmal, and lifesaving drugs had to be smuggled into the country illegally. And Jaison told us about a great panel discussion featuring Norman Lear, the pioneering TV producer behind socially-progressive shows like "All in the Family," "Good Times," "The Jeffersons," and more. Lear said TV is still a place where social norms can be challenged and stereotypes can be upended. New shows like "Black-ish" have picked up where the groundbreaking shows of Lear's heyday left off. But it's not just the content of TV shows that influence culture, for better or worse. The advertisements that come between show segments don't always just push products. They can also present certain mindsets about gender, race, sexuality and other values. "You virtually never see men in any kind of commercial cleaning up their home, or even their office space," Kaila notes. "This is how advertising basically facilitates ideas of misogyny and patriarchy." But it's not just women who are maligned by this approach — the same companies generally portray men as clueless and helpless in the domestic sphere, when in reality, Kaila notes, "A grown man knows how to do his laundry." Our feature interview this week also explores the social and economical forces that may hold men down — and how cities around the country are trying to mitigate those forces. This week, the Campaign for Black Male Achievement (CBMA) released its first-ever Black Male Achievement City Index. The index measures factors such as whether a city has philanthropic groups and leadership initiatives focused on helping black men and boys succeed. Louisville scored 51 out of a possible 100 points, putting us around the middle of the top 50 cities. Daryle Unseld, senior community manager for Metro United Way, joined us to talk about the local results, He said the Louisville numbers reflect national trends, and he's happy with the results. “I think it’s a great start,” Unseld said. “I think we have the urgency and the opportunity to do more. While we can celebrate some successes, I think we also need to be cognizant that we have a lot of work to do.” He laid out some of the initiatives that are happening around Louisville to improve. To understand the wider national context of the study, we spoke to Rashid Shabazz, a program officer with CBMA. He says while black men do face disparities from employment, education, and policing throughout the country, this particular report focuses on the ways cities are trying to help. “We want to spotlight these initiatives and efforts that are moving forward in the midst of the peril and the challenge that folks are facing,” he said. “These are glimmers of hope.”

This week, outgoing Governor Steve Beshear announced he would restore voting rights for Kentuckians convicted of most non-violent felonies. "The right to vote is one of the most intrinsically American privileges," Beshear said, "and thousands of Kentuckians are living, working and paying taxes in the state but are denied this basic right." Kentuckians for the Commonwealth's Sean Hardy joins us this week to talk about the importance re-enfranchising voters. He says keeping felons from voting doesn't fit in with a rehabilitation model of punishment. "You go in, you serve your time, you pay your debt to society, and you come back out to be a productive member of society," he explains. "Voting is part of that productive membership." Lost voting rights for non-violent offenses have historically affected African Americans disproportionately (thanks in part to the war on drugs). And being excluded from casting a ballot isn't the only way black Americans are excluded from the system of government — last week we talked about Jefferson Circuit Judge Olu Stevens, who's come under fire from prosecutors for dismissing two all-white juries in trials with black defendants. Stevens laid his case out on facebook, and said prosecutors are happy to have all-white juries hear their cases. Kentucky Supreme Court Chief Justice John Minton removed Jefferson Circuit Judge Olu Stevens from two criminal cases before him, and the state's highest court is expected to rule next week on whether he'll be removed from hearing all criminal cases. We talked this week about the activism springing up around Stevens, and equality in the legal system. We'll keep you posted as the story develops. We also chatted with Hardy about an upcoming fundraiser for Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, which happens to be a black trivia night — and we couldn't resist the chance to try our hand at some of his sample questions. See if you get more right answers than we did!

In an interview with Matt Lauer, Charlie Sheen revealed earlier this week that he's HIV positive. But in the days leading up to that, media outlets were already reporting his status. And according to Sheen himself, other people in his life had been blackmailing him for years to keep his secret. While those of us who routinely pay attention to issues surrounding HIV and AIDS know Charlie Sheen is not the face of the disease, the mainstream and tabloid media seemed to have forgotten about HIV until now. And the headlines feel like they were ripped from the early days of the AIDS crisis. To make some sense out of the way we're talking about HIV in the wake of Sheen's announcement, we turned to health policy analyst and friend to the show Preston Mitchum. Mitchum says Sheen's revelation, after years of publicly seeming out of control, draws an unhelpful parallel between illness and a behavior. "There is no person who deserves HIV," he explains. "Not sex workers, not someone who's only had sex once, not someone who's had sex with 500 people, not drug users. No one deserves HIV." Sheen's statement also included a hefty dose of shame for sex workers, calling them "unsavory and insipid types." Mitchum says this is problematic too, because it operates under the stereotype that sex workers all have HIV and never practice safe sex. "We can criticize Charlie Sheen's statements blaming sex workers, and also critique people who are shaming Charlie Sheen for sleeping with sex workers," Mitchum says. Later in the show, we learn about an upcoming book that will document an important part of black history in Louisville. The Louisville Story Program has been compiling photos, stories, and oral histories for their book, "I Said Bang! A History of the Dirt Bowl." Darcy Thompson, the program's director, joins us to talk about their work. And West Louisville native Ravon Churchill, featured in the book, talks about growing up attending the Dirt Bowl - an annual amateur basketball tournament in Shawnee Park. "It's kind of like a rite of passage for people in the community," he says. "I went and saw my father play. My son went and saw me play. I took my grandson to see other people play." Books are available for pre-ordering through the project's Kickstarter campaign, which will be active until Sunday night.

Since we spoke last week about University of Louisville President James Ramsey's poor treatment of Latino students on campus, racial tension has come to a head on other campuses across the country - most notably at the University of Missouri. And while we'd all like to think of college campuses as free from harassment and racism, banning certain speech outright brings up First Amendment Issues, and some say it can dampen the free exchange of ideas that should be a hallmark of educational environments. We talk about it this week with attorney A. Holland Houston, who joins us for an all-Juicy-Fruit episode. We also turn to her for perspective on Judge Olu Steven's recent dismissal of an all-white jury in the trial of a black defendant, and how the demographic makeup of a jury can affect the outcome of a trial. And she weighs in on the assault-by-twerking case out of DC, which sounds comical, but does bring up some serious issues of gender and sexual assault. Two women are being sought by police after forcibly dancing against (and groping) a man who was waiting in the check-out line. "What's good for the goose is good for the gander," she explains. We discuss whether people would like be more upset and less amused if the genders in the case were reversed. Or as Houston puts it, "What happens if women are the ones who are the aggressors, and if it crosses the line of, this is not the behavior that I want." Then WFPL's political reporter Ashley Lopez joins us to catch us up on a hot topic that's closer to home: the proposed methane plant in West Louisville. The story is complicated, and the players are familiar to most of us who live in Louisville. The ultimate question is, did West Louisville leaders sell out the health and needs of their neighbors in exchange for a payout? Or was the plant an inevitability anyway, so it was pragmatic to bring some money from the company back into the community, if possible?

The fallout continues from Halloween, when UofL President Dr. James Ramsey and his staff dressed up in stereotypical "Mexican" costumes for a luncheon. The photo went viral, and a few written apologies were issued, but they've been lacking. This week, an open letter was sent to Dr. Ramsey and the Board of Trustees, signed by 78 faculty members, and co-authored by one of our guests this week, Dr. David Owen, Chair of the Philosophy Department. Meanwhile, a group of students spent thirty hours coming up with a plan of action, and a list of demands to present to Dr. Ramsey and the school. This week, Ramsey granted them a meeting, but would only allow eight students in (and none of their faculty advisers) and would only give them half an hour. Tania Avalos was one of those eight students, and she joins us to talk about what happened at the meeting. She says Ramsey didn't seem to want to listen to them, but to talk more. When they interrupted and asked him to hear them out, Ramsey reportedly questioned their level of education and the way their mothers raised them. "He just insulted us," Avalos said, "and he didn't allow us to talk." "We were trying to explain to him from the beginning how Mexicans have been oppressed in this country," Avalos said, "and he interrupted and said, 'You know what? You think you know everything.'" "He actually said, 'If my god forgave me, I'm sure that you guys can too,'" she reported. We'll keep you posted on this story as it continues to develop. The Board of Trustees has yet to publicly comment on the letter from faculty. Also this week, Kentucky Public Radio's Capitol Bureau Chief Ryland Barton joins us to help us interpret the results of this week's general election. Governor Elect Matt Bevin has promised to repeal the expansion of Medicaid in Kentucky, causeing 400,000 low income citizens to lose health care, but no one seems to know yet whether he can do that through Executive Order, or whether he'll need to go through the legislature. And in our feature interview this week, we speak to Dr. Carol Anderson. She's an associate professor of African American Studies and history at Emory University, and was in town to deliver the 9th Annual Anne Braden Memorial Lecture. Dr. Anderson's speech focuses on what she calls "white rage" - essentially a fear and loathing of people of color. We talk about the different manifestations of racism in our society, including one of the most incisive takedowns of voter ID laws we've ever heard.

Coming up on this week's episode of Strange Fruit: More disrespect from UofL President James Ramsey, who agreed to meet with students of color but didn't let them speak, then accused them of being poorly-educated by the school, and badly-raised by their mothers. WFPL Capitol Bureau Chief Ryland Barton helps us digest the results of this week's election and understand what might happen next. And Dr. Carol Anderson was in Louisville this week to deliver the 9th Annual Anne Braden Memorial Lecture, and she stopped by our studio to drop some truths about racism in America, from slavery to Ferguson - including one of the best takedowns of voter ID laws we've ever heard.

It's Halloween, so to open this week's episode, Kaila recounts a ghost story she read about in local author David Dominé's book, "True Ghost Stories and Eerie Legends from America’s Most Haunted Neighborhood." The neighborhood in question is Old Louisville, and this story is specific to St. James Court - where we might never set foot again now that we've heard this! Legend has it that St. James residence didn't want St. James Flats (the area's first apartment complex) to be as tall as planned, so someone set it on fire. What they didn't know was that a little boy was supposedly on the top floor, warming up between grocery deliveries, when the fire took hold. Because he wasn't wealthy or important, so the story goes, his death was never reported on. But people say you can see his ghost in the courtyard on nights when there is snow or frost on the ground. We also talked about the five most popular, and least popular, Halloween candies in the U.S. Kaila named four out of five of the most popular candies without looking at the list ("I'm obsessed with candy," she explained). And Halloween wouldn't be complete without our favorite freaky movies — one of which is Rocky Horror Picture Show! Last week, we learned that Fox will release a "re-imagining" of the cult classic next fall, with Laverne Cox playing the lead role of Dr. Frank N. Furter. We love everything Laverne does, and this will surely be no different, but people have voiced some reservations, which we do understand. Will it confuse a mainstream audience to see a trans woman playing a character who calls themself a transvestite? Or will it be transgressive and reclaiming? Ultimately, we trust Laverne not to do anything that would set back the trans cause (and also we want Janelle Monáe to play Columbia). And speaking of famous people who have been on our show, we've been lucky enough to talk to some very notable folks. But sometimes it's great to check in with people in our own communities who are doing great things. So this week, our feature interviews are with two such people. Ontra Caples is the founder and CEO of Down Home Tea. When he was growing up, his grandma was known for her sweet tea. No neighborhood cookout or church supper was complete without it. After a stint in the military, briefly owning a store, then trying his hand at laying carpet, Caples decided to take that tried and true tea recipe to the next level. Now, Down Home Tea can be found in Kroger and ValuMarket, and Caples is winning awards at trade shows. He stopped by the studio to tell us his story. And Professor Sheila Barbour was working in higher education when she realized her students (mostly from small towns) had a lot to say about diversity. She interviewed them, and the result was a book called "Diversity's Voice: Now and Then." She joined us this week to share some of what she learned from the project.

When Jose Antonio Vargas was 12 years old, his mom put him on a plane in the Philippines and sent him to the United States to live with his grandparents. It wasn't until he tried to get his driver's license as a teenager that he learned he wasn't in the country legally. A Pulitzer prize, several documentaries, and the cover of Time magazine later, he's one of the country's most outspoken voices on immigrant rights. And as an out gay man (he came out as gay while remaining "closeted" about his undocumented status), he speaks about the intersection of immigrant and LGBT issues. Vargas will be in town next week for the ACLU of Kentucky's "I AM a Kentuckian" tour, and he joined us this week to talk about his work. Since the last time we spoke, Vargas has produced a short documentary for MTV, examining the demographic he says is often left out of diversity conversations: White people. "This country is only gonna get gayer, blacker, browner, more Asian, women will break every possible barrier they can and should break," he said. "So if you think about what's at stake in American society, in American culture, what's at stake is the soul of white heterosexual men. The same people that wrote the constitution and wrote the laws. How much change can they handle, and how inclusive are our conversations going to be about race?" In our Juicy Fruit segment, we cover yet another police shooting — this time in West Palm Beach, Florida, where a drummer was shot by a cop after his car broke down on the side of the road. This time, though, other police in town have criticized the public handling of the shooting, calling for more transparency on the part of police administrators. And here in Louisville, Judge Olu Stevens dismissed the jury in a drug trial because they were all white, and the defendant was black. Kentucky's Supreme Court will soon decide whether it was an abuse of his judicial power.

It's almost wedding season, and engaged folks everywhere are in the thick of trying to get their ceremonies and receptions planned for spring. And this year, the festivities will include same-sex couples - some of whom have been waiting decades to tie the knot. But for same-sex couples, wedding planning can be fraught with unexpected awkwardness. Do you "warn" the florist that you're two brides, or two grooms, and ask if they're comfortable? Do you just show up to your catering appointment and hope for the best? And why do all the vendors at the wedding show assume you're sisters or BFFs? An event later this week will celebrate marriage's new look, and help LGBT couples get a handle on preparations. It's called the Love Won wedding show, and it's being billed as Louisville's first LGBT-inclusive wedding planning event. We learn more about it from Heather Yenawine, the director of FEVA, the Fair Event Vendors Alliance. Not only is FEVA hosting a queer-friendly wedding show, but they also provide education for wedding vendors in the needs of same-sex couples. She says same-sex weddings tend to be more egalitarian - an ethos that hetero couples are echoing in their ceremonies too. And in Juicy Fruit this week... sorry to bury the lede, but Jaison met Rachel Dolezal. So yeah. We have some things to say about that.

Comedian Paula Poundstone will be in Louisville on October 17th, bringing her stand-up comedy to the Kentucky Center for the Arts. We spoke with her this week about, among other things, her enduring popularity with gay and lesbian audiences. She said in the 80s, comedians were making a lot of jokes with gay people as the punchline, but she never did. ""I think I just didn't alienate people as much," she explained. But it might also be something about her, personally, that resonates. "My sexual orientation has always been very much in question," she said. "And by the way, with me too!" Paula's son and her oldest daughter are black, and she says it was Trayvon Martin's death that made her realize she'd have to have The Talk with her own son. During our conversation she reflected on how she'll never really be able to share his experience of being black in America. "All I can do is listen to his lies about homework," she chuckles, "and keep feeding him." We also talked about what colon cancer awareness has in common with talking about race, and why you should always, always listen when someone tells you they have a bear in their bed. In our Juicy Fruit segment we cover the return of Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood's addition of a gay couple to the cast. Are they shooting them differently than the other couples? Why do we see so little of Milan interacting with the rest of the cast? This week's show also features some important etiquette information to keep you from acting a fool at the drag show.

Fall is in the air, and that means IdeaFestival, and jokes about pumpkins and white people. Luckily, we cover both on this week's show. One of our favorite people, Janelle Monáe, came back to Louisville this week for IdeaFestival, and brought along some folks from her Wondaland Arts Society. We caught up with them in the green room just before they caught their plane out of town (she had to perform at Madison Square Garden a day later - totally no big deal). We talked to the artists about their recent visit to a drag ball in New York, and about "Hellyoutalmbout," the police brutality protest anthem that's been ringing out from rallies and marches all summer long. "We wanted to use it as a vessel, and as a tool," she says of the song. "We're speaking out against the abuse of power because we believe that silence is our enemy, and sound is our weapon." As a team of folks trying to make a difference through the power of radio, we could not agree more! In Juicy Fruit this week, America loses its warm fuzzy feelings about the Pope when it's revealed that he met with Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis during his recent U.S. visit. Since we recorded, the Vatican has downplayed the visit and said Davis was just one of many in a greet line. Elsewhere in Christian news, a 5-year-old girl was barred from returning to her school in southern California, because she has two moms. A spokesperson for the privately-run Christian school told KGTV in San Diego, "The Bible says homosexuality is a sin. We don't condone any sinful lifestyles." And Azealia Banks called said the LGBT community is like the "white KKK's." Banks has been criticized by gay activists recently for her use of the f-word slur. We talk about how her black and queer identity plays into her troubles with the press. And finally, what's up with white people and pumpkins? A mic.com article looks at the political history and symbolism of the seasonal food. Did you know pumpkins had a political history? See, you learn something new every week on Strange Fruit. Happy Fall!

Naveen Jain is the co-founder and chief marketing officer of Immunity Project, a non-profit dedicated to developing an HIV vaccine and giving it away for free to anyone who needs it. Jain said it was his father’s illness that brought his attention to the flaws in the pharmaceutical industry. “As we were going through this process with him, and he was seeing countless doctors and specialists along the way,” Jain said. “It became very clear to me that the way we treat people in our society today — in terms of the pharmaceuticals and treatments that we provide for people — are not often actual solutions. Often times they’re Band-Aids. And I think that’s really screwed up.” Jain will be in Louisville this month for IdeaFestival, and he speaks to us this week about his work. We also meet Dr. John Hardin, of Western Kentucky University. Hardin was one of the co-editors of a recently released volume called The Kentucky African American Encyclopedia. Started in 2008 and published by the University Press of Kentucky, it features more than 1,000 entries from about 150 contributors, telling the story of black Kentuckians, from frontier days to the present. And in our Juicy Fruit segment, we talk about Viola Davis' amazing speech at the Emmy Awards, and all the groundbreaking black women of TV who were recognized for their work, at long last.

The suspension of Ahmed Mohamed had just hit the headlines when we recorded this week's show. The gifted ninth-grader from Irving, Texas, built a digital clock at home, and brought it to school to show his teachers. And his English teacher assumed it was a bomb. Police were called, and despite Ahmed's unwavering insistence that his invention was a clock, he was suspended from school, arrested, and taken out in handcuffs. "I felt like I was a criminal," he told MSNBC's Chris Hayes. "I felt like I was a terrorist." Since our time in the studio, public support for Ahmed has been swift and abundant, much of it bearing the hashtag #IStandWithAhmed. He's been invited to visit MIT, the Mars Rover project, Facebook, and even the White House. Many kids of color get an abrupt and ugly education in racism the first time they are profiled. It happened to Ahmed this week, and it happens to young black men who are hassled (or worse) by police and other authority figures. But since African-American studies aren't usually taught until the college level, younger students can be ill-equipped to talk about race and deal with the realities of contemporary racism. Dr. Duchess Harris, African-American Studies professor and Department Chair at Macalaster, would like to change that. Dr. Harris co-authored a book called "Black Lives Matter," aimed at 6th-12th graders, and she joins us this week to talk about why it's important that kids of different races learn about race and racism while they're young. Right here in Louisville, a 10-year-old girl is doing her part to educate her peers about self-esteem. Olivia Allen noticed that as she and her classmates became pre-teens, fewer and fewer girls raised their hands or spoke up in class. "I kind of realized that some girls just lose their confidence around the age 10," she explains. She held an event in Louisville called "I Can Be: Girls Confidence Conference." And the next thing she knew, she was all over the internet, featured in national media outlets like Huffington Post and Madame Noire. About 60 girls showed up to the conference, along with Mayor Greg Fischer, arts administrator Barbara Sexton Smith, and 2013 Ms. Kentucky, Ashley Miller, who talked to attendees about the importance of believing in yourself. Olivia (and her mom Anitra) join us in the studio this week to talk about how the conference came about, how she deals with discouragement in her own life, and what she wants to be when she grows up (She listed at least half a dozen career goals, and we believe she can achieve every single one).