Strange Fruit

As we were going into the studio to record this week's episode, news came down that a court ruling had been announced, possibly shaping the future of same-gender marriage in Kentucky: District Judge John G. Heyburn wrote that refusing to recognize same-sex marriages from outside the state violates the U.S. constitution's equal protection clause. WFPL Political Editor Phillip M. Bailey joined us to talk about what exactly the ruling said, and what it could mean for marriage equality going forward. In our feature interview this week, we spoke to author and professor Ellery Washington, who recently wrote an essay for the New York Times about his experience retracing the steps of James Baldwin in Paris. We spoke with Ellery about why James Baldwin is such an important figure in the literary world and in black history (and why he is particularly important to gay black authors!). On next week's show we'll have more about the ruling from one of the lawyers who worked on the case, who's also involved in the next legal step in the process: a lawsuit on behalf of some Kentucky couples who were denied marriage licenses. Photos: James Baldwin in 1962. Carl Mydans/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images; Kentucky graphic by American Foundation for Equal Rights

We're celebrating Black History Month on Strange Fruit, and so is our sister station, Classical 90.5. Their series, African-American Voices, runs throughout the month and highlights the contributions of black performers and composers in the world of classical music. WUOL's program director Daniel Gilliam joined us this week to talk about the series and play us some wonderful music from some of the featured artists. In our Juicy Fruit segment, we talked about trans activist Janet Mock's appearance on Piers Morgan Live, in which the host made several comments about how she "used to be a man" and was "born a boy" (online promotion of the segment was similarly sensationalized, asking, “How would you feel if you found out the woman you are dating was formerly a man?”) We used this incident to talk more about the importance of pronouns and respectful language with trans folks, and the right of everyone to choose what language they use to identify themselves.

The seldom-told story of African Americans in Appalachia has been on our minds since a few weeks ago when we spoke to Kentucky Poet Laureate Frank X Walker, who coined the term 'Affrilachian.' Kentuckians for the Commonwealth has been exploring the issue too, and is hosting an event celebrating the contributions of black folks in Appalachia Tuesday night. This week, we spoke to an innovator in this field of study. Dr. Bill Turner was the first scholar to combine interests in the fields of African-American and Appalachian Studies, having grown up himself in a coal mining town in Harlan County, Kentucky. We spoke with Dr. Turner about the importance of rediscovering this part of our history, and why the image of Appalachia as a white region is so pervasive and lasting. We also had K.A. Owens in our studio to tell us more about the Kentuckians for the Commonwealth event, From Louisville to Appalachia: Celebrating Our Common Heritage. K.A. helped make some connections between environmental preservation and social justice, too. In our Juicy Fruit segment, we talked about Janet Mock's recent video on Colorlines, where she discussed the part sex work played in her life, and drew some comparisons between her story and that of Venus Xtravaganza from our favorite movie, Paris is Burning. And to wrap things up, we talked about some of our favorite black history figures in honor of Black History Month! We'll be spending time throughout February paying tribute to some of the folks who mean the most to us—both those you know, and those who may be new to you. Happy Black History Month, Fruitcakes!

This week, we're joined by WFPL's Devin Katayama. Devin covers the education beat for the station, and he sat down with us to talk about his newest project, learning about trans* high school students in Louisville. He also filled us in on his recent trip to Kenya over the holidays, and sat in on our Juicy Fruit segment, where we laid out some historical context for the horrific "black woman chair" photo that's been making the rounds online this week. We also talked about the Arizona fraternity who held an MLK Day party where attendees dressed up as black stereotypes, and we pondered how to call out friends and acquaintances when they say something bigoted.

Turn Me Loose: The Unghosting of Medgar Evars has garnered Kentucky's Poet Laureate, Frank X Walker, a nomination for an NAACP Image Award. He calls this book of 49 poems his finest work to date, and says it has an educational component along with its poetry. "The initial motivation was based on having a conversation with my students and finding out that they had no idea who Medgar Evers was." We spoke to Walker on this week's show about his life, his work, and what it means to be Affrilachian. Our Juicy Fruit segment this week looks at the man who got in trouble for paying too much child support, the chef who wants to ban babies from his restaurant, and CeCe McDonald's release from prison. And our very own Jaison Gardner filled us in on his new column, In Visible Ink, appearing every other week in LEO Weekly!

Louisville comedian Keith McGill has been one of our favorite people since he was first on the show last year to talk about his work in a local production of TopDog/Underdog. That play explored themes of black masculinity through the fractured relationship of two brothers struggling with instability and poverty. Now McGill is working on another local production, this time as the director, vastly different in tone.Sex Again is a comedy by Louisville playwright Heidi Saunders that looks at sexuality during middle age. We spoke to Keith this week, in part, because we wondered how a gay black man approaches work about the waning marriages of straight white folks, and what made him want to direct the piece. "I really think it has a lot to say to everyone," he explains. "There's a lot of truth in the play." Sex Again plays through January 18 at The Vault 1031, one of Louisville's newest performance spaces, on South 6th Street in Old Louisville. Reservations can be made at [email protected] or (502) 592-4218. Keith also sat in on our Juicy Fruit segment this week, in which we just had to take on the Katie Couric segment that's been making the rounds this week. Trans activists LaVerne Cox and Carmen Carrera appeared on a segment of Katie, to talk about their work, but the conversation got a little awkward when Couric turned the conversation toward which surgeries Carrera has had. Carrera declined to discuss it, saying she'd rather talk about her career. "I want to focus on that rather than what's 'down here,' because I think that that's been spoken about so many times, you know? Like in other interviews with other trans people, they always focus on either the transition or the genitalia. And I feel like there are more to trans people than just that." After a commercial break the show returned, and LaVerne Cox joined the discussion. Couric asked her about Carrera's response to the surgery question, leading to this amazing response that's been echoing around the internet ever since.

Even under the best of circumstances, the holidays can be stressful. For some LGBTQ people, Christmas also means deciding whether to go home to a family who doesn't fully embrace them.  

This week, we're re-posting a conversation we had around this time last year, with Dr. Stephanie Budge from UofL, who teaches workshops on coping with the holidays as an LGBTQ person. 

She said while some families do overtly antagonistic things (like using the wrong pronoun for trans folks, yelling, or refusing to let their LGBTQ family member bring a partner to holiday functions), what she hears about the most is simply ignoring. A person might come out as queer to their family, only for the response to be silence, and an unwillingness to acknowledge their identity.

Dr. Budge gave us some coping strategies we can all use during moments of holiday stress and family conflict, how to take full advantage of your chosen family's love when your family of origin doesn't support you, and how to tell when things are so unhealthy or unsafe it might be better to skip going home altogether.

If you find yourself in crisis mode over the holidays (or any time!): Dr. Budge recommends The Trevor Project's hotline. Their marketing is youth-oriented, but they provide support for LGBTQ folks of any age. You can reach them any time at 1-866-488-7386. Stay safe this holiday season, fruitcakes, and we'll see you in 2013!

Documentary filmmaker Michael Wolfe is probably not the image that comes to mind when most people think "Muslim." In fact, he's a middle-aged white guy from Ohio. But he is a convert to Islam and has spent his career telling the stories of Muslims in America—a story that goes back further than you might think (there were Muslims in the USA during George Washington's lifetime, and of course, many enslaved Africans were Muslims). Stereotypes about Islam abound, and often intersect with other forms of bigotry, especially since 35% of American Muslims are African American. Wolfe was in Louisville recently, courtesy of the Pakistani-American Alliance for Compassion & Education, to speak about major Christian figures like Jesus, Moses and Mary and the role they play in Islamic theology. He stopped by our studios to tell us more about his work, including his film Prince Among Slaves: The Cultural Legacy of Enslaved Africans, which was screened at the Frazier History Museum. In our Juicy Fruit segment this week, we have an update on George Zimmerman. We told you last week he was arrested for threatening his girlfriend; she has decided to stay with him and has asked prosecutors to drop the charges against him. While many states will proceed with domestic violence prosecutions without the victim's cooperation, victims are often the only witnesses as well, so those cases can be hard to prove. We also talked about representations of black lesbians on reality TV, and a recent article called 11 Things You've Always Wanted to Know About Lesbian Sex But Were Afraid to Ask. Dr. Story also drew some parallels between the racist and sexist reactions to the so-called Obama selfies, and a viral episode of What Would You Do featuring a black man and his white girlfriend in a Harlem barbershop. Both stories suggest that black women see white women as a threat to their relationships, which Dr. Story says is a made-up media narrative and a tool of white supremacy and patriarchy. "Because if they're so fighting over the black men," she explains, "they aren't going to be working on feminist stuff or moving gender forward."

The idea that working hard leads to success is a popular narrative in the United States, but a new report shows it's not that simple - especially for LGBTQ people of color. A Broken Bargain for LGBTQ Workers of Color shows folks in this demographic are some of the most disadvantaged workers in the country, facing high rates of unemployment and poverty. This week we spoke to Preston Mitchum from the Center for American Progress, a co-author of the report. Preston helped us break down some of the main trouble areas - hiring bias, unequal pay, educational barriers, on-the-job discrimination, etc. - and we talked about possible solutions, and what to do if you've faced racism or homophobia on the job. Check out the whole report here. In our Juicy Fruit segment this week, we talked about Minnesota college professor Shannon Gibney, who was reprimanded by Minneapolis Community and Technical College administrators after white student's complained about her lessons on structural racism. Some of her white male students interrupted Professor Gibney's Intro to Mass Communication class and accused her of demonizing white men. The college agreed, and Gibney told the college newspaper it's happened before. "As a vocal, black female, younger-looking […] faculty member here, unfortunately this is not the first time I’ve actually had multiple verbal and institutional attacks on me by white males," she said, "whether they were students, faculty, administration or staff." We also we talked about the online popularity of the Sharkeisha video and what it says about the media we consume as entertainment, and reflected on the death of actor Paul Walker.

This week we spoke with David Henry, co-author of Furious Cool: Richard Pryor and the World That Made Him, about Pryor's work, and why it was so groundbreaking. "He had this sort of vulnerability about himself that just made him irresistible," David says. "He didn't pull any punches." Throughout their research for the book, David and his co-author (and brother) Joe Henry, learned about how Richard honed his craft, sometimes working the same comedy club every night for a week, each night with an improved version of the previous night's material. We talked about Pryor's surprising comments on his sexual experiences with other men, his openness about his drug use, and why audiences of all races found him so relatable. "When he was on stage by himself with just a microphone, he seemed to understand everything about being a human being," David said. "He seemed to have such a clear-eyed view of life, and seemed to understand how people work—in ways that he couldn't really apply to his own life when he was offstage." [Note: As you might expect from an interview about Richard Pryor, there is some frank language in this interview!] In our Juicy Fruit segment this week, we talked about the upcoming video game Ultimate Gay Fighter, billed as the first-ever gay video game. We also talked about Dayna Morales, the server who says a family left her a homophobic note instead of a tip. This week, the family in question came forward with their copy of the receipt which shows they did tip, and now Morales' story is suspected of being a hoax. And of course, we couldn't resist puzzling over this week's bizarre TMI from Dr. Conrad Murray. Some things, we just didn't need to know.