Strange Fruit

Performing as DJ Syimone, Victoria Syimone Taylor spends a lot of time in gay and gay-friendly bars. She joins us this week to talk about racism in queer spaces - including a recent incident in a local bar, and the community's response. Taylor was celebrating her birthday in a crowded local bar when a patron got angry about where her bag was. He repeatedly called her the n-word. She says she felt victimized for a second time when some people in the community minimized her experience, and encouraged her not to make a fuss about the incident. Taylor describes "being pulled into a corner and then being told by certain people, 'Just ignore that. [...] Don't let that bother you.'" Taylor says she was shocked, in the moment, and didn't know how to respond. "It happened so fast. I couldn't even process it," she says. "It's like being in a movie." She also says the issue is bigger than just her recent experience. "We know this goes on at every gay bar, anywhere." She hopes that

It's a full serving of Juicy Fruit! Dr. Story is in Florence, presenting at the Black Portraiture{s} II Conference, so actor Billy Flood, and Kendra Elise Anderson from the Flyy Sexuality talk show join us in the studio this week. A woman was stabbed in the eye with a fork after eating the last rib at a Muncie, IN Memorial Day barbeque - we talk about the unwritten rules of good manners in black spaces. And "mini buns" are a hot new craze recently seen on the Marc Jacobs runway, though they may look familiar to anyone who knows what bantu knots are. Circumcision of baby boys was once a given, but is more controversial now, as it's seen as increasingly unnecessary for health. We talk about the mom who skipped town with her 4 year old rather than have him undergo court-mandated circumcision. And Kendrick Lamar was on the cover of Rolling Stone, getting his hair cornrowed by a light-skinned model. Is she white? And does it matter if she is, given his outspokenness against colorism? Our guests talk it o

The Portland Poetry Series will focus on LGBTQ poets at their June event, in honor of Pride Month. Co-producer Eli Keel joins us this week, along with poet and writer Adriena Dame, who will read at the event. The series happens in the Tim Faulkner Gallery, once a month, and has been going strong since last December. While there's always a strong LGBTQ presence at the event, Keel says that this time, it will be more intentional than incidental. "We decided for Pride Month we wanted to really focus in on that, and not have it just be a thing that happened as we reached out to the poets that we know and love." We asked Adriena Dame whether her intersecting identities influence her work. She said that coming out changed her writing in ways she didn't expect. "I thought, ok well that just means that people will know that I'm queer," she remembers. But suddenly her poems and stories were populated with lesbians, bisexual, and transgender characters. "They became all of those other dynamics

Once nearly eradicated in the United States, syphilis is back on the rise - mostly among gay and bisexual men. Rates reached an all-time low in 2000, and of the roughly 6,000 cases, only around 7% were among gay men; it was a concern almost exclusively for straight people. But better treatments for HIV lead to complacency about safe sex, perhaps especially among younger men who didn't witness the AIDS crisis of the 1980s first-hand. Now, men who have sex with men (known in medical research as MSMs) account for a full 91% of all national cases. And those nationwide numbers are reflected at home. In Louisville, rates jumped from 13.2 per 100,000 residents in 2009 to 27.7 in 100,000 - well above the national average of 18. Statewide, reported syphilis infections have almost doubled since 2009. To help explain why this is happening, and what can help, we talk this week with Dr. Kraig Humbaugh, Deputy Director of the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services. Dr. Humbaugh explains how exactly the disease is

It's Mother's Day, and we're celebrating by talking with Bunmi Laditan, mother of three, and creator of the @HonestToddler twitter account. Laditan has a new book out called Toddlers are A-Holes: It's Not Your Fault. "It's for the parent of the toddler who, their kid is waking up at 3am and wandering the halls like Phantom of the Opera," she says. "The parent who needs to laugh so they don't cry." We also check in this week with Sharon LaRue, executive director of Kentucky Foundation for Women. They're celebrating 30 years of promoting positive social change by supporting feminist art. Over the past three decades, they've awarded $9 million in 1,800 grants to women artists. In our Juicy Fruit segment this week, we talk about the media's use of soft language, like "officer-involved shooting," and how it affects public perception. We also briefly comment on the Bruce Jenner interview, and respond to the lawsuit that was filed against us (and all gay people), by one Sylvia Driskell

On Friday, state’s attorney for Baltimore, Marilyn J. Mosby, announced that six officers would be charged in the death of Freddie Gray. Mosby made the announcement soon after the medical examiner's report classified Gray's death as a homicide. This week, hip hop artist Born Divine (@borndivine) brings us a local perspective on this week's protesting in Baltimore, and a sense of how people are feeling in the middle of it. He says over-aggressive policing is a long-time issue there, and that only full-scale reform will solve it. "We're looking for justice from a system that was never created with us in mind to begin with," he says. "When the foundation is cracked on a house, what happens to the house? It falls apart. And until you fix that crack in the foundation, it's not going to get any better. It going to get worse." He says poverty and joblessness are to blame for some of the violence in Baltimore this week, and that despite some media reports, the vast majority of protesters have peace

There's a lot going on out there, Fruitcakes, so this week, we give you a whole episode of Juicy Fruit, with special guest co-host, actress, Alexandria Sweatt. The death of Freddie Gray in police custody in Baltimore, and the shooting of Eric Harris by a volunteer Sheriff in Tulsa, are the latest in a string of black men killed by police. We look at the specifics of those cases, and how they're being handled by investigators and city leaders. We also take on lighter topics this week, like a new restaurant, Tallywackers, trying to bring the Hooters experience to a Dallas gayborhood. We couldn't let the week go by without addressing Gwyneth Paltrow's food stamp challenge, in which she purchased foods that would be neither accessible nor practical for actual people on government assistance. And the so-called Kylie Jenner challenge, which had Instagram users artificially plumping their lips in pictures, leads to a discussion about how black fashions, when adopted by white celebrities, are treated as new and groun

A sneak peek at what's coming up on this week's episode of Strange Fruit!

Comedy writer Kirker Butler has written for Family Guy and the Cleveland Show, but his most recent work is a satirical novel called “Pretty Ugly,” about a Southern family whose child is involved in beauty pageants. Butler grew up in Ohio County, Kentucky, where his mother was in charge of planning the annual pageant. And though the novel is set in Kentucky, and the family is dysfunctional, Butler says he isn't worried about offending folks from his home state. "It comes from a place of love," he explains. "I think Kentuckians have a pretty good sense of humor about themselves." We talk to Butler about his TV work, and that always-elusive line between edgy and offensive. He said the Family Guy writers benefit from the show's reputation for nothing-is-sacred humor. "We always kind of took the attitude that nothing is off-limits, and we would go after everyone equally." In this week's Juicy Fruit, we talk about a recent police shooting in Louisville, and why Police Chief Steve Conra

Sabrina Butler Porter was 17 when she found her baby Walter unresponsive, not breathing. Her attempts at CPR to save his life resulted in bruising that lead police to accuse her of child abuse. She was wrongfully convicted of her baby's murder and spent more than 6 years in prison – nearly three of those on death row. "Being on death row, I wasn't told that the state had to exhaust all remedies before they could actually carry out the death sentence," she explained. "I paced the floor every day," she remembers, "trying to figure out when they coming to kill me." Porter's conviction was overturned when new lawyers took her case and it was discovered that Walter had died of kidney disease. She now works with Witness to Innocence, an organization that helps death row exonerees become advocates against the death penalty. Between her speaking engagements in Kentucky last week, she stopped by our studios to tell her story and talk about how her experiences shaped her view of the crimin

David Sedaris never liked Chinese food. Then he went to China, and he really didn’t like Chinese food. His essay about it, Chicken Toenails, Anyone? was published in the Guardian and was criticized as disrespectful, xenophobic, and even racist. This week we listen back to our chat with Sedaris, from when he’d just released his book, Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls. He said if he were worried about keeping his humor PC he couldn’t be an honest about his experiences, and wouldn’t get as many laughs. “I always figure that the thing you can admit that’s most embarrassing is the thing that most people can relate to,” he explained. “Because we’re not that different, really.” We asked whether he considers himself an LGBTQ activist. He told us, “the way I write about my relationship is just about trying to make a life with somebody, and anybody can relate to it. It’s not important that I’m trying to make that life with another man. It’s just important that I’m trying to make that life with another person.” We also s

This week we introduce you to a new member of the WFPL newsroom, political reporter Ashley Lopez. Ashley joins us to talk about Indiana's controversial "religious freedom" act, Louisville's attempt to appeal to LGBT tourists, and a recent poll showing Kentucky's opposition to marriage equality. We also hear Ashley's recent report on the Kentucky marriage equality case that will go before the Supreme Court late next month. She fills us in on where that case stands, who might make oral arguments, what experts think will be the outcome, and she introduces us to some of the Kentucky plaintiffs. And a group of Louisvillians are bringing a Juneteenth Festival back to the Derby City for the first time in years. Juneteenth celebrates the freeing of enslaved Africans and African Americans in the United States in 1865, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation became the law of the land. Organizer Gary Brice takes a break from festival planning to stop by the Strange Fruit studios and let us kn

Food writer Ashlee Clark Thompson's new book is all about Louisville Diners (the places, not the people). She joins us this week to dish about some of Louisville's most iconic eateries - trendy brunch places, soul food spots, and a certain streetcar-shaped establishment in Old Louisville, whose quirkiness is part of its charm. "It's almost like Halley's Comet to catch Ollie's Trolley open," she says (the walk-up-style lunch counter is open 11-5, only operates on weekdays, and only accepts cash). "It started out as a chain, and Ollie's was supposed to be the next KFC." Thompson says diners started out as, essentially, food trucks, where hungry third-shift workers could stop by and pick up a bite on the way home. They were seen as men's establishments, prone to trouble, either with no seating, or later, maybe a row of stools at a countertop. Eventually, proprietors realized they were missing out on revenue by only catering to men. "They tried to attract women by adding flower boxes outs

The Kentucky General Assembly just wrapped up its 2015 session, and some LGBTQ-related bills were under consideration. Chris Hartman from the Fairness Campaign joins us this week to talk about the proposed legislation—what passed, and what didn't. Hartman also fills us in on a Fairness vote in the Bardstown, KY city council (pictured). The city council opted not to add gender identity and sexual orientation protections to the city-county human rights ordinance. And you may have seen a Buzzfeed article last week about Louisville murder victim Sherman Edwards, and whether the LMPD is trying to cover up Edwards' identity as a trans woman. Chris Hartman has seen the court records and says, while police statements may have been insensitive to trans issues, the truth about Edwards' identity and the motivation for the crime is not so clear cut. And in our Juicy Fruit segment, we address the racist chant that got Sigma Alpha Epsilon ejected from the University of Oklahoma, and how a morning show panel blamed the inci

Earlier this year, Kate Brown made history by becoming the first openly bisexual governor ever to serve in the U.S. The Oregon governor was also the country’s first bisexual statewide officeholder. But just as Obama's election doesn't mean we're post racial, Governor Brown's election doesn't mean bisexual people are welcomed with open arms. Even in queer spaces - some would say especially in queer spaces - our bisexual brothers and sisters still face discrimination and stereotyping, or simple erasure. That's our focus this week. Our guests are Perry Green, a political operative and activist, and Imani Uzuri, a composer and musician - both bi people of color. Both say they've been excluded from queer spaces, been presumed to change orientation to gay or straight when in a long-term relationship, been presumed to be promiscuous, and more. "I also get women saying they can't date me because I sleep with men and have diseases," listener Dawn Logan said on our facebook page. "[P]eople assume us bi's

This week we meet Haydee Canovas, the director of a Spanish-language play called "Emigrados," running March 12-21 in Louisville. Part of the theater of the absurd tradition, the play observes two immigrant men, in a basement, on New Year's eve, and explores their relationship. While the actors in this production are both Mexican, the script itself doesn't specify a country of origin for its characters - nor does it tell us the country they're currently in. Canovas says this allows the play to comment on the experiences immigrants have in common. "Immigration is a universal theme," she says. "It's been happening since the beginning of time. If somebody doesn't feel safe where they're living, they're going to preserve themselves and their family, and they're going to move to a place that's safer." We talked to Canovas about the theater company she co-founded, Teatro Tercera Llamada, and their mission. She says not only is it theater with a social conscious, but, "theater that

Marion Dries joins #teamstrangefruit to talk with KL Rhavensfyre, authors of lesbian fantasy, romance, and erotica.

Get hip to Dr. Pauli Murray! Friend to the show Dr. Brittney Cooper calls her "the most important legal scholar you've never heard of." Check out Dr. Cooper's work here: http://www.salon.com/2015/02/18/black_queer_feminist_erased_from_history_meet_the_most_important_legal_scholar_youve_likely_never_heard_of/

Author Frederick Smith knew he wanted to be a writer since he was a little boy, watching soap operas in Detroit. But folks around him didn't necessarily see him as the writer type. "I had friends say, 'Black boys from Detroit don't write soap operas - we go to work at the auto plant like our dads did.'" Luckily he kept at it, spent some time in Academia, and eventually made the move to writing novels. His writing tells the stories of black and brown people, he says. "[P]eople living lives that don’t make the six o’clock news." In Juicy Fruit this week, you know we had to talk about all the tea from the Grammys! Ledisi vs. Bey, Kanye vs. Beck, Bey vs. "Take My Hand, Precious Lord"...we talk about the winners and the losers, with a pit stop to chat about Kanye's bravado and why white America finds it so off-putting. Speaking of winners, charges were dropped this week against Louisville activist Shelton McElroy, a Louisville activist who'd been arrested after being asked to leave 4t

Coming up this weekend on Strange Fruit, Frederick Smith, author of "Play It Forward," talks about the importance of three-dimensional black and brown characters in literature, and his own path to becoming a writer. And charges are dropped against Shelton McElroy, a Louisville activist who was arrested after being asked to leave 4th Street Live. He says racism is at play in the entertainment complex's dress code enforcement. Plus, all the tea from the Grammys, from Bey & Ledisi, to Kanye & Beck. We have a lot to catch up on... See you Saturday night at 10!