Strange Fruit

  • Author: Vários
  • Narrator: Vários
  • Publisher: Podcast
  • Duration: 189:32:15
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Synopsis

Jaison Gardner and Dr. Kaila Story talk race, gender, and LGBTQ issues, from politics to pop culture. A new episode every week, from Louisville Public Media.

Episodes

  • Strange Fruit #175: What The Brock Turner Case Says About Race & Justice

    11/06/2016 Duration: 29min

    New information continues to surface about the Stanford rape case. The latest news is that Brock Turner, who was caught raping an unconscious woman behind a dumpster, will serve only 3 months of his 6 month sentence — a sentence already surprisingly short, given that he was convicted of three felony counts of sexual assault. New York Daily News's Senior Justice Writer Shaun King wrote a piece contrasting Turner's outcome with the sentence handed down to Corey Batey, a Vanderbilt student who raped an unconscious woman in a dorm room. The similarities are striking: Both were star athletes on campus, both were 19 years old, both had ample evidence against them, and both were convicted on three felony counts. But there are two big differences: Batey is black. Turner is white. And Batey is serving a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 to 25 years in prison, while Turner is scheduled to be released before the pools close at the end of this summer. King joins us this week to talk about the case, and Turner's short sent

  • Strange Fruit #174: Race & Racism In The Gorilla Pit Conversation

    04/06/2016 Duration: 29min

    It's an all-Juicy-Fruit episode of Strange Fruit, where we tackle some topics that have been in the news, on the timelines, and on everyone's minds. Joining us in the studio are attorney Joe Dunman and PR guru Walter Walker. We start off talking race and racism in the national conversation about the child who fell into the gorilla exhibit at the Cincinnati Zoo. Then we bring you the story of Black Lives Matter activist Jasmine Richards, who recently became the first black person in U.S. History to be convicted of lynching (we didn't get it either - it was a good week to have a lawyer in the room!). And we close out the show with reactions to a new Angel Soft commercial where people who were raised by single moms wish their mothers a happy Father's Day. They mention things like how their moms taught them to fight, and knew how to fix the car. So we wondered, is there a difference between mothering and fathering? Are they antiquated concepts? Is parenting just parenting?

  • Strange Fruit #173: What If You Use A Wheelchair & You Need An STD Test?

    27/05/2016 Duration: 29min

    “I just tested positive for syphilis.” That's the text message Andrew Gurza received from a recent partner, and like any responsible queer man, he knew what to do — if not exactly how to do it. Andrew wasn't sure if the local clinic would be able to accommodate the wheelchair he uses. "STI and STD clinics are kind of crammed in these really small areas where somebody with a big power chair like mine can't go," he says. He would also need people or equipment to lift him out of his chair and help him disrobe (unlike some other STDs, like HIV, the test for syphilis involves more than just drawing blood). He thought the hospital might be his best bet. "I think they were just surprised that I had come into an ER and not to a clinic that was for STI testing," he says. A doctor initially tried to persuade Andrew that he didn't need the test, but he insisted and the test was eventually administered. The whole long process (including an hour-long bus ride each way) made him realize that something n

  • Strange Fruit: "Laocoon" Sculpture Unites Fat Albert, Police Shootings, and Greek Mythology

    21/05/2016 Duration: 28min

    You could be forgiven if your first reaction to "Laocoon" is laughter. Even Dr. Chris Reitz, gallery director of the University of Louisville's Hite Art Institute, admits to laughing when he first saw the piece in Miami. Simply put, it's a 10-foot-tall inflatable Fat Albert laying face down, hooked up to an air pump so it appears to be breathing. But when you learn more about the original Laocoon, and the identity of the artist, there's more to the piece than a pop culture reference. Remember the Trojan horse? A supposed peace offering that was actually stuffed with enemies trying to get inside the gates? In "The Aenid," Laocoon was the only one who smelled a rat — and he was killed for his protests. You might say he was #woke ahead of his time. Who would be Laocoon's modern-day American counterpart? Eric Garner? Mike Brown? Any number of black bodies we've seen in news footage, lying face-down, struggling to breathe? That's what Laocoon asks its viewers to think about. Also, there's no th

  • Strange Fruit #171: Louisville's Food Access Divide

    13/05/2016 Duration: 29min

    You've heard of white privilege, male privilege, and any number of other unearned advantages some of us are born with. But what about food privilege? University of Louisville graduate student Tyler Short got in touch with Team Strange Fruit after hearing our recent special about privilege. He says just like race, gender, and sexuality, access to food is often determined by circumstances of birth. In Louisville, that usually means geography. "Folks in the East End have disproportionate access to fresh and healthy food compared to folks in the West End," he says. "Food justice is a platform to overcome that historical problem." Tyler's scholarship focuses on food access issues, but his work isn't just academic. He's also part of La Minga, a 15-acre farming cooperative in Prospect, Kentucky. La Minga (which translates to "community work for community good") brings together people from different walks of life to grow, eat, and sell organic food. In our Juicy Fruit segment this week,

  • Strange Fruit #170: The Consequences Of Anti-Transgender Bathroom Laws

    05/05/2016 Duration: 29min

    You've heard about them on the news, and probably read poorly-informed opinions about them on Facebook: laws designed to tell transgender people which public restrooms they can and can't use. What will be the consequences of laws like this in the lives of trans folks? We talk about it this week, with trans Louisvillians Katherine Waddell and James Alcantara. And when photos of a nearly-unrecognizable Li'l Kim showed up on Instagram, who else could we turn to to help make sense of it all, but Dr. Yaba Blay? Blay is the author of (1)ne Drop: Shifting the Lens on Race, and work often touches on issues of colorism and skin tone. She joined us to talk about skin bleaching as a phenomenon, and the social pressures that contribute to women - famous or otherwise - choosing to drastically alter their appearances.

  • Strange Fruit #169: Unpacking the Symbolism in Beyoncé's "Lemonade"

    29/04/2016 Duration: 59min

    This week, the music world bows down to its Queen, while saying a sad goodbye to its Prince. In this special hour-long episode of Strange Fruit, we talk about these two groundbreaking black artists — one who’s still building her musical empire, and one whose legacy is now complete. You’ve read the think pieces and seen online commentators picking apart stories of infidelity and scandal in Beyoncé's visual album, "Lemonade." But our regular fruitcakes will know, we’re going deeper than that. To help, we've enlisted some of the Pleasure Ninjas, a group of black feminist scholars, cultural workers and activists. Joan Morgan is an award-winning author and journalist who wrote "When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost," and coined the term hip-hop feminism. But what you might not know about her is that she's also a practitioner of Yoruba, an African religious tradition. And as it happens, "Lemonade" is chock full of Yoruba imagery. Morgan joins us to help us understand these symbols. The

  • Strange Fruit #168: Harriet Tubman on the Twenty?

    22/04/2016 Duration: 29min

    Hours before we went into the studio this week, rumors started swirling on the internet: Harriet Tubman would be on the twenty dollar bill. It's something we'd heard before, as part of a wider effort to get a woman on U.S. paper currency. But when it looked like it would be Tubman specifically, we had mixed emotions. Tubman fought against enslavement, a system that made money off the oppression of black people. Is putting her on money disrespectful of that legacy? Or is it poetic justice? We spent most of this week's episode unpacking the pros and cons, along with activist Chaz Briscoe, and WFPL's new online managing editor, Jonese Franklin. Brisco felt less ambivalent than some. He hated it. "It's a complete betrayal of Harriet Tubman's legacy as an abolitionist. To codify her within a system that was built on the backs and oppression of black people does a huge disservice to her legacy," Briscoe says. "Harriet Tubman was about the freedom of black people, so why re-inscribe that into a system

  • Doc Sums Up Our Reaction to the Harriet Tubman Twenties

    22/04/2016

    We want you to listen to the whole show. But if you don't have time, this is a pretty accurate summary.

  • Strange Fruit #167: What Gender Does Facebook Think You Are?

    16/04/2016 Duration: 29min

    In 2014, Facebook introduced new gender options users could ascribe to themselves. Where before, you had to select male or female, now you could suddenly be agender, gender non-conforming, genderqueer, non-binary, transgender, or nearly 60 others. The move was hailed as progressive, and folks patted the social network on the back. But under the surface of the user interface, the story was different. We see Facebook as a place to keep up with friends, argue with relatives, and laugh at memes (and keep tabs on your favorite public radio shows). But in reality, Facebook is in the business of data collection - learning all they can about their users, and selling the data to marketers. And in Facebook's data-gathering underbelly in 2014... nothing changed. You might have selected agender on your public profile, but Facebook's algorithm continued to identify you as male or female, based on your posting habits and other profile information. Why did they do this? And, since it's hidden, does it matter? Dr. Rena Biven

  • Strange Fruit #166: Inside the Minds Of Angry White Men

    08/04/2016 Duration: 29min

    It's music festival season in Louisville, and this year, there's a new event on the calendar. This week we talk with Tay G, one of the organizers of Louievolve, a two-day festival celebrating Louisville hip-hop scene and culture. Tay G says the festival will be more than just music—much like hip-hop itself. "The music is just one part of it," he explains. Live graffiti and break dancing have their place in hip-hop culture too, and will be part of the festival. "Just as an MC is trying to make himself look like the best MC out, writing your name on the wall does that same thing, it's just not through the audio," he says. "It's all tied into that culture and the foundations of hip-hop, and the people that came from different places to create it." The Louievolve Festival will be at the Tim Faulkner Gallery on April 16-17. For the past 30 years, Dr. Michael Kimmel has been studying what it means to be a man, and trying to engage men in the work of gender equality (the Atlantic has ca

  • Privilege Check: A Conversation About Invisible Advantages

    04/04/2016 Duration: 50min

    In lieu of our regular show this week, here's a special project #TeamStrangeFruit did with our station, WFPL. This special is part of WFPL's year-long project, The Next Louisville: Race, Ethnicity and Culture. In the United States, we like to think that our success is determined only by how hard we work. But in reality, some of it’s just luck. And some of that luck has to do with things we can’t control: Our race. Our gender. Our sexual orientation. What language we grow up speaking. We might not ask for the advantages we get from those things, but we still get them. And that’s what’s known as privilege. In "Privilege Check," we explore the concept of privilege, how it affects our lives and how it can be used to make everyone more equal. It's part of the Next Louisville, a partnership of WFPL News and the Community Foundation. Listen to the hour-long discussion — hosted by WFPL's Tara Anderson and Strange Fruit's Kaila Story — in the player above. (Photo by Nathan Gibbs)

  • Strange Fruit #165: "Lipstick Wars" Brings Women to the Slam Poetry Stage

    26/03/2016 Duration: 29min

    If you think of poetry slams as sedate affairs where people sip wine and read monotonously from notebooks, you might want to go visit one. Louisville's vibrant poetry slam scene is made up of a diverse groups of poets reciting works that often tackle deeply personal topics, and encourage audience reaction and participation. But as encouraging as these spaces are of free expression, Louisville poet Rheonna Thornton noticed they didn't always feel welcoming to women poets. "And when they did go up," she said, "you'd hear, 'another angry black woman piece.'" So Thornton started her own poetry slam, for women: Lipstick Wars. Thornton joins us this week to talk about how she made that happen, and to look ahead at her next project, The Lip gloss Diaries, a poetry slam for girls ages 15-18. She also sits in for our Juicy Fruit segment, where this week, where we keep the Women's History Month love going by celebrating 10th grader Akilah Johnson. Her Google doodle, which honors her African-American

  • Strange Fruit #164: Marley Dias and the Search for #1000BlackGirlBooks

    20/03/2016 Duration: 29min

    Sixth grader Marley Dias loves to read. But the books she was assigned in school never seemed to have protagonists who looked like her. So she started a nationwide book drive to collect 1,000 books featuring black girls as main characters. By the time her self-imposed deadline came around (February 1st), Marley had amassed a book collection she says is important not just for black girls, but for everyone. "We all know that America is er very, very, very diverse," she says, "but we're not really seeing it in the literature that we're pushed to read." Marley says reading books about black girls' lives makes her feel like her own experiences are part of a bigger, more universal story. "I know who I am," she says, "but you still want to see it in other places, so you don't feel like something that's rare and that's never really been around." In our Juicy Fruit segment this week, we talk about how a lynching postcard made its way into the table decor at a Joe's Crab Shack in

  • Strange Fruit #163: The Case Against the West Louisville FoodPort

    11/03/2016 Duration: 29min

    A few weeks ago we introduced you to oSha Shireman and Charles Booker, two of the people who are working on the West Louisville Food Port. The proposed project would bring together farmers, distributors, retailers, educators and other food-related endeavors to a 24-acre campus at 30th and W. Market Streets. But not everyone is convinced that the plan is what's best for the neighborhood, and questions have been raised about whether proper procedures were followed as the proposal moved through the planning process. This week we talk to three community leaders who oppose the Food Port. Councilwoman Mary Woolridge represents Louisville Third District, where the project would be. Martina Kunnecke is the president of Neighborhood Planning & Preservation, Inc., and John Owen is a business owner in Portland. Owen says neighborhood leaders proposed a similar project in 2000, but the city didn't approve. He also worries that the Food Port food will be too expensive for its own neighbors to purchase. "If you're

  • Strange Fruit #162: Three More Trump Protesters Tell Their Stories

    04/03/2016 Duration: 29min

    Earlier this week, we spoke with Shiya Nwanguma about her experience protesting at the Donald Trump rally and being pushed by Trump supporters — an incident that was captured on a video which quickly went viral. On this week's show, we speak with three more activists who protested both outside and inside the rally. Chanelle Helm attended with the group Bereans for Mike Brown. She says Trump encouraged the crowd to remove protesters by repeatedly saying, "Get them out of here." Henry Brousseau says he was punched in the stomach by a woman wearing a Traditionalist Workers Party t-shirt (the Traditionalist Workers Party has been classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center). "I've never seen such mob violence," Brousseau said. Molly Shah was with us last week to talk about her reproductive rights hashtag #AskBevinAboutMyVag, and she also attended the Trump rally and tried to document the confrontations. Shah says she's been going to rallies and protests for about 20 years, in

  • BONUS FRUIT: Shiya Nwanguma, Louisville Protester At Center Of Trump Rally Video, Speaks Out

    03/03/2016 Duration: 16min

    Multiple protesters at the rally on Tuesday in Louisville for Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump allege they were pushed by other rally attendees, and some have begun filing police complaints over the incidents. One particular incident from the Trump rally, caught on video by WLKY, has gotten widespread attention from a national audience. The video shows an African-American woman being pushed and yelled at by several men on the floor of the Kentucky International Convention Center. Shiya Nwanguma is the woman at the center of the video. Nwanguma, a 21-year-old University of Louisville student majoring in public health, joined us today for a special episode of Strange Fruit. We talked about why she attended the rally, and how the events unfolded. Nwanguma said she went to protest at the rally alone. “I felt like if I had a lot of people with me, it might have caused a lot of ruckus and a lot of trouble,” she said. “And while I did want to take a stand, I was mainly concerned about going there to

  • Strange Fruit #161: Garth Greenwell Finds Dignity in "Despised" Queer Spaces

    26/02/2016 Duration: 29min

    Garth Greenwell got out of Louisville as soon as he could, at age 16. "I really felt like this place was killing me," he says. His family didn't accept his gay identity, and few other adults took took any interest in supporting him — with the life-changing exception of his high school choir teacher, whom he credits with saving his life. "David Brown at the Youth Performing Arts School was the first adult in my life to suggest my life had value," he explains. Greenwell's path took him from performing arts to poetry, and now to prose. His first novel, "What Belongs to You," was published last month, and has been met with almost universal praise from critics, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, and Publishers Weekly. "What Belongs to You," which Greenwell says is largely autobiographical, is about the relationship between an American teacher in Bulgaria, and a hustler he meets in a public men's room. It's a scenario not unfamiliar to many gay

  • Strange Fruit #160: What's a Food Port? And What Will It Do for West Louisville?

    19/02/2016 Duration: 29min

    The neighborhood spoke loud and clear in opposition to the proposed biodigester project in West Louisville. Now, a food port is proposed for 30th and Market Streets. This week, we talk to two of the people working on making the West Louisville Food Port a reality: oSha Shireman and Charles Booker. They say the project will bring farmers, educators, retailers and more together on one 24-acre campus. "The food port is essentially a business park for food," Booker explains. "Any food-related business can come set up their shop." He says there will also be an arts & culture aspect to the project and food port visitors can expect to find anything from cooking classes to musical performances. In our Juicy Fruit segment, we recap the Grammy Awards, and pay tribute to Vanity, Prince's former protege, who passed away this week.

  • Strange Fruit #159: Love and Criticism for Beyoncé's "Formation"

    12/02/2016 Duration: 29min

    At first glance, Dr. Yaba Blay saw a lot to love about the song Formation and accompanying video. Then she got to the part that says, "You mix that negro with that Creole, make a Texas bama." Dr. Blay says talking about those two identities as separate groups reflects a longtime tendency of Creole people to see darker-skinned black people as less than. "The history of New Orleans is a history of colorism," she explains. "It is a history of oppression based not just on skin color, but on gradation of skin color." Blay points to the scene where Blue Ivy is dancing with two other, darker-complected girls. Blue Ivy wears what looks like a contemporary sundress, while the other girls are dressed in Victorian-looking outfits suitable for much older people. The scene might not have stuck out to viewers who didn't grow up in New Orleans, but Blay says in that community, skin color is more nuanced. "While the rest of the country was rocking with the one-drop rule, in New Orleans, lit

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