Strange Fruit

Because racist microaggressions can be unsettling, oppressive and emotionally exhausting, especially when they happen in the workplace. Accordingly, many people of color try to be intentional about the places they work, so as to avoid such interactions. Freelance writer Jessica Hoppe thought she did just that when she obtained a position to create original and authentic Latinx web content for her new company. She was wrong. Hoppe joins us on this episode to discuss how she navigated on-the-job microaggressions and explain that many companies claiming they want authentic diversity are really just reinforcing stereotypes.

This week we discuss the prison industrial complex and the far reaching impact mass incarceration has on the families, children and loved ones left behind by those who are behind bars. Journalist and author Sylvia A. Harvey joins us to talk about her book "The Shadow System: Mass Incarceration and The American Family."

This week we're joined again by activist Amber Butts of Black Youth Project to discuss the innovative ways Black folks are finding joy and creating community during the COVID lockdown. Later, we speak with newly minted Dr. Dennis Johnson the recent "zoombombing" of his virtual dissertation defense, which was hacked by someone who posted racist and pornographic content. Donate to support this and future episodes of Strange Fruit.

This week we chat with sketch comedian and writer Brandon Anderson who explores the confusion of being Black but told, "you talk like a white boy." In our Juicy Fruit segment, we discuss the Kenyan governor who’s including bottles of cognac in his city’s COVID-19 care packages.

This week, social justice filmmaker and author St. Clair Detrick-Jules joins us to discuss her new book "Dear Khloe: Love Letters to my Little Sister," for which Detrick-Jules interviewed and photographed over 100 intergenerational Black women about their hair journeys and the embrace of their natural hair. Donate to support this and future episodes of Strange Fruit.

With recent reports that Black Americans are being disproportionately infected with and dying from COVID-19, on this week's show we reflect on the health and lives of ourselves, our loved ones, and our entire communities -- and we talk about how to properly prepare for the inevitably of death, whether it is expected or abrupt. Co-founder of Louisville's Before I Die Festival and end of life planning advocate Justin Magnuson joins us to discuss National Healthcare Decisions Day and the importance of "dying wisely."

This week we talk with Kerry Coddett & Krystal Stark of Kwanzaa Crawl, an annual bar crawl for Black-owned businesses in Brooklyn and Harlem that covers 30 bars. Founded in 2016, Kwanzaa Crawl host over 8,000 crawlers and has raised over $250,000 for businesses in Brooklyn and Harlem. Donate to support this and future episodes of Strange Fruit.

This week we talk with writer and poet Miguel Machado about his compelling and vulnerable essay, "The Day My Mother Yelled Don’t Shoot," in which he recounts his startling interaction with police in front of his mother’s Long Island home one morning. Confronted by cops and held at gunpoint after being locked out of the house, Machado describes a bone-chilling experience he says is all too familiar for Black and brown men – and their mothers. Donate to support this and future episodes of Strange Fruit.

This week we talk with award-winning playwright and poet Idris Goodwin, who was recently named Director of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College. Goodwin, former Producing Artistic Director at StageOne Family Theatre in Louisville, tells us how he got his start as a BreakBeat poet – and explains what BreakBeat poetry is. He is the author of a recently released poetry collection "Can I Kick It?" and will premiere his new play "Ali Summit" at Actors Theatre of Louisville in 2021. Donate to support this and future episodes of Strange Fruit.

Things may be shutting down and folks my be staying in because of COVID-19, but this new episode of Strange Fruit will help pass the time as you (hopefully) practice social distancing. As the coronavirus outbreak negatively affects communities throughout the country and across the globe, "social distancing" - limiting our in-person interactions with others as a way to stop or slow down the spread - is the recommended way to limit its impact and safeguard our own health and the health of our loved ones and neighbors. But social distancing is not without collateral damage. This week we discuss the impact of social distancing on our most vulnerable populations and ways we can all cope amidst this global crisis. Donate to support this and future episodes of Strange Fruit.

This week we're joined in the studio by Robert Barry Fleming, the newest Executive Artistic Director at Actors Theatre of Louisville. We chat about his robust career in theater and film and Fleming shares his commitment to making Actors an accessible and welcoming space for all people to enjoy. He also reveals what theatergoers can expect from the 44th Humana Festival of New American Plays, which opened this month and runs through April 12th. Donate to support this and future episodes of Strange Fruit.

We can all agree that a good night's rest is important to productivity, happiness and overall health. But have married and partnered couples been doing it wrong? This week writer Angela Lashbrook joins us to discuss the benefits of "separate togetherness" and makes the case for lovers sleeping apart instead of sharing a bed, which she explores in her piece, “It's Time to Embrace the Sleep Divorce.” Later, we speak with Steven Underwood who contends in an essay that “Bisexual Fathers Can Undo the Damage We Inherit From Our Dads." Because they escape the biphobia and monosexist projections Black bisexual men experience, and because they defy socializing of fatherhood as domineering and sometimes violent, Underwood says that bisexual dads can save us all. Strange Fruit Donate to support this and future episodes of Strange Fruit.

Our celebration of Black History Month continues and we begin by speaking with Baltimore-area educator Brittany Willis about the perilous plight of Black youth in the American education system - and how she came to realize that in order to save Black children she had to stop being their teacher. Next up, we talk about the relationship between Black fathers and their sons, as Chicago-based tech and political writer Keith Reid-Cleveland reveals how it took years to learn to love and forgive the father he didn’t meet for the first time until he was twelve years old. For Juicy Fruit, we’re joined again by linguist Grant Barrett of the American Dialect Society to discuss 2019’s Word of the Year and all the words and phrases that had everybody talking for the last decade. Donate to support this and future seasons of Strange Fruit.

This week, we recognize Black History Month by reviewing all the ways Black women and girls have been dominating the last decade in fields including politics, entertainment and sports, with culture writer Donnie Belcher, who outlines them in her feature “10 Incredible Years: The Decade in Review for Black Women." Later, we speak with New York Times reporter Emily Flitter, whose recent piece, “This Is What Racism Sounds Like in the Banking Industry,” sheds light on the discrimination and inequality she says is "baked in" to the banking industry.

This week we’re joined by writer and social media manager Sarah Thomas. In a recent think piece for Black Youth Project, Thomas says that despite well-received representation in popular films and television shows, polyamory, kink and other once-taboo areas of romance and sexuality are primarily only socially acceptable for white folks to explore. Thomas says that since enslavement, Black bodies -- especially those of Black women -- have been scrutinized, and today those bodies are prevented from safely exploring the liberatory practices of sex-positivity that many white people enjoy.

As a Puerto Rican woman and member of the LGBTQ+ community, architect and design professional Yiselle Santos Rivera has always been drawn to firms and companies that advocate diversity. This week she joins us to discuss why in corporate America, it’s okay and even important to “see color.” Later in the show, writer DarkSkyLady reminds us that Anti-Black Behavior Is Not Exclusively White, as we discuss the viral case of author Natasha Tynes’ prejudicial targeting of a Black woman subway worker in New York City.

This week Shya Scanlon, a self-described white liberal who penned the essay “I, Racist: Confessions of a White Liberal,” tells us how and why he began the hard work of acknowledging and unlearning the racist ideas he wasn’t aware he held.

Washington Post reporter Samantha Schmidt followed Braiden Schirtzinger, a non-binary person, through their pregnancy and early motherhood. Schmidt joins us to talk about the story.

This week on the show: Ashia Monet on queer love Interests of color and the white gaze (https://medium.com/@ashiamonetb/queer-love-interests-of-color-and-the-white-gaze-8928b7b5e6ad), and Sydney Balloue on what the "realness" ballroom category means now that passing isn't the goal for most LGBTQ people (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/22/opinion/ball-culture.html).

We’ve all heard the childhood rhyme about sticks and stones breaking bones, but in reality the seemingly-innocuous words and phrases we use to describe one another can hurt. Words can affect on our sense of self-worth or subconsciously reflect the value we find (or don’t find) in others. This week writer and world traveler Renée Cherez Wedderburn points out how hearing phrases like, “you're so pretty for a dark-skin girl,” from other Black women causes unintentional harm. It's the topic of her essay “How the Language We Use Perpetuates Oppressive Systems.” Later in the show, writer Jonita Davis revisits the podcast to discuss the challenges she faced as a Black woman and adjunct professor teaching white college students at a conservative Midwestern university.