Strange Fruit #140: Silence Is Our Enemy, Sound Is Our Weapon: Janelle Monáe on Resistance

10/02/15 • 29 min

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!

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Strange Fruit #139: Naveen Jain Wants to Develop an HIV Vaccine... and Give It Away

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.

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Strange Fruit #141: Comedian Paula Poundstone on Comedy, Raising a Black Son, and her LGBT Fans

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.