Ep. 17: Fresh Fruit - Airs June 26th

Ep. 17: Fresh Fruit - Over 40 Years of Queer Radio from the MinneCulture Podcast
We kick-off Season Three chronicling the history of the nation's longest running weekly LGBT radio show! Fresh Fruit first aired on Twin Cities community radio station KFAI, on May 11, 1978 and has been broadcasting ever since. This audio documentary begins in 1977 by introducing us to the original collective -- a group of activists living in a queer hippy commune in Minneapolis -- and takes us right up to present day in an interview with Dixie Treichel, one of the program's current hosts.

 Hell Yeah: Queer and Radical Performance Art by Dixie Treichel
In the 1990s, queer performance artists like created radical, experimental, and often politically risky work. Artists were rebelling against Reagan politics, the AIDS crisis, Senator Jesse Helms’ attacks on the National Endowment for the Arts, and the era's culture wars. In 2018 a curated exhibition chronicled the era at the Walker Art Center titled "A Different Kind of Intimacy: Queer and Radical Performance at the Walker, 1990-1995."

 Nuns in Drag, Joy Promulgated by Matthew Schneeman
Forget silent auctions, chocolate bars and meat raffles. Fundraising is more fun with nuns. Make that nuns dressed in drag. Dancing, joking, singing, cajoling until you part ways with your money for a good cause. KFAI's shares a story of a local chapter of rowdy nuns here in Minnesota. 

 The Roots of Gay Liberation in Minnesota by Dixie Treichel
F.R.E.E. was Minnesota’s first queer organization. It stands for "Fight Repression of Erotic Expression." The group began on May 18, 1969 when Koreen Phelps and Stephen Ihrig started a community class at the Coffeehouse Extempore on the West Bank in Minneapolis, entitled “The Homosexual Revolution." KFAI speaks with LGBTQ historian Noah Barth about F.R.E.E. and the lives of these activists. 

 Encrypted Textiles by Dixie Treichel
An audio portrait of Minneapolis artist Heather MacKenzie who practices hand weaving and experiments with encrypted woven storytelling. She regards woven textiles as sensual while simultaneously embedding them with complex mathematical information. 

 Holy Are We: The Music of Rachael Kilgour by Dixie Treichel
In her lyrics, singer-songwriter Rachael Kilgour doesn't shy away from female pronouns: "Blessed her lips/And the turn of her wrists/Try and tempt me, I will not resist." We'll hear more from Kilgour in this audio postcard from Duluth.

 Not A Paper Boy, Just An Adorable Lesbian by Dixie Treichel
Maggie Faris is a Minnesota comedian and out lesbian. She's produced two CDs and co-hosts Magnotronic, a weekly comedy podcast. KFAI talks with Faris to find out what all the laughs were about. 

 Ellen Hart: Breaking the Lavender Ceiling by Dixie Treichel
When Ellen Hart began writing detective novels, she didn't want to hide her identity. So she created Jane Lawless, a lesbian protagonist, as the star of her books. The Mystery Writers of America recently honored Hart with a Grand Master award for her work.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dr. Frankenstein's Monster - Airs Oct 29th

Image
The Frankenstein Family Crypt from The American Forces Network In 1952, announcer Carl Nelson's producers sent him to the Frankenstein Castle near Darmstadt , Germany to explore the family crypt. Little did he know, they had set up a prank which was waiting for him. Despite the rising fear in his voice, Nelson dutifully reports everything as it happens, even going so far as to examine a grotesque statue he thinks he saw moving. Panic and terror rightfully ensue. Frankenstein from The Witch's Tale The Witch's Tale was the first horror radio serial . The series ran from 1931-1943 and was created, written, and directed by St. Paul's own Alonzo Deen Cole . The stories were hosted by an old Salem witch and her black cat, Satan.  In this episode , a young scientist named Victor conducts experiments into human anatomy, physiology, and electro-chemistry; intent on improving the human race. Eventually he succeeds in creating life but is instantly repulsed by his cre
Read more

Computer Love - Airs Feb 19th

Image
Love and Robots by Anton Foek Dr. David Levy ,  an expert in artificial intelligence,  argues that the automata we once deemed cold and mechanical will soon become the objects of real companionship as well as human desire. He explores many aspects of human relationships and how they have changed over time. Levy believes it inevitable that these same attachments will eventually extend to love for robots . My Sex Robot by Audrey Quinn Brooklyn make-up artist Jessica Jacobs desperately needed a job . Because she had experience sculpting and special effects for the movies , a friend asked her to take over on a very special assignment. We'll hear how this girl-next-door became the woman behind the world's first sex robot, Roxxxy .  TI-99/4A from The Optimist What could be more fun than a Texas Instruments home computer , a dot matrix printer, and a text adventure game on a cassette drive!? Well, all of this and some poorly written BASIC programming awaits you at
Read more

Capturing Noise - Airs Nov 5th

Image
Life in the City  from Noise: A Human History of Sound and Listening Professor David Hendy considers the comforts and irritations of next-door's noise . As cities grew, neighbor's hullabaloo became increasingly hard to escape. We will explore the writer Thomas Carlyle ’s grumpy attempts at soundproofing, before travelling to New York to imagine the teaming, boisterous world of the Lower East Side tenements in the early twentieth century. Capturing Sound from Noise: A Human History of Sound and Listening Sounds were ephemeral until recording technology made it possible to capture them. Professor Hendy of the University of Sussex introduces bottled moments from the past, including the voices of Robert Browning and Florence Nightingale as well as 9/11 answerphone messages.
Read more