Monday, June 08, 2009

My STRANGE FRUIT mix gives voice to the DEAD BLACK MEN!

The second installment of my GLBT Pride 2009 series, and in connection with my ongoing "This Is For The Black Men Who Contemplated Suicide When That Rainbow Was Just Too Much!", the STRANGE FRUIT (June 2009) compilation represents more of a commemoration as opposed to a celebration of GLBT Pride.

Not unlike a protest vs a party.

Giving voice to those black men, many which are now dead, who while practicing integration experienced forms of institutionalized racism, even when dancing at the clubs or sharing homes/beds, that were socially designed to be very different than that of their gay white partners.

Patti Smith's album "Gone Again" has always been amongst my favorite. And while I do not know Patti Smith on a personal level, Robert Mapplethorpe and I were more than just 'fuck buddies'. Several tracks from "Gone Again", as tributes to Mapplethorpe, serve as haunting but perfect selections for STRANGE FRUIT.

The two most important tracks in the STRANGE FRUIT June 2009 mix are "Killing Me Softly With His Song" by The Fugees and "Strange Fruit" by Laika Fallen.

Click the cd cover to listen to and/or download the podcast which just under 80 mintues may be burned to a cd.

After more than 40 years of integration ... GLBT PRIDE is NOT A CELEBRATION NOR PARTY for me. It is a commemoration and a protest!

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