It’s Friday which means Anna is dropping a podcast recommendation. I decided to close out lesbian visibility week stories with a lesbian podcast you need to check out called Cruising. The Brooklyn Public Library is fighting back against the far-right book banning mission with an initiative of their own. In entertainment, Sauncy Santana & KeKe Palmer drop big news. 

00:00 – Welcome & Intro

00:50 – E3 Radio Ad, Tune-in at https://e3radio.fm #QueerRadioDoneRight 

01:14 – Intro Music by Aina Bre’Yon

01:54 – It’s Friday which means Anna is dropping a podcast recommendation, Cruising

03:18 – The Brooklyn Public Library is fighting back against the far-right book banning mission with an initiative of their own

05:22 – In entertainment, Sauncy Santana & KeKe Palmer drop big news

06:09 – Anna’s Got A Word

Things for you to check out 

Cruising

https://www.cruisingpod.com/episodes

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A post shared by Cruising Podcast | A Lesbian Bar Road Trip (@cruisingpod)

Brooklyn Public Library offers young readers free library cards and access to banned books

https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/26/us/brooklyn-library-banned-books-access

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A post shared by Gaye Magazine™ (@gayemagazine)

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A post shared by Gaye Magazine™ (@gayemagazine)

Lesbian Visibility Week

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Transcript

Family, this is your favorite queer radio personality Anna DeShawn with our queer news for today. If you enjoy what you hear rate & review us inside your fav podcasting app, okay. Now for the news.

It’s Friday which means I’m dropping a podcast recommendation. I decided to close out lesbian visibility week stories with a lesbian podcast you need to check out called Cruising. The Brooklyn Public Library is fighting back against the far-right book banning mission with an initiative of their own. In entertainment, Sauncy Santana & KeKe Palmer drop big news.

I’ve had a blast this week celebrating our lesbian fam. Visibility & representation matter especially in the media. Often if our storyline lands in the media, someone somewhere has taken a risk, fought, & had to over explain why the story is important. You all know on Fridays I drop a podcast recommendation & in the name of lesbian visibility week I wanted to share the Cruising Pod with you. Out of over 60,000 bars currently operating in the US, less than 25 identify as lesbian bars. Cruising is a podcast about these last lesbian bars in the country. So, three queer women, one Honda SUV, and the last lesbian bars in America is what this pod is all about. They road tripped across the country to visit each of the bars and share their stories with us. They interviewed the staff, the owners and the community members that call these places home. I think its definitely worth checking out so I’ve included a link in the show notes and if there is a lesbian bar in your city go and support it. We all we got. 

Now this is a really dope story coming out of Brooklyn, New York. The Brooklyn Public Library, which is one of the largest public libraries in the country, is choosing to stand up to the bullies challenging and banning books across the country. They have started a project called the “Books UnBanned Initiative”. I’ve reported many times about the far-right banning books school district by school district. From queer books to black books to any book that doesn’t support their far-right so called Christian beliefs. The President & CEO of the Brooklyn Public Library said, “We cannot sit idly by while books rejected by a few are removed from the library shelves for all…Books UnBanned will act as an antidote to censorship, offering teens and young adults across the country unlimited access to our extensive collection of eBooks and audiobooks, including those which may be banned in their home libraries.” Now for some context last year, there were 729 challenges to library, school and university materials and services. That’s up from 156 and 377 challenges reported to the American Library Association in 2020 and 2019. Now get this from July 2021 to March 2022 more than 1,500 books were banned in 86 school districts in 26 states across the United States. What’s so dope about this initiative is that teens can apply for this free electronic library card which is valid for one year and gives readers 13-21 access to the libraries archive of 350,000 e-books; 200,000 audiobooks and over 100 databases. Well done Brooklyn Public Library. I hope other public libraries across the country can have the courage and follow your lead.

In entertainment news, we’ve got a couple of quick hitters for you. First, Saucy Santana announced on the Breakfast Club that he is officially signed to a major label & RCA is it. Let me see you walk. Yess. I’m a fan & big congrats to him! Then HBO Max announced season 3 of Legendary is dropping May 19th and the newest judge is KeKe Palmer herself. This time around houses are competing for a $100K grand prize. 

It’s Friday so let’s close out with a word about relaxation. This word is coming from Erica Layne and it says “Rest is not idle, not wasteful. Sometimes rest is the most productive thing you can do for your body & soul.” She ain’t never lied. Rest is a revolutionary act & I took mine on Wednesday afternoon. I literally walked away from my computer and cuddled with my CoCo in front of the TV and just rested. I have to listen to my body and take care of my mind. Now y’all might not be able to do that on a Wednesday afternoon but you make sure you do it when you can. Choose you cause you can’t give from an empty cup. Till Monday family, peace

Sources

Cruising

https://www.cruisingpod.com/episodes

Brooklyn Public Library offers young readers free library cards and access to banned books

https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/26/us/brooklyn-library-banned-books-access

Saucy Santana signs to RCA 

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cc5gfTClp-Y/

Legendary Season 3

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cc4K8EqMiS1/

Lesbian podcast Cruising is worth checking out, Brooklyn Public Library is fighting back against banned books, Saucy Santana signs with RCA & Legendary is set to premiere on May 19th – Friday, April 29, 2022