A one-hour documentary on the science, exploration, and retreat of the glaciers in the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming. Wyoming PBS looks at the big picture of how receding alpine glaciers will affect the ecosystem, municipalities, farmers, and ranchers downstream.
Airs 2/12 at 2 a.m.
Flight to Freedom tells the complete story of the underground railroad. Host Cicely Tyson narrates this profile of the people, places and events behind one of the most remarkable yet largely untold chapters of American history. The documentary chronicles the rise of the slave system and follows the many freedom trails northward — from Memphis up the Mississippi, from Kentucky across the Ohio River to Ripley and Oberlin, from Maryland to Philadelphia, through upstate New York and into Canada. It concentrates on the men and women of all races who served on or who were saved by the underground railroad. And while the civil war put an end to the need for the railroad, “Flight to Freedom” reveals situations where slavery stopped in name only. The program also tells the modern day story of the growing efforts to preserve what little legacy remains of the underground railroad — how communities are trying to save one-time station houses and how people are retracing the trail their great grandparents took to Canada.
Airs 2/13 at 3 a.m. and 2/14 at 3 a.m.
By the mid twentieth century, Mississippi’s African Americans had suffered from nearly 75 years of slavery by another name – Jim Crow discrimination. In 1964 in Mississippi, people died in an effort to force the state to allow African Americans to exercise their constitutional right to vote. Although, the 50th anniversary of Freedom Summer has passed, the struggle for voting rights is still pertinent. According to the NAACP, states have recently passed the most laws limiting voter participation since Jim Crow. Moreover, these laws also disenfranchise other people of color, the elderly, poor, and disabled. With the 2015 anniversary of the Voting Rights Act as well as the upcoming presidential primaries and general election, voting rights will remain at the forefront of a national debate. With historical footage and interview with Freedom Summer architects and volunteers, as well as present day activists, 1964: THE FIGHT FOR A RIGHT uses Mississippi to explain American voting issues in the last 150 years. For instance, why are red states red?
Airs 2/6 at 4 a.m. and 2/13 at 2 a.m.
In the middle of the 19th century, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony launched a woman’s rights movement that was to change the world. This documentary describes how the interplay of events of the time – evangelical Christianity, the anti-slavery movement and even the opening of the Erie Canal – gave rise to the women’s movement.
Airs 2/6 at 2 a.m. and 2/28 at 3:30 a.m.
Good morning! There’s one week left to go before February break. Let’s start our week by re-invigorating our love of librarianship with this beautifully written article by Maria Popova published on her blog, brainpickings.org about the power of reading.
“We read to remember. We read to forget. We read to make ourselves and remake ourselves and save ourselves. … Most of all, we read to become selves.” Popova’s brief article contains some of the most beautiful language I have read about what it means to read and how it affects our human experience.
Enjoy!
Explore the life and work of the A Raisin in the Sun playwright and activist who played a significant role in the civil rights movement. LaTanya Richardson Jackson narrates. Anika Noni Rose is the voice of Lorraine Hansberry.
Airs 2/17 at 11 p.m.
The word “Karamu” comes from a Swahili word meaning “a place of joyful gatherings.” For the past 100 years, the Karamu House in Cleveland, Ohio – the oldest African-American theater in the United States – has lived up to its name, serving as a community center for the arts and maintaining a legacy of innovation and diversity. Narrated by James Pickens, Jr. from ABC television’s Grey’s Anatomy, KARAMU: 100 YEARS IN THE HOUSE is a 30-minute documentary which tells the story behind this important theater in America’s arts and culture history. Karamu House has come to be known as a respected training ground and launching pad for many nationally known actors, playwrights and artists, including poet and playwright Langston Hughes, and author, folklorist and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston. The film shows how the theater’s past parallels African-American history over the past 100 years, and even how it directly intersected with the civil rights movement when it sent bus-loads of activists to march on Washington.
Airs 2/16 at 5:30 p.m.
From his roots as an activist and poet to his indelible mark on Broadway, this program captures the legacy of the man some call America’s Shakespeare. Film and theater luminaries such as James Earl Jones, Viola Davis, Phylicia Rashad, Laurence Fishburne, Charles Dutton and others share their stories of the career and experience of bringing Wilson’s rich theatrical voice to the stage. This film tells of his journey to the Great White Way, the triumphs and struggles along the path to such seminal works as Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Fences, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, the Pulitzer Prize-winning the Piano Lesson, Two Trains Running and four others before his untimely death in 2005. Directed by Emmy-winner Samuel Pollard (When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts; Slavery by Another Name).
Airs 2/16 at 4 p.m.
Chronicles the extraordinary life of Theologian Howard Thurman, a poet and “mystic” who used religious expression to help ignite sweeping social change. Thurman was born the grandson of slaves in segregated Daytona, Florida. Despite the circumstances of his upbringing, he went on to become one of the great spiritual and religious pioneers of the 20th century, whose words and influence continue to echo today. His landmark book, Jesus and the Disinherited, was the first to state that Jesus Christ – who was born in poverty as part of a powerless minority – lived a life that spoke directly to black Americans. In his own time, Thurman was a celebrated religious figure with profiles in major magazines such as LOOK, Ebony and others. His efforts at the height of World War II to create the nation’s first interfaith, interracial church stands as a precursor for many contemporary faith communities. And for millions today who consider themselves “spiritual but not religious,” Thurman’s poetry, meditations, sermons and prayers continue to be wildly popular.
Airs 2/11 at 9 p.m.
– In the wake of recent tragic and fatal events between men of color and law enforcement, learn how black and Hispanic families counsel their kids to stay safe if they are stopped by the police.
Airs 2/10 at 11 p.m.