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.
Journey through the prolific life of the I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings author and activist who inspired generations with lyrical modern African-American thought. Features new interviews with Oprah Winfrey, Common, the Clintons, and others.
Airs 2/9 at 4 p.m.
Airs 2/4 at 10 p.m.
Josiah Henson (voiced by actor Danny Glover), the real-life inspiration for Uncle Tom in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s classic 1852 novel, which has been recognized as one of the sparks that ignited the Civil War. Josiah Henson was born into slavery near Port Tobacco, Maryland around 1789. As a child, he was sold to Isaac Riley, who later appointed him superintendent of the farm at an unusually young age because of Henson’s strength and intelligence. Riley entrusted Henson with exceptional responsibilities and permitted him to become a preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church. However, when Henson attempted to buy his freedom, Riley cheated him and made plans to sell him south. Fearing separation from his family, he fled north with his wife and children in the summer of 1830. After escaping through Ohio and New York, they eventually settled in Ontario, Canada.
Airs 2/4 at 9 p.m.