Follow award-winning director/choreographer Bill T. Jones’s intense creative journey as he leads his company in the creation of Fondly Do We Hope … Fervently Do We Pray, an original dance-theater piece in honor of Abraham Lincoln’s bicentennial. Anna Deavere Smith hosts. “Bill T. Jones: A Good Man” is a co-production of A Good Man Film LLC, Kartemquin Films, Independent Television Service (ITVS), Thirteen’s AMERICAN MASTERS for WNET, and Media Process Group, with the cooperation of the Ravinia Festival. The evening’s presentation is in collaboration with PBS member station WTTW.
Watch Fri, Nov. 11, 2011 at 9pm on KCPT or Sat, Nov. 12, 2011 at 7pm on KCPT2.
Meet the Past with Crosby Kemper III launches its second season with a conversation with Mark Twain, as portrayed by veteran Chautauqua performer George Frein.
KC Public Library:
Mark Twain’s novels, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, established him as one of the great American writers, while some accounts (like that of Ernest Hemingway) cite him as the source of American literature.
This event is a part of The Big Read, and taped by KCPT for broadcast. Major funding for this season of Meet the Past has been provided by the Courtney S. Turner Charitable Trust and Ken and Cindy McClain.
Where do you go to see Kansas City’s history? Corinthian Hall, the longtime home of the Kansas City Museum, has been shuttered since January 2008. The hundred year old mansion on Gladstone Boulevard in Kansas City’s historic Northeast neighborhood is in such disrepair it will take more than 20 million dollars to make it into a modern, functioning museum. Randy Mason welcomes Christopher Leitch, the Museum’s Director, to The Local Show to discuss the challenges of reviving this Kansas City landmark.
Nick Haines welcomes Tavis Smiley and Peter Yelorda to The Local Show to discuss the opening of the America I AM: The African American Imprint exhibit at Union Station. The exhibit will be on display from October 22 through January 8, 2012.
Here’s Tavis Smiley discussing America I Am before its opening in Los Angeles:
America I AM provides an opportunity for people from all walks of life to explore this uniquely American story. With the nation’s first African American president, America I AM endeavors to bring together Americans of all backgrounds to achieve a greater understanding of their shared culture and history.
Scholar W.E.B. Du Bois once wrote, “Would America have been America without her Negro people?”
To examine the answer to that question, AMERICA I AM: The African American Imprint is mounted as the broadest museum exhibition of its kind. An assembly of poignant artifacts representing nearly 500 years of American history, the exhibition will convey and celebrate the undeniable imprint African Americans have had on the country and the world.
Covering history from the arrival of Africans to the present day, the exhibition presents a collection of pivotal moments of courage, conviction, and creativity that have shaped the culture and society in which we live today in this nation and around the world.
The exhibition examines four themes in particular: economic, socio-political, cultural, and spiritual impact on America. These themes serve as recurring touch points throughout the galleries, as visitors discover how our experience as Americans has been shaped by African Americans throughout history.
The 15,000 square-foot exhibition is divided into twelve galleries, leading visitors through time on a journey from struggle to triumph.
Featuring more than 200 artifacts culled from every period of U.S. history, the exhibition includes objects, texts, religion, music, narration, and media. An interactive component of the exhibition allows visitors to leave their own video “imprints,” and this collection will grow throughout the life of the exhibition with the potential to become the largest recorded oral history project in U.S. history.
