We’re adding some special programs to our schedule to acknowledge and celebrate Black Americans this month.
Selected Shorts, Celebrating Toni Morrison will air Wednesday February 23 at 8:00 p.m. and Saturday February 26 at 7:00 p.m.
Guest host Tayari Jones invites audiences to celebrate Morrison, the American master who died in 2019. Morrison’s novels, including Beloved, Jazz, and Song of Solomon, have become an indelible part of the American canon. Her fierce, poetic visions earned her the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She was also an editor, advocate, teacher, and mother.
The program features Morrison's essay “A Knowing So Deep,” read by Jones; an excerpt from The Bluest Eye, read by Tony Award winner Anika Noni Rose; an excerpt from Jazz, read by Emmy and Golden Globe winner S. Epatha Merkerson; “Sweetness,” read by NAACP Image Award winner Phylicia Rashad; and a tribute by Morrison’s close friend Fran Lebowitz.
Witness History: Black History Month will air Saturday February 26 at 6:00 p.m.
This special from the BBC World Service and brings together some incredible interviews looking at the Black American experience. Told by the people who witnessed history, we hear stories that are fascinating, harrowing and inspiring.