A child prodigy, Roberta Flack began studying classical piano at age nine. Flack got her big break while performing at Mr. Henry's Upstairs, a jazz club on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.
American Masters: Roberta Flack tells Flack’s story in her own words. The documentary features interviews with, among others, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Clint Eastwood, Angela Davis, Valerie Simpson, Les McCann and Peabo Bryson.
American Masters: Roberta Flack premieres on Tuesday, January 24, 2023 at 9pm ET. The documentary will be available on PBS, PBS.org and PBS Video App. Check your local listing here.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a drum major for justice, was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Legends recognize legends. Jazz pianist Herbie Hancock dedicated his 1969 album, The Prisoner, to Dr. King. In his 2014 memoir Possibilities, Herbie wrote:
It was a concept album focusing on the struggle for civil rights. The Prisoner reflected the beginnings of my new musical directions.
When a Clarence Thomas, Candace Owens or Herschel Walker is in the news, Zora Neale Hurston’s quote, “All my skinfolk ain’t kinfolk,” comes to mind. Zora was a novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist. Author of Their Eyes Were Watching God, she interviewed Cudjoe Lewis, the last known survivor of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Cudjoe was on the slave ship Clotilda which arrived in Mobile, Alabama in 1860. Zora's book, Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo,” was published in 2018, 68 years after her death.
AMERICAN EXPERIENCE executive producer Cameo George said:
Zora Neale Hurston has long been considered a literary giant of the Harlem Renaissance, but her anthropological and ethnographic endeavors were equally important and impactful. Her research and writings helped establish the dialects and folklore of African American, Caribbean and African people throughout the American diaspora as components of a rich, distinct culture, anchoring the Black experience in the Americas.
Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space premieres nationwide on Tuesday, January 17, 2023. The documentary will be available on PBS, PBS.org and PBS Video App. Check your local listing here.
