Events | Making Black America: Through the Grapevine, A WTTW Preview and Community Conversation

Making Black America: Through the Grapevine, A WTTW Preview and Community Conversation

When

Wed, September 28, 2022
5:30 PM

Where

Join the Virtual Event

Join WTTW and The DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center on Wednesday, September 28 at 5:30 pm for virtual preview and discussion of Making Black America: Through the Grapevine, a new film by Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and director Stacey L. Holman. The four-part series recounts the establishment of the Prince Hall Masons in 1775 through the formation of all-Black towns and business districts, historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), destinations for leisure, and the social media phenomenon of Black Twitter. With noted scholars, politicians, cultural leaders, and old friends, Dr. Gates discusses this world behind the color line and what it looks like today. The series takes viewers into an extraordinary world that showcased Black people’s ability to collectively prosper, defy white supremacy, and define Blackness in ways that transformed America itself. Making Black America: Through the Grapevine premieres on all WTTW platforms on four consecutive Tuesdays beginning October 4 at 9:00 pm. 

Join us to preview selections from the film along with Brandis Friedman, co-anchor of WTTW's Chicago Tonight, who will moderate a conversation with Kim L. Dulaney, Vice President of Education and Programs at The DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center, and Shayla Harris, director/producer of Making Black America: Through the Grapevine. The conversation will examine many themes within the Black American experience – specifically, the panel will discuss slavery, freedom, and the contours of the bind between North and South; Reconstruction and life under Jim Crow rule; and the status of the ongoing effort to organize and achieve goals that were first set during slavery.

Major corporate support for MAKING BLACK AMERICA: THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE is provided by Bank of America. Corporate support is also provided by Johnson & Johnson. Major support is also provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting; Ford Foundation; Open Society Foundations; The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; Gilder Foundation; The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations; and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Additional funding by The Inkwell Society and its members Howard and Abby Milstein; Jim and Susan Swartz; Ellen Pao; Georgette Bennett and Dr. Leonard Polonsky; Joanne L. Cassullo; Deval Patrick; Roger and Jurate Altman; David M. Cote; Betsy and Jesse Fink; John H. N. Fisher and Jennifer Caldwell; Nancy A. Garvey; Peter Schwabach and Misan Sagay Schwabach; Josh Steiner; Richard and Kathy Taylor; Charlotte Wagner; Richard Cohen; David and Nina Fialkow; Steven L. Rattner; Robert F. Smith; Mitch Kapor and Freada Kapor Klein; Connie Lurie; Nicole Commissiong and Darnell Armstrong; Demond and Kia Martin; Gwen and Peter Norton; May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation; Fletcher and Benaree Wiley; Beth Rudin DeWoody; Grant S. Johnson; and Vincent and Elaine Luke. Funding also provided by public television viewers.

Major support for the WTTW presentation of MAKING BLACK AMERICA: THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE is provided, in part, by Philip and Rene Alphonse, Nicholas Antoine, Gwen Cohen, The Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation, and Walter and Shirley Massey.


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