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Glee
Club and Spelman College Glee Club (pictured) share the stage
for NPR's 13th annual musical tribute to the life and work of
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Hosted by Performance Today's
Fred Child and recorded live at the Martin Luther King,
Jr. International Chapel on the Morehouse College Campus, the
celebratory concert opens with composer T.J. Anderson's arrangement
of the overture to Scott Joplin's opera Treemonisha,
and features performances of "Lift Every Voice and Sing";
William Grant Still's Afro-American Symphony; and
"Everytime I Feel the Spirit" from In the Spirit
and the Flesh. Lyric soprano Teresa Hamm-Smith, who recently
made her debut with the San Francisco Opera, also lends her vocals
to a moving rendition of Leonard Bernstein's "Jeremiah."
From
his still-resonant "I Have A Dream" speech -- delivered
at Washington's Lincoln Memorial in 1963 -- to his tragic assassination
five years later, this two-hour special revisits the projects
and passions that defined Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s life in
his final years. Close friends, fellow civil rights activists,
journalists and historians lend their personal recollections and
eyewitness accounts to help paint a picture of this little-documented
chapter in the leader's life, a time King devoted as much to crusades
for economic justice and an end to the Vietnam War as civil rights.
The program depicts the struggles and criticism King encountered
from other black leaders as he shifted his attention to advocating
human rights for all people, and how he continued to maintain
his undying commitment to non-violence and creative peacemaking
throughout his life. 
From
the moment he slid across the stage, dancing frenziedly and hollering
on timeless hits like "Sex Machine," "It's a Man's
World" and "Please, Please, Please," James Brown
owned the audience. His was a kind of music few had heard before
-- a wild blend of funk, soul and R&B that spoke to black
pride, racial equality and social change, and had the effect of
electrifying people all over the world. This American
Masters program revisits the more than four-decade
career of the Godfather of Soul, sitting down with the legend
himself to record, for the first time, the in-depth story of his
life and music. The film is enlivened by previously unseen footage,
live performances, interviews with bandmates and selection from
Brown's autobiography. 
Documentarian
Tom Weidlinger's (A Dream in Hanoi) latest project tells
the story of 12 ordinary individuals from different racial, ethnic
and socioeconomic backgrounds who came to accomplish extraordinary
deeds during the Civil Rights Movement. Beautifully illustrated
with images by photojournalist Matt Herron, who covered the movement
for Time, Life and Newsweek magazines,
the film shows how any person can stand up, make their voice heard
and become involved in social change. Among the activists interviewed
are Yuri Kochiyama, a Japanese-American who was detained in the
internment camps of World War II and has since worked to build
alliances between diverse cultural groups; Reverend Cecil Williams,
a minister, author and national leader on the forefront of social
change whose 10,000-person congregation is one of the most diverse
in the nation; and scholar-activist Dr. Carlos Munoz, Jr., a founder
of the Chicano Civil Rights Movement who has been a central figure
in the struggle for civil and human rights since the 1960s. Photo
© Matt Herron/TAKE STOCK. 5:30 p.m.
Explore
the color-filled canvasses of Wilmington, Delaware, artist Edward
Loper during this Emmy Award-winning documentary from local production
company Teleduction. Loper narrates his own life story, relaying
his early experiences with drawing and painting as a young man
growing up in urban Wilmington in the mid-1930s, and his continuing
influence on the national art world seven decades later. Senior
Producer Sharon Baker collaborated with author Marilyn Baumann
(Edward L. Loper, The Prophet of Color: A Disciple's Deflections)
and Steve Bruni of the Delaware Art Museum to craft the life
story of this American master. The film boasts an original jazz
score by composer Wilson Gault Somers, who also adapted several
early-20th century pieces by African-American composers. 5:30
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Pledge | TV12 | 91FM | Education | Community | Underwriting | Fresh Air | Membership
Listen Live! | WHYY Store | About WHYY | Contact Us | WHYY Home