Selected Shorts: Changing the Narrative
This special program, hosted by author, educator and activist DeRay Mckesson, celebrates Black authors and politicians who have rethought and rewritten the narratives we tell ourselves about our shared history and who we are as a nation.
Shirley Chisholm was America’s first Black congressional representative, and shares her not easy route to power in the essay “Unbought and Unbossed,” read by Crystal Dickinson. Literary giant James Baldwin writes to a beloved nephew about the line between acceptance and integration in “My Dungeon Shook,” read by Christopher Jackson. Sonia Sanchez reflects on Malcolm X’s profound effect on the residents of Harlem in “Homegirls on St. Nicholas Avenue,” read by Marsha Stephanie Blake. And, in a final story by Percival Everett, a narrator delivers an unexpected embrace to the most potent of symbols below the Mason-Dixon in “The Appropriation of Cultures,” read by Wren T. Brown.
Host
DeRay Mckesson
DeRay Mckesson is the Executive Director of Campaign Zero, a social justice organization leading nationwide structural change to create equity and justice in our criminal legal system. Beginning as a Youth Organizer in Baltimore as a teenager, he has been an advocate and activist on a range of issues impacting people of color for much of his life. As a key leader in the Ferguson Uprising in 2014 and a leading voice in the Black Lives Matter Movement, DeRay remains committed to providing activists, community members, and policymakers with commonsense policies and tools that ensure and scale equity.
Length
One hour
Show Clock
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Promo spot available: January 24, 2025
Rundown available: January 31, 2025
Program available: February 1, 2025
Broadcast Window
February 1, 2025 - February 28, 2025
Broadcast Rights
Available to all APM affiliates; Affiliate stations may carry this program multiple times before March 1, 2025. The program must be carried in its entirety. No excerpting is permitted. Simulcast streaming rights are available for this program. Prior to carrying this program, stations must contact their American Public Media Station Relations Representative.
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