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Legendary Artist Betye Saar and 1st Black Mayor of Chicago Harold Washington Featured in “AfroPoP” Shorts Collection on WORLD Channel Starting April 26

Legendary Artist Betye Saar and 1st Black Mayor of Chicago Harold Washington Featured in “AfroPoP” Shorts Collection on WORLD Channel Starting April 26

By goodblacknews on April 18, 2021

[Betye Saar: Taking Care of Business, airing as part of AfroPoP:The Ultimate Cultural Exchange (image courtesy of LACMA)]

Exploring modern art, human rights and politics, the AfroPoP shorts program premieres on Monday, April 26 at 8 p.m. ET on WORLD Channel and worldchannel.org with films from Christine Turner, Michèle Stephenson and Amir George.

See the teaser for the Shorts Program below:

The episode opens with Turner’s Betye Saar: Taking Care of Business, a look at the trailblazing Los Angeles-based Black visual artist.

In her 90s and still actively creating art, through interviews with Saar and archival footage, the documentary explores her acclaimed method of using collage, assemblage and more to make pieces — including her famous “The Liberation of Aunt Jemima” work — addressing Black culture, racism, feminism, empowerment and more since the 1960s.

[The Liberation of Aunt Jemima, 1972. Wood, cotton, plastic, metal, mixed media. UC Berkeley. de Young]

Later in the episode, AfroPoP examines racism and xenophobia in the Dominican Republic with Elena from filmmaker Michèle Stephenson.

An intimate look at Elena Lorac, a young woman of Haitian descent raised in the Dominican Republic working tirelessly to combat anti-Haitian laws in the island nation. As her parents, who have worked the sugarcane plantations on the island their entire lives, and other Haitians face possible deportation as a result of new government policy, Elena struggles to obtain her own identification papers and also works with social justice groups to increase voting access and legal rights for Dominicans of Haitian descent, efforts made harder by the government at every turn.

The evening closes with Man of the People from director Amir George. Through a mix of sound and archival footage, Man of the People relates the story of political leader Harold Washington, his path to victory to become the first Black mayor of Chicago, and his mysterious death.

Presented by Black Public Media and WORLD Channel, new episodes of AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange premiere each Monday through May 3. All episodes will be available for streaming at worldchannel.org and on the PBS app starting at the time of their TV premiere.

From Top Model To Black Panther, Actress Yaya Alafia Is 'Truly African-American'

By goodblacknews on February 18, 2014
In 2013, Yaya Alafia played Black Panther Carol Hammie in The Butler.
In 2013, Yaya Alafia played Black Panther Carol Hammie in The Butler.
Yaya Alafia arrived on TV screens more than a decade ago as Yaya DaCosta, the young model proud of her African and Latina roots in Season 3 of America’s Next Top Model. But, as she tells NPR’s Michel Martin, she has come a long way since competing on the series. “I have practiced such deliberate amnesia when it came to that show,” she admits. “Just hearing my voice at such a young, vulnerable age, forced into this other world that I wasn’t prepared for.”

But that experience did prepare her for a successful film career. In 2013, she starred in three films: Mother of George, Big Words and The Butler, in which she played a Black Panther.
“[My father] was an organizer in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. My mother did a little bit of work with the Black Panthers,” she says. “It felt kind of natural for me going on that audition.”
A graduate in Africana studies and international relations from Brown University, Alafia celebrates the fact that she is “one of those Africans in America that’s kind of a mutt, for lack of a better word.” And although her roots stretch from Nigeria to Brazil, she believes that “when people start to get a little too specific, it serves as a divisive tactic.”
Originally from Harlem, she spent a trimester of high school abroad in the Dominican Republic. She says her experience there made her aware of complicated issues involving racial identity. “I didn’t realize how deep-rooted the brainwashing went and how much self-hate there was. … My host mother would yell at me, saying … ‘You’re going to burn out there, don’t get too dark, you could be so pretty.’ And that really had an effect on me.”