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Posts tagged as “Harold Washington”

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.

The Obsidian Collection, an African-American Newspaper Archive, to Put Its Records Online For Free

By goodblacknews on June 4, 2018
Source: Screenshot, Google Arts and Culture
Source: Screenshot, Google Arts and Culture
by Adrienne Samuels Gibbs via chicagomag.com
Digitizing legacy. That’s the job of the curators behind The Obsidian Collection – archivists for The Chicago Defender, Baltimore Afro American and other historically black newspapers in the United States. Their task is massive: digitize every image and article from newspapers that played a central role in the Great Migration, Civil Rights and Jim Crow eras. But they won’t have to do it all alone. Google Arts & Culture is working with the Obsidian group on creating digital exhibits that can be free and searchable by anyone around the world.
That’s just the first step, and it’s huge.
“More than just digitizing it for researchers, I’m passionate about the next generation seeing how awesome we are and in changing the narrative permeating the American conversation right now about African Americans,” says Angela Ford, who is helming the project and is excited about how it will add a more accurate variety of African American image metadata to the Google brain trust.

chicago defender harold washington
Harold Washington and Charles Hayes with a young Carol Moseley Braun cropped from the original published image, 1983 PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE CHICAGO DEFENDER—OBSIDIAN COLLECTION

“What happens is a lot of these archive collections speak in an echo chamber of libraries and archives where it just doesn’t get out to the laypeople.  What I love about Google Arts and Culture is you could be standing in line at the grocery store and viewing our archives. We’ll  keep rotating them in and out and keep pushing them through social media. We want everyone to see us.”
Eight exhibits are live on Google, giving people access to a wide range of images, from famed boxer Joe Louis at home in Chicago to coverage of a 1959 housewares show that illustrates how middle class black families lived at the time.
Obsidian already has an image of Harold Washington sitting with a young Carol Moseley Braun, except she was cropped out the image. There’s a water splattered image of children running through the spray of an open fire hydrant on 44th and Champlain, circa 1987. Even the mundane is fascinating, says Ford.
“The Defender had a housewares show in October 1959 and it was a big deal,” says Ford. “It cost a quarter to get in and we have pictures of all the black people promoting their products and Whirlpool was there with their miracle kitchen. We were separate from mainstream America and a lot of things went on in our community that shows a black middle class home.”
Ford is also working with her board—which includes people who have worked with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture—on the larger issues that include the creation of virtual reality online exhibits.
“Google Culture Institute in Paris has invented the capacity to create virtual 3D spaces from a photograph,” says Ford, discussing the possibilities involved in using old picture to create virtual realities. “The question is, are we altering the art?”

chicago defender joe louis
Joe Louis and young fans, c. 1945 PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE CHICAGO DEFENDER—OBSIDIAN COLLECTION

A lot of this work is already on microfilm, but moving it to an online space will make it easier to access via smartphone, which is the end goal. Obsidian will slog through uploading everything to their own website and meanwhile, visitors will soon be able to head to Google Arts & Culture for a taste of what’s to come.
“Google’s arts and culture strategy is that everybody in the world can access everybody in the world and that will create a new world,” says Ford. “We want to make sure we are part of that conversation.”
Source: http://www.chicagomag.com/city-life/June-2018/How-the-Obsidian-Collection-Is-Bringing-Black-Newspapers-to-Google/

Landmark Civil Rights Documentary "Eyes on the Prize, Parts I and II" Starts Re-airing Tonight at 9pmEST on WORLD Channel

Landmark Civil Rights Documentary "Eyes on the Prize, Parts I and II" Starts Re-airing Tonight at 9pmEST on WORLD Channel

By goodblacknews on January 17, 2016

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Public television’s WORLD Channel will present the complete Emmy-Award winning Eyes on the Prize I and II starting tonight, January 17, 2016. A 30-minute special feature, Eyes on the Prize: Then and Now, will launch the encore presentation of this historic two-part series and explore its impressive relevance today.

Eyes on the Prize, created by Executive Producer Henry Hampton, is a critically-acclaimed and in-depth documentary series on civil rights in America.  With the current national spotlight on issues of race and inequality—as well as the marking of the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, and the 60th anniversary of the Montgomery Bus Boycott—the time is right for this series about the nation’s civil rights history to be front and center as part of an essential dialogue.

America continues to struggle with the recurring crisis of race-related violence; Eyes on the Prize I and II can provide perspective for a new generation and be a touchstone for citizens who lived through the decades that the films depict. Journalist and writer Al Letson hosts new introductions to each episode.

“We are elated that this landmark series will once again be broadcast across the country, reaching millions of viewers—many of whom may never have seen the original airing. The series focuses on solutions to the conflicts that we face today.  Eyes on the Prize shows leadership, grass roots organization and personal sacrifice as the recipe that can create lasting change.  It is our hope the television programs together with our comprehensive outreach campaign will spark a national dialogue about this critical topic,” says Judi Hampton, president of Blackside, and sister of the late Henry Hampton (1940-1998).
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The WORLD Channel presentation, made possible with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Ford Foundation, includes Eyes on the Prize: Then and Now, a new, original 30-minute special, which will lead into the premiere January 17 of Eyes on the Prize, setting the groundbreaking documentary series in the context of today.  Narrated by music artist Aloe Blacc, Eyes on the Prize: Then and Now features Eyes on the Prize filmmakers, present-day activists, human rights leaders, and scholars. The special revisits key historical moments and explores commonalities with current national events.

“The WORLD Channel is honored to be presenting this signature series,” says Chris Hastings, Executive Producer of the WORLD Channel. “It’s a history that must be understood.  With Eyes on the Prize: Then and Now, we ask questions and draw comparisons about the struggle to achieve equality today. As conflicts and challenges continue, Eyes on the Prize remains essential viewing for all Americans.”

As part of the initiative, WGBH Education is developing a digital resource collection supporting Eyes on the Prize and civil rights themes in history and social studies curricula, to help the civil rights movement come alive for students today. This collection will be available on PBS LearningMedia in January.

Based at WGBH Boston, the national public media producer, WORLD Channel delivers the best of public television’s original documentary films and news to US audiences through local public television stations, including America ReFramed, AfroPop, POV and Local, USA.  The special Eyes on the Prize presentation also will be made available to all public television stations for local broadcasts (check listings) after the WORLD premiere.

EYES ON THE PRIZE I and II

Almost three decades since its premiere, the groundbreaking series Eyes on the Prize I and II will return to PBS this January.  Eyes on the Prize I will premiere on The WORLD Channel six consecutive Sundays – January 17, 24, 31 and February 7, 14, 21 at 9:00 p.m. (EST). Eyes on the Prize II will air eight consecutive Sundays—February 28, March 6, 13, 20, 27, and April 3, 10, 17 at 9:00 p.m. (EST).

Produced by Blackside, Eyes on the Prize tells the definitive story of the Civil Rights era from the point of view of the ordinary men and women whose extraordinary actions launched a movement that changed the fabric of American life and embodied a struggle whose reverberations continue to be felt today.  This multi-part Academy Award nominated documentary is the winner of numerous Emmy Awards, a George Foster Peabody Award, an International Documentary Association Award, and a Television Critics Association Award.

Through contemporary interviews and historical footage, Eyes on the Prize I and II, traces the civil rights movement from the Montgomery bus boycott to the Voting Rights Act; from early acts of individual courage through the flowering of a mass movement and its eventual split into factions.  The late Julian Bond, political leader and civil rights activist, narrates.  Descriptions of each episode follow below:

Harold Washington’s Historic Mayoral Inauguration Celebrated in Chicago 30 Years Later

By goodblacknews on April 25, 2013
Harold Washington, mayor of the city of Chicago, on 12/14/86 in Chicago, Il. (Photo by Paul Natkin/WireImage)

Harold Washington, mayor of the city of Chicago, on 12/14/86 in Chicago, Il. (Photo by Paul Natkin/WireImage)

CHICAGO – As Chicagoans marked the 30thanniversary of its first African-American mayor, Harold Washington’s, inauguration on April 29, the effects of his rule and the movement that put him in office could still be felt across the country, although rarely celebrated or vaguely remembered on the façades of buildings in the city.
The son of a lawyer and Chicago precinct captain, Washington was essentially born into local politics. But even operating in a political climate harshly adverse to him, he had a strong commitment to fairness and affecting change for the good of all Chicagoans, from the inside out.
Before becoming mayor, Washington served in the Illinois legislature as a congressman and senator. After he unsuccessfully ran for mayor in 1977, a group of community organizers who were upset with the rule of then-mayor Jane Byrne asked him to run in 1983. He did so under two conditions: that the group registered 50,000 African-Americans to vote and raised $250,000 for his campaign.
All ethnic groups involved
“It was the first thing Chicago had ever seen like that before. You had all ethnic groups involved,” said Josie Childs, who worked within Washington’s campaign, administration and now leads a local campaign commemorating Washington’s legacy.
The grassroots effort registered more than 100,000 black voters and raised about half a million dollars for Washington’s campaign, “so it almost put Harold in a position that he couldn’t say no,” said the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who was part of both of Washington’s campaigns for mayor.