First hour: "Witness: Black History Month"
Second hour: "Selected Shorts: Celebrating Toni Morrison"
We bring you special programming.
In our first hour, a special edition of "Witness History" from the BBC World Service, bringing together some incredible interviews looking at the African-American experience. Told by people who were there, we hear stories that are fascinating, harrowing, and inspiring. Segments include: The Tuskegee Syphilis Study, American new pioneer Dorothy Butler Gilliam, Nelson Mandela in Detroit, Nasa's pioneering black women, The "Godfather of Gospel Music," and what the Confederate flag represents in America's battle over race.
Then in our second hour, guest host Tayari Jones helps us to celebrate Toni Morrison, the American master who died in 2019. Morrison’s novels, including "Beloved," "Jazz," and "Song of Solomon," have become an indelible part of the American canon. Her fierce, poetic visions earned her the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She was also an editor, advocate, teacher, and mother. This program features her essay “A Knowing So Deep,” read by Jones; an excerpt from "The Bluest Eye," read by Tony Award-winner Anika Noni Rose; an excerpt from "Jazz," read by Emmy and Golden Globe winner S. Epatha Merkerson; “Sweetness,” read by NAACP Image Award winner Phylicia Rashad; and a tribute by Morrison’s close friend, Fran Lebowitz.
