12:00: Lessons from Ken Burns' new series, "The American Revolution"
1:00: Breaking political glass ceilings
A highly anticipated documentary series launches on PBS this weekend. Ken Burns' "The American Revolution: An Intimate History" is a six-part series about the men and women who fought and lived through the war for America's independence. This hour, we're joined by filmmaker David Schmidt and local history professors to preview the series and to discuss what we can learn — and what we get wrong — about the Revolutionary War. Our guests:
- David Schmidt, co-director of "The American Revolution”
- Michael Jarvis, Ph.D., professor of early American, Atlantic, and digital history and archeology at University of Rochester
- Paul B. Moyer, Ph.D., professor of history at SUNY Brockport
Then in our second hour, a number of local political races resulted in historic wins...and the breaking of what are often known as glass ceilings. Penfield elected its first Democratic town supervisor, Kevin Berry, in four decades. Berry is also the first LGBTQ+ supervisor for the town. In Perinton, Jenn Townsend will become the first Democrat to lead the town since 1918 — and she's the first woman to hold the position. In Greece, Amorette Miller is the first woman of color to serve on the town board, and the first Democrat in her ward. All three winners join us to discuss the significance of their victories and what they mean for their communities. Our guests:
- Kevin Berry, Penfield town supervisor-elect
- Jenn Townsend, Perinton town supervisor-elect
- Amorette Miller, Greece councilwoman-elect for Ward 3
*Note: We also invited Jeff McCann, Greece town supervisor-elect, to join this conversation. He was unavailable to participate, so we've offered him alternate dates.
"Connections with Evan Dawson" is live streamed each day on the WXXI News YouTube channel. Watch here.
