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Connections
A smiling man with short dark hair wearing a blue button-down shirt and a grey blazer. He is holding a pair of eyeglasses. The word "Connections" appears on the left side of the photo in vertical letters.
Connections

Walt Way on tracing his ancestry and the Brister English Project

By Evan Dawson,
Megan Mack, Emmarae Stein
Published January 10, 2022 at 3:08 PM EST
Walt Way with Evan Dawson on "Connections" on January 10, 2022
Megan Mack
/
WXXI News
Walt Way with Evan Dawson on "Connections" on January 10, 2022

A local spoken word artist has launched a new project to help people trace their ancestries. Through his own search, artist Walt Way connected with a descendant of the slave owner who owned his ancestors. He shared the process through a series of TikTok videos.

Way joins us for the hour to discuss his search, what he learned, and his new Brister English Project. Our guest:

Connections
Evan Dawson
Evan Dawson is the host of "Connections with Evan Dawson." He joined WXXI in January 2014 after working at 13WHAM-TV, where he served as morning news anchor. He was hired as a reporter for 13WHAM-TV in 2003 before being promoted to anchor in 2007.<br/><br/>Reach him at <a href="mailto:edawson@wxxi.org" target="_blank" link-data="{&quot;cms.site.owner&quot;:{&quot;_ref&quot;:&quot;0000017a-9b5e-d1df-a7fa-dfffdd1f0000&quot;,&quot;_type&quot;:&quot;ae3387cc-b875-31b7-b82d-63fd8d758c20&quot;},&quot;cms.content.publishDate&quot;:1775161543623,&quot;cms.content.publishUser&quot;:{&quot;_ref&quot;:&quot;0000017c-9927-dcdf-a97d-db2792350000&quot;,&quot;_type&quot;:&quot;6aa69ae1-35be-30dc-87e9-410da9e1cdcc&quot;},&quot;cms.content.updateDate&quot;:1775161543623,&quot;cms.content.updateUser&quot;:{&quot;_ref&quot;:&quot;0000017c-9927-dcdf-a97d-db2792350000&quot;,&quot;_type&quot;:&quot;6aa69ae1-35be-30dc-87e9-410da9e1cdcc&quot;},&quot;cms.directory.paths&quot;:[],&quot;anchorable.showAnchor&quot;:false,&quot;link&quot;:{&quot;cms.directory.paths&quot;:[],&quot;attributes&quot;:[],&quot;linkText&quot;:&quot;edawsonwxxi.org&quot;,&quot;target&quot;:&quot;NEW&quot;,&quot;attachSourceUrl&quot;:false,&quot;url&quot;:&quot;mailto:edawson@wxxi.org&quot;,&quot;_id&quot;:&quot;0000019d-4fdc-dfd5-a3bd-fffd03b40000&quot;,&quot;_type&quot;:&quot;ff658216-e70f-39d0-b660-bdfe57a5599a&quot;},&quot;_id&quot;:&quot;0000019d-4fdc-dfd5-a3bd-fffd03b40001&quot;,&quot;_type&quot;:&quot;809caec9-30e2-3666-8b71-b32ddbffc288&quot;}">edawson@wxxi.org</a>.
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Megan Mack
Megan Mack is the executive producer of "Connections with Evan Dawson" and live/televised engagement programming.

Reach her at mmack@wxxi.org.
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Emmarae Stein
Emmarae Stein is the production assistant for "Connections with Evan Dawson."
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