Listen with us as we recognize Black History Month this February, with special programming exploring representation in history, landmark court battles, and poetry as a vehicle for expression.
Whispers in Wilmington
Sunday, February 2, 2025 at 8pm
We’re used to recognizing someone powerful with a statue. But what happens when there’s no statue or memorial to a traumatic event? Whoever lives with the impact of that painful history has to confront the kind of power it takes to keep it hidden for so long. In this episode, we uncover the story of the only successful coup d’etat ever to happen on American soil. This act of racial violence was designed to eliminate all memory of a highly successful Black community in Wilmington, North Carolina back in 1898. That suppression involved racist mobs, as well as historians, city planners, journalists and countless others. They conspired for decades to make a Black community’s onetime prosperity and strength unimaginable. Almost unimaginable.
Closer Look: The State of Education 70 Years After Brown v. Board of Education
Sunday, February 9, 2025 at 8pm
When the Supreme Court issued its landmark desegregation ruling in 1954, it was thought that it would improve America’s public education system. Where do things stand for students 70 years later? We explore how the immediate resistance to the ruling – as well as a slowed response to integrate schools – created other patterns that included the displacement of Black educators.
Live Wire Black History w/ Tracy K. Smith, Saeed Jones, and Meklit
Sunday, February 16, 2025 at 8pm
Former U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith discusses her memoir To Free the Captives, which explores Black strength, continuance, and community by looking back at her own family’s history; poet Saeed Jones (Alive at the End of the World) unpacks the backstories behind some of his poems involving Billie Holiday, Maya Angelou, and Luther Vandross; and Ethio-Jazz musician Meklit performs the song, “I Want to Sing for Them All” as a tribute to her musical influences.
