From new episodes in our Tennessee Civil War 150, NPT Reports: Children’s Health Crisis and Next Door Neighbors documentary projects, to a third volume of our popular 20th Century in Photographs series, to a public screening and event surrounding the Freedom Riders documentary, 2011 is going to be an amazing year of great programming and events at NPT. We’re truly excited about what’s coming up, so we thought we’d give you a little preview of the first six months ahead.
In March, we’ll bring you the fourth and latest installment in our NPT Reports: Children’s Health Crisis series, this one focusing on Primary Care, and creating what some experts term a “medical home” or “culture of wellness” in the home. It follows our previous “Overview,” “Infant Mortality,” and “Childhood Obesity” episodes, all of which can be be viewed for free on our Children’s Health Crisis website. The fifth episode of the series, focusing on mental wellness, is slated for June, while a program on teenage sexuality will premiere in November.
May will see Nashville as part of a larger national story as the country, and American Experience, will commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the historic Freedom Rides. In addition to the national broadcast of Freedom Riders on NPT and PBS stations nationwide, Nashville will be one of several stops along the way in a commemorative ride retracing the original bus route. Students selected from around the country will be on buses, with men and women who were on the original rides.
Nashville played a pivotal role in those 1961 Rides. College students boarded buses in Washington D.C. to ride into Southern states and challenge Jim Crow travel laws and racial segregation. It was an extremely dangerous, although intended to be a non-violent protest. When buses were stopped in Alabama and the state’s governor refused to guarantee the safety of the students, new buses left from Nashville, filled with students — many from Fisk University and Tennessee State University — who had already signed their last will and testaments.
New history will be made with these commemorative rides. We’ll add a Nashville public screening to the mix of events — time and location TBD — and hope you’ll join us.
Also in May, together with the Renaissance Center, we’ve got the second installment in our Tennessee Civil War 150 series. This time we’ll focus on the music of the period.
In addition to a new episode of NPT Reports: Children’s Health Crisis in June, we’ll give you a new installment in our popular Nashville: 20th Century in Photographs series. Volume three will pick up where Volume Two left off, in the mid-50s and the start of Music Row.
We’re also extremely excited to bring you in June a new episode of our informative and educational Next Door Neighbor series. We’ve brought you together with Nashville’s Kurdish, Somali, Hispanic and Bhutanese communities in previous episodes, and this time we’ll introduce you to Nashville’s burgeoning Sudanese neighbors. All of the previous epsiodes are available for viewing online on our Next Door Neighbors site.
Of course, there will also be plenty of new Tennessee Crossroads, Volunteer Gardener and A Words on Words episodes as well to get you excited about spring and summer traveling, gardening and reading.
We’ve also got a half season of Community Cinema left at the Downtown Library, with several films with strong Middle Tennessee ties, among them Me Facing Life: Cyntoia’s Story, and Welcome to Shelbyville. Both films will also have subsequent NPT and national broadcasts on Independent Lens. Get the complete ITVS Community Cinema Nashville schedule on its site.
Thanks for supporting Television Worth Watching in 2010. Here’s to a great 2011!