NPT and the Tennessee State Museum are hosting a free screening from the new PBS Southern Storytellers series. The event takes place Tuesday, July 11, at the museum (1000 Rosa L. Parks Blvd., Nashville TN 37208), beginning with a reception at 6:30 p.m.; the screening starts at 7 p.m. RSVP for the free event here.
The evening includes a conversation moderated by Jeremy Finley, author and co-host of NPT’s A Word on Words series. Finley will be joined by New York Times bestselling author and Kentucky Poet Laureate Silas House; Valerie June, poet, singer-songwriter and author; Allison Inman, independent filmmaker and the Belcourt Theatre’s education and engagement director; Rashad Rayford, speaker, author, poet, and owner of Elevate Your Vibe; and Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter and author Mary Gauthier.
NPT’s Southern Storytellers event is being held in conjunction with the premiere of the PBS series by the same name. The three-episode series airs on NPT and PBS stations nationwide Tuesdays at 8 p.m., beginning July 18, and will also be available on PBS.org and the PBS app. The series follows some of the region’s most compelling and influential contemporary creators to the places they call home – the communities that fertilize the stories they tell in books, songs, poems, plays, and on screens large and small.
Southern Storytellers features Nashville-based singer-songwriter-poet Adia Victoria, and singer-songwriters Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires. Also appearing in the series are authors Jesmyn Ward (watch Ward on A Word on Words), Michael Twitty, Angie Thomas, and David Joy; poets Jericho Brown and Natasha Trethewey; songwriters Thao Nguyen, Lyle Lovett, Tarriona “Tank” Ball, and Justin Moore; songwriter/screenwriter/actor Billy Bob Thornton; songwriter/actor Mary Steenburgen; and screenwriters Qui Nguyen and Michael Waldron.
The Southern Storytellers series was produced by PBS, Arkansas PBS and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Craig Renaud.