‘AfroPop’ Celebrates 15th Season by Focusing on Trailblazing Black Artists

The popular documentary series AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange is celebrating its landmark 15th season with a deep dive into Black art, the first time the series is presenting an entire season centered around a single theme.

The award-winning public media series about Black culture and life, co-produced by Black Public Media (BPM) and WORLD Channel, will immerse viewers in the worlds of internationally recognized artists including trailblazing choreographer/dancer/director Bill T. Jones, international recording star and activist Angélique Kidjo, trailblazing visual artist Bill Traylor,  traditional Mozambican dancer and storyteller Atanásio Nyusi, and iconic jazz musician Thelonious Monk.

The season premiere, Can You Bring It: Bill T. Jones and D-Man in the Waters, will stream exclusively on Black Public Media’s YouTube channel starting at midnight ET on Monday, April 3, and broadcast at 8:00 p.m. ET on WORLD Channel later that day. New episodes of the series, which is distributed and co-presented by American Public Television (APT), will premiere weekly on WORLD Channel through May 1.

There are few men as accomplished as choreographer, dancer, and artistic director Bill T. Jones, who cofounded the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company with his late partner in 1982. A double Tony winner (choreography for Fela! and Spring Awakening), Jones garnered a MacArthur Genius Award and, in 2014, a National Medal of Arts. He’s collaborated with and choreographed for the top dancers from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater to the Berlin Opera Ballet, and he’s worked with other artists including Toni Morrison, Jessye Norman, and Keith Haring. Jay-Z, Will Smith, and Jada Pinkett Smith helped fund Jones’s $11 million Broadway production of Fela! based on the life of Fela Kuti, the embattled creator of Afrobeat.

Executive Director of BPM and AfroPop, Leslie Fields says:

“When we created AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange it was our hope that we would be able to bring stories of modern Black life to public media audiences and help augment viewers’ ideas of what Black life is and can be,” said Leslie Fields-Cruz, BPM executive director and AfroPoP executive producer. “Witnessing the series reach its 15th season, a landmark that is the result of the work and drive of so many people over the years, is an awe-inspiring and humbling moment that fills me with great gratitude.”

The series, which has shined the spotlight on all corners of the African diaspora, since it premiered in 2008.

With this season, it will have showcased 87 feature and short films from noted creatives such as George Amponsah, Joel Zito Araújo, Violeta Ayala, Samuel “Blitz the Ambassador” Bazawule, Yaba Blay, Barron Claiborne, Rebecca Richman Cohen, Bobbito Garcia, Thomas Allen Harris, Eric Kabera, Terence Nance, Raoul Peck, Sam Pollard, Michèle Stephenson, and Marco Williams.

Watch the sizzling preview below.

Spanning the globe to spotlight the power of Black art, this season of AfroPoP transports viewers to Benin, France, Mozambique, and the United States with the following films:

• Can You Bring It: Bill T. Jones and D-Man in the Waters Rosalynde LeBlanc and Tom Hurwitz’s study of eminent choreographer Bill T. Jones’ masterpiece ballet “D-Man in the Waters.” The groundbreaking work of art was first performed by the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company in 1989 in response to the devastating impact the AIDS crisis had on its members and friends. Decades later, former company member turned dance professor LeBlanc — and Jones — work to bring the dance to life with contemporary students born well after the height of the global health crisis (April 3). The 90-minute film is an AfroPoP special presentation.
• Queen Kidjo, Claire Duguet’s enlightening exploration of the career and global impact of international superstar and activist Angélique Kidjo. The film follows Kidjo as she reflects on her journey from her roots in Benin to her musical reign as African music legend (April 10).
• Bill Traylor: Chasing Ghosts, Jeffrey Wolf’s portrait of the life of a unique American artist who, in his late 80s, started to draw and paint, both his memories from plantation days and scenes of a radically changing urban culture (April 17).
• The Sound of Masks, Sara CF de Gouveia’s illustration of a prize-winning dancer of Mapiko — a traditional masked dance done exclusively by male members of the Makonde community of northern Mozambique as a tool to challenge colonization during the Mozambican War of Independence — and his work to keep the rituals alive. (April 24).
• Rewind & Play, Alain Gomis’s exposé of the glaring disrespect shown to legendary jazz musician Thelonious Monk during a 1969 appearance on French state television while the iconic pianist was in Paris for the end of his European tour (May 1).

AfroPoP’s is produced and directed by Denise A. Greene working with associate producer Carol Bash and series writer Ashton Pina.

AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange can be viewed on WORLD Channel’s YouTube channel and on all station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the PBS Video app. The program is available on iOS, Android, Roku streaming devices, Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung Smart TV, Chromecast and VIZIO. APT will release the season to public television stations across the country on Monday, May 1. For viewing information, check local listings.

To find out more about AfroPoP, visit https://worldchannel.org/show/afropop/ or https://blackpublicmedia.org/afropop/.

Black Public Media (BPM) supports the development of visionary content creators and distributes stories about the global Black experience to inspire a more equitable and inclusive future. For more than 40 years, BPM has addressed the needs of unserved and underserved audiences.  BPM continues to address historical, contemporary, and systemic challenges that traditionally impede the development and distribution of Black stories. For more information, visit blackpublicmedia.org and follow BPM on Instagram and Facebook and @BLKPublicMedia on Twitter.

WORLD CHANNEL shares the best of public media in news, documentaries and programming. WORLD’s original series examine the issues and amplify the voices of those often ignored by mainstream media. The multicast 24/7 channel helps audiences understand conflicts, movements and cultures from around the globe. Its original work has won a Peabody Award, an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award, an International Documentary Association Award, a National News and Documentary Emmy Award, two Webby Awards and many others honoring diversity of content and makers. WORLD is carried by 193 member stations in markets representing 75% of US TV households. Funding for WORLD Channel is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Wyncote Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts and Artworks. WORLD is produced by GBH in partnership with WNET and is distributed by American Public Television (APT). Find out more at WORLDChannel.org.