Two nights ago, I walked across the stage with Rosalynde LeBlanc and Tom Hurwitz, makers of  Can You Bring It: Bill T. Jones and D-Man in the Waters, to accept our Peabody Award. The film was broadcast on WORLD and PBS as part of BPM’s 15th season of AfroPoP: the Ultimate Cultural Exchange. BPM has received Peabodys for other projects it’s funded or produced (e.g., 180 Days). But this is the first time a documentary premiering under the AfroPoP banner has won a Peabody.

When Roz called out Duana Butler during her acceptance speech, hearing Duana’s name took me back to AfroPoP’s origins. 

AFROPOP‘S BEGINNING

Duana was AfroPoP’s first producer and director. I contacted her after our then executive director, Jacquie Jones, gave me the green light to move forward with the series. Duana was working at WNET on the shorts series REEL 13. I thought she might be interested in this new venture. As fate would have it, she was.

For 12 seasons Duana directed and co-curated AfroPoP.  She produced the first season with Idris Elba as the host, then worked as the series’ director under producers Phil Bertelsen (S2-3) and Angela Tucker (S4-12). During this time, my role at BPM began to change. I went from being the program development director, to VP of operations and programs. I took over as ED in 2014, when Jacquie stepped down. Keeping AfroPoP going through these changes was tough. We had little-to-no promotional budget, production costs were on the rise, makers were requesting higher acquisition fees for streaming rights, and funding was just barely enough. We ended the on-camera celebrity hosts to cut costs, but that wasn’t enough. I considered ending the series, but my colleague Diane Carr-Joseph convinced me to keep it going. Doing so, however, would require a drastic overhaul. We would have to produce the series with in-house staff and work with WORLD to package it.