JANUARY 24, 2023 BLACK PUBLIC MEDIA WEEKLY DISPATCH By Leslie Fields-Cruz Not Attending Sundance? Try Denton Black Film Festival The film festival circuit is still recovering from its Covid-19-induced hiatus. While the virus remains a menace, it’s no longer viewed as a death sentence, which has emboldened more of us to venture out and …
JANUARY 10, 2023 BLACK PUBLIC MEDIA WEEKLY DISPATCH By Leslie Fields-Cruz Welcome 360 Incubator+ Fellows! When we launched the 360 Incubator+ program in 2015, we knew the breadth of the Black experience had yet to be adequately represented on public media and aimed to change that. The program was designed to identify innovative storytellers and to generate quality …
JANUARY 3, 2023 BLACK PUBLIC MEDIA WEEKLY DISPATCH By Leslie Fields-Cruz New Year, New Opportunities Greetings BPM Family! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and that you’re looking forward to the possibilities this brand new year has to offer. I deeply appreciated the break and am now eager to pursue the …
DECEMBER 20, 2022 BLACK PUBLIC MEDIA WEEKLY DISPATCH By Leslie Fields-Cruz Enjoy the Holidays! I hope you are geared up to enjoy some downtime during the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. I know that’s not the way it works for everyone, but we here at Black Public Media will be closed from …
DECEMBER 13, 2022 BLACK PUBLIC MEDIA WEEKLY DISPATCH By Leslie Fields-Cruz It’s Time to Celebrate! It is true that the older you get, the faster time seems to fly. Perhaps it is because as the years pile on, we grow more adept at squeezing activities into our busy calendars. Which, if we’re not careful, …
DECEMBER 6, 2022 BLACK PUBLIC MEDIA WEEKLY DISPATCH By Leslie Fields-Cruz And That’s a Wrap! The year 2023 will be upon us in just 26 days. Where the hell did 2022 go? Oh, I know, we were oh so busy the time just whizzed by. But that’s a good thing, right? What’s the saying, …
NOVEMBER 29, 2022 BLACK PUBLIC MEDIA WEEKLY DISPATCH By Leslie Fields-Cruz Supporting Arts and Culture is Always in Season When contemplating what to write for today’s Dispatch, I considered talking about the Independent Film and Media Briefing just released by the National Endowment for the Arts and available for download HERE. You should read …
NOVEMBER 22, 2022 BLACK PUBLIC MEDIA WEEKLY DISPATCH By Leslie Fields-Cruz Is Someone Missing From Your Dinner Table? When Transgender Day of Remembrance began in 1999, to memorialize the murder of Rita Hester in Alltson, Mass., it drew attention to a disturbing pattern that, sadly, has continued for more than two decades. Since January …
NOVEMBER 15, 2022 BLACK PUBLIC MEDIA WEEKLY DISPATCH By Leslie Fields-Cruz Filmmakers! Time to ‘Stand Up, Step Out, and Speak Up’ for Climate Justice I love being around other creative people. This past weekend, I had the privilege of joining my colleague Eboni Johnson and our partners at the Houston Cinema Arts Society, the …
NOVEMBER 8, 2022 BLACK PUBLIC MEDIA WEEKLY DISPATCH By Leslie Fields-Cruz Don’t Just Worry About Climate Change, Do Something! Black storytellers are invited to BPM’s first Story Summit on Climate Justice, Nov. 12 If you read this blog often, you know that BPM is hosting a Black Media Story Summit on Climate Justice in …