FEBRUARY 21, 2024
AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange, the award-winning series by Black Public Media (BPM) and WORLD, debuts season 16 on Monday, April 1. The series, renowned for its powerful documentaries, rebrands as the public media home for both documentary and narrative films about the global Black experience. In addition to real-life stories about fights for criminal and environmental justice in America, this season shines the spotlight on Kenya, with two prize-winning narrative films on redemption and resilient joy. AfroPoP premieres on WORLD, the WORLD YouTube Channel, the Black Public Media YouTube channel and the PBS App. New episodes premiere weekly on WORLD through April 22 and PBS Plus will distribute the series to PBS affiliate public television stations across the country beginning April 1.
DECEMBER 20, 2023
Black Public Media will pay tribute to veteran filmmaker Sam Pollard at its PitchBLACK Awards on Thursday, April 25. The ceremony, taking place at the Stanley H. Kantor Penthouse of Manhattan’s Lincoln Center, caps BPM’s seventh PitchBLACK Forum — the largest pitch competition of its kind in the United States for independent filmmakers and creative technologists who create Black content. PitchBLACK kicks
off on Wednesday, April 24 with participants competing for awards of up to $150,000 in
production and distribution awards for stories about the Black experience.
DECEMBER 18, 2023
As COVID-19 and seasonal flu activity is on the rise, Black
Public Media (BPM) is set to release two projects it commissioned targeting vaccine hesitancy in Michigan and North Carolina. The short film A Little Off the Top: Vaxxed Up by William D. Caballero and the three-episode Spanish language podcast Me Vacuno Porque… (I got vaccinated because…) by Antonio Alanis will premiere Monday on the Black Public Media (BPM) YouTube channel. BPM media is a national media arts nonprofit dedicated to creating and producing media content about the Black experience.
JUNE 15, 2023
Black Public Media has received a $40,000 award from the National Endowment for the Arts’ Grants for Arts Projects program. The award will support its fellowship and residency program for new works in immersive, interactive and emerging media at the Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The initiative is a part of BPMplus, Black Public Media’s program designed to increase Black participation in emerging tech storytelling, which was founded in 2018. The BPM project is one of 1,130 projects across the country, totaling more than $31 million, that were selected during the NEA’s second round of Grants for Arts Projects FY2023 funding cycle.
MARCH 15, 2023
Can You Bring It: Bill T. Jones and D-Man in the Waters kicks off season 15 of the popular documentary series AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange with a look into one of the seminal works from trailblazing choreographer-director Bill T. Jones. The film, by Rosalynde LeBlanc and Tom Hurwitz, is the season opener for the public media series about culture and life across the African diaspora.
JANUARY 18, 2023
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.