The Sunny Season is Finally Here!

Pride Month. Juneteenth. Longer days. Hot nights. What’s not to like about this season? BPM moved its signature AfroPoP series from April to June, in part, to take advantage of all that summer has to offer. AfroPoP 17 premieres next Mon., June 9, on WORLD. We hope you’ll watch. Go here for details about the slate.

The BPM staff and I will convene our annual staff retreat June 12-13. So, if you have trouble reaching us at that time, know that we’re busy preparing for the year ahead. Feel free to leave messages and we’ll get back to you the following week.

Big Ups to Our Award Winners

Congrats to our friends over at MOOREthanEnuff Media, Inc., for their recent Silver Telly Award. Their BPM-commissioned short on BPM Trailblazer Lillian E. Benson is excellent. If you haven’t seen it yet, you should check it out. 

Kudos, too, to our friends at Fresh Glass — Cassandra Schaeg, Theresa Hoiles, Kathryn Smith-McGlynn, and Trevor Neuenswander —  who also won a Silver Telly for Season 2 of their lifestyle series. A special shout out to Cassandra who’s persistence of vision enabled this program to find its way to a national audience. BPM is a proud supporter of the series.

Juneteenth is only a couple of weeks away. We hope to release a recording of this year’s PitchBLACK Awards ceremony in time for the celebration. Follow our Weekly Dispatch and social media for details about where you can watch, especially if you weren’t able to join us in person. 

Resistance & Joy

On June 20, we invite those of you based in NYC to join us and our friends at Color Congress and Third World Newsreel for a special Pride Month screening. Resistance & Joy Block 1 features six short documentaries highlighting activism, social justice movements, and the fight for equity across different communities. The event will take place at the Brooklyn Community Pride Center in Crown Heights. You’ll find details about the program here. Admission is free, but pre-registration is advised. 

Finally, I encourage you to network with your public media friends to consider what contributions you’re going to make to our nation’s 250th Anniversary celebration next year. It might seem a long way off, but check your calendar; 2026 is only six months away. Many of our colleagues in the public media space are already hard at work developing screenings, broadcasts and engagement activities. We’re combing the BPM archive to select a few documentaries that reflect on America’s 250th Anniversary, but from the decidedly Black American experience. Do you have a favorite? Are there a few titles that resonate with you still? Programs Americans need to see again? Hit me up on IG (@blackpublicmedia) with the documentary you think best reflects America’s 250th Anniversary. Interested in holding a screening of these curated films in your community next year? Email us and let us know. 

Black contributions to making this nation what it is today and what it will be tomorrow must not be overlooked. It is up to those of us who create, distribute and critique Black media content to ensure Black voices are included and heard during the semiquincentennial.

The summer is off to a spectacular start. We hope the events mentioned here and those yet to come will contribute to your enjoyment of the season. Cheers!