In this episode of Tavis Smiley Reports, Tavis travels across the country, speaking to education experts, as well as to the teenagers themselves about the challenges they face and how education can be redirected to address their needs. He profiles individuals who are making a difference in the lives of young Black males and looks at the schools that are best serving them.

Watch Tavis Smiley Reports: Too Important to Fail in its entirety, streaming now on PBS.org.

Learn more about Public Media’s American Graduate Campaign here.

Are there some things you’ve heard “black folk don’t…” do? Join the live chat with filmmaker Angela Tucker and comedian Baratunde Thurston on Tuesday, Aug. 30th at  4:30 PM EST, brought to you by our friends at the National Black Programming Consortium.

BlackPublicMedia.org is hosting a live web chat for the Black Folk Don’t… web series which explores the grey areas between stereotype and truth. The chat will feature comedian and blogger for The Onion Baratunde Thurston. Join Baratunde and series producer Angela Tucker as they respond to your questions about the series and your own “Black Folk Don’t-isms.”

Mondo Black is a series of interviews and travelogues providing glimpses into the unique and inspiring realms that black American life occupies in the new millennium. The series visits some of today’s most creative minds and traverses a wide cross-section of subject matter to bring the diversity of the modern black experience into sharp relief.

A multimedia-driven social engagement project by Thomas Allen Harris

Filmmaker Thomas Allen Harris explains his latest creative project, Digital Diaspora, which is designed to maintain family history one photograph at a time.

15 years, I have been making documentary films that mined my family and extended African Diasporic family archives to create compelling stories that illuminate the intersections of personal family history with the historical sweep of our culture and times. My documentary feature films (including VINTAGE • Families of Value (1995)  E Minha Cara/That’s My Face (2001) and Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela (2005) explore issues around identity, family and desire in the context of the larger African Diasporic community. Narratively, I draw from the rich heritage of the literary and arts canon of African-American autobiography to re-define “personal” inquiry through the documentary form. In my work, autobiography is defined not by a single voice or perspective but by multiple voices—often in conversation—to produce communal perspectives.

Read last month’s profile of Harri’s project in The New York Times.

What’s a child’s education worth? For one visionary, rookie principal, it’s priceless. At the Bronx Center for Science & Mathematics, an innovative public high school in NYC’s South Bronx, principal Edward Tom leads a dedicated group of teachers, students, and parents in their biggest gamble yet. Within a community infamous for hardship, can this brand new school live up to its promise and inspire new stories of achievement and excellence?

Check out a preview of tonight’s broadcast below:

Whatever It Takes premieres tonight, Tuesday, March 30 at 10:00 on Independent Lens on PBS (check local listings). A co-production of CAAM.

Since then, his work as a producer, director, and writer has focused on creating films that explore the rich history and culture of African Americans and their contributions.

His work has included numerous ground-breaking projects such as Up & Coming, a 25-part drama series about an African-American family struggling between working- and middle-class in San Francisco; Booker, a one-hour drama based on the childhood of Booker T. Washington; and numerous other films that aired on American Masters and public television including Simple Justice, Street Soldiers, and Ralph Ellison: An American Journey.

More recently, Kirkland played a pivotal role as executive producer of Sam Cooke: Crossing Over, on which he worked with producer/director John Antonelli to secure completion funding from ITVS. The film looks at the musical and political significance of composer, performer, and pioneering pop music entrepreneur Sam Cooke and the circumstances that led to his murder.

Check out this video where Kirkland explains the impact and importance of the legendary singer.

Learn more about this film >>

Read our interview with John Antonelli from last month >>

Shukree Tilghman

It’s February, time to take a moment –– or a day or a week or the whole month –– to recognize, honor, and celebrate the unique and multi-faceted history of the African in America.

At least that’s what I thought February was about. Turns out I was wrong.

This seems an appropriate time to mention that I am smack in the middle of making an ITVS-funded documentary film, More Than A Month, which follows me on a cross-country campaign to end Black History Month (BHM). Through the lens of this journey, the film takes a critical, and sometimes comedic look at what it means that we have a black history month and what it would mean if we didn’t.

Well, I have some interesting news to report from the field: Black History Month has ended.

I don’t mean it’s March 1, I mean BHM has ceased to exist. That’s right. It’s over. Gone. Caput. I cannot tell you exactly when it ended, but it’s gone. And despite the film and the campaign within –– I didn’t do it (so don’t go pointing the finger at me). But you can follow the journey at morethanamonth.org. Okay, enough shameless plugs. Back to the point.

All evidence that I have collected so far, from “man on the street” interviews, to spending time at a black advertising agency and with BHM planning committees, to attending BHM events, points to a somewhat sudden truth. February is no longer Black History Month. Nope. It’s Black PEOPLE Month… meaning anything that has to with black life and culture is fair game in February. Anything.

Are you a black author? February book tour!

A black designer? February fashion show!

A black out of work actor? Don’t worry. February presents a plethora of opportunities for you, and most of them won’t be historical in nature so you can avoid the awkwardness of playing a “servant.” Well…most of you.

Are you a semi-famous political commentator with a take on racism? CNN has gigs for you, player!

A black chef? At least one national grocery store chain is sponsoring in-store “soul food tasting events”…in February!

Are you a diversity trainer? Seriously, February is your month. Seriously.

Are you black and in a corporate environment? Sooner or later, someone is going to ask you what “we” should do for February. You could make up anything. Really. Try it. I went with free Black History Month haircuts at a local black Barber Shop. Then I saw it actually exists! Check it out >>

Do you like black people? Prove it. Do something in February! (Again, anything. It doesn’t really matter). Even if you’re a black filmmaker making a film critical of these practices, you can write a blog about it… in February!

The weird thing about all this is that it’s hard to say exactly what is wrong with these practices. (I can hear some of my more militant people going “What? I can tell you a hundred things wrong with it!” Bear with me). On the surface, it’s the celebration of a people, of a culture. What’s wrong with that? Nothing.

But, there’s a thin, sometimes indistinguishable line between honor, celebration, and being put in a box, one’s culture chained to a particular month. And, if anyone should be vigilant about being chained…okay, bad joke. But seriously, because the history of Africans in America is rife with the struggle to be seen, respected, valued as human, as citizen, as American, we have a particular responsibility to protect this reality. It is not only the responsibility of African Americans, but all Americans. Because if any of our cultures give way to the myth of “white” as the default and everybody else has a little designated spot, then it threatens all of us –– my white folks included –– because it doesn’t reflect the truth of our existence. We, Americans, are a special blend of folks with a history at once violent and corrupt while filled with awe inspiring grace and strength. How we treat the story of our people, the story of us, tells not only who we were, but who we are.

Let’s not forget the original point. It’s Black History Month people. History. There’s a reason it started that way, with a specific mission to ensure the inclusion of African American history into the American History narrative in education and society, in the hopes that one day Black History Month itself would not be necessary. It seems Black History Month has ended, but I’m not sure if what has taken its place is truly serving this original mission. Hmmm.

That said, I’m on my way to get one of those free haircuts. It’s free, people. Free.

- Shukree Tilghman
Filmmaker of More Than a Month

Haven’t heard of the tragedy? Well, be sure to tune into public television this month to watch the ITVS film Scarred Justice: The Orangeburg Massacre 1968, where filmmakers Bestor Cram and Judy Richardson investigate the continued cover-up of the tragedy and the ongoing efforts to seek justice.

Watch an extended clip of this program below:

Scarred Justice: The Orangeburg Massacre 1968 airs in February on public television (check local listings).

A co-production of ITVS in association with the National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC).

In the video extra below, learn more about Louis Mitchell, a young black entrepreneur in 1920 Paris, who brought African American jazz musicians to Montmartre. Mitchell formed a popular quintet, made the first jazz recording in France, and opened all-night lunch counters to cater to inebriated club-goers.

In celebration of Black History Month, ITVS and PBS are offering a special slate of new and encore programs throughout February. Select programs are also available on the PBS video player. Be sure to check out the Independent Lens documentary February One: The Story of the Greensboro Four, which looks at the pivotal event in the Civil Rights Movement when four college students staged a sit-in at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1960. Also, be sure to check out last year’s Independent Lens Audience Award winner Adjust Your Color: The Truth of Petey Greene, which tells the unlikely story of America’s original shock-jock, Petey Greene, who battled the system and his own demons during a time of civil unrest in the nation’s capital.

Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes and P-Star Rising, both Independent Lens documentaries, will be available online February 10.

Visit the PBS video player >>