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Wyoming Public Radio Black History Month special programs

Duke Ellington, looking dapper in 1958.
Evening Standard
/
Getty Images
Duke Ellington, looking dapper in 1958.

Wyoming Public Radio Black History Month special programs

Thursday, February 9 8pm

The Choral Hour- Join host Kathlene Ritch as she celebrates Black History Month!
Featuring music of African American composers William Dawson and Moses Hogan. Kathlene chats with composer and conductor Dr. Andre Thomas, as they discuss how concert spirituals and their performance practice have evolved over the 20th century through the present day.

Saturday, Feb 11 8pm

Jump for Joy - Duke Ellington's Celebratory Musical
Ellington once said that Jump for Joy "was the hippest thing we ever did." The inspiration came from a late-night party, a convergence of Hollywood glamour and nascent civil-rights activism with one of America's greatest jazz orchestras. In the summer of 1941, as Americans warily regarded a world war that seemed to be edging ever closer to their shores, Duke Ellington staged what he would later call "the first 'social significance' show," Jump for Joy. Jump for Joy was an all-black musical revue that Ellington said "would take Uncle Tom out of the theater and say things that would make the audience think." It featured the Ellington orchestra in its so-called "Blanton-Webster" years, playing at the peak of its powers, and up-and-coming African-American performers such as the actress Dorothy Dandridge, the blues singer Big Joe Turner, and the comedian Wonderful Smith.

Friday, Feb 17 3pm (repeats Sunday, Feb 19 12pm)

The Lost Cause- The Civil War, then and now
Are we still living with the racial divide left over from the Civil War? This provocative audio documentary explores the history of a conflict that nearly tore America apart. Has it resurfaced today in the rise of white supremacism, election denialism, the attack on Critical Race Theory and the Confederate flags brought into the Capitol during the insurrection on January 6, 2021? Humankind special with David Freudberg produced in association with WGBH/Boston.

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