WPBT2 premieres Craft in America: Messages on May 24th at 8:00 pm

Craft in America: Messages, looks at the ways many craft artists go beyond skill to personal and political expression. They use craft to tell a story, prove a point, or bring attention to issues. Often their work is passionate and provocative. The artists selected for Messages express many different interests and points of view, but they have one thing in common: their skill and creativity are of the highest level.

Wisconsin glass artist Beth Lipman explores the symbolism of 17th century still life paintings to express the fragility that exists in a world of excess. New Mexico santero Charles M. Carrillo uses authentic  materials to combine historic religious subject matter with contemporary culture. Baltimore bead artist Joyce J. Scott learned quilting and beading from her mother and draws from references as wide-ranging as Africa and comic books to focus on issues such as race and stereotyping. New Orleans jewelry artist and sculptor Thomas Mann is famous for his “Techno-Romantic” designs. He created Storm Cycle, a series of wall panels that document the untold stories in his beloved city after Hurricane Katrina.

 

Louisa May Alcott’s Life and Work Discussed at Broward County Libraries!

 

Louisa May Alcott is recognized around the world for her novel Little Women, but few know Alcott as the bold, compelling woman who grew up in the innermost circle of the Transcendentalist and antislavery movements, served as a Civil War army nurse, and led a secret literary life writing pulp fiction. Louisa May Alcott was her own best character and her life was her own best plot.

The Broward County Library’s public programs shed light on Louisa May Alcott by exploring her life and the historical and cultural context that inspired her remarkable body of work. Alcott’s childhood was characterized by chronic economic difficulties and frequent uprooting due to her father’s utopian experiments. Despite her family’s financial hardships, Alcott experienced a rich intellectual life influenced by family friends such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller. When slavery threatened the nation, the Alcott home was an Underground Railroad stop for fugitives; during the Civil War, Alcott wanted to fight, but as a woman she could enlist only as a nurse.

To support Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women, a documentary film co-produced by Nancy Porter Productions, Inc. and Thirteen/WNET New York’s American Masters, Broward County Library will present six programs from May through September 2011. The six series program will re-introduce audiences to Louisa May Alcott’s story. Louisa May Alcott programs in libraries are sponsored by the American Library Association Public Programs Office with the support of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Additional sponsors are the Florida Center for the Book, the Broward Public Library Foundation, the Friends of the Fort Lauderdale Libraries and WPBT2.

The six programs are located at the following libraries in Broward County:

Saturday, May 7th, 12:00 pm to 5:00 pm

Alvin Sherman Library, Research and Information Technology Center at Nova Southeastern University, 3100 Ray Ferrero Jr. Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Gallery 2nd Floor

Louisa May Alcott: Through Her Eyes. A community-wide library event focusing on the life, works, and times of Louisa may Alcott. View film clips from the documentary film, Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women with commentary by Nova Southeastern University Scholar Dr. Christine Jackson.

Wednesday, June 8th, 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm

Main Library, 6th Floor, 100 S. Andrews Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Louisa May Alcott Wrote That?  Reading and Discussion of Louisa May Alcott’s lesser know works with Scholar Dr. Christine Jackson of Nova Southeastern University. The project scholar will facilitate a discussion exploring these short works, which together help display the range of Alcott’s writing and exemplify her strong and dynamic connections to the culture in which she lived. Copies of her stories will be available at the program.

Tuesday, August 9th, 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm

South Regional/ Broward College Library, 7300 Pines Blvd. Pembroke Pines

Louisa May Alcott: Literary Phenomenon and Social Reformer

Scholar led program with Dr. Chrisitine Jackson of Nova Southeastern University focusing on Louisa May Alcott as a self-trained and successful professional writer. The discussion will center on how Alcott used her writing to advance many of her era’s ideas for social reform, such as Abolitionism and women’s rights.

Thursday, September 15th, 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm

Main Library, 6th Floor, 100 S. Andrews Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Reading and discussion of the biography – Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women.

A scholar-led discussion by Dr. Christine Jackson of Nova Southeastern University of the biography; documentary film clips will be presented during the discussion.

Wednesday, September 21st, 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm

West Regional Library Auditorium, 8601 West Broward Blvd, Plantation, Florida

Film Screening and Discussion – Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women. Discussion led by scholar Dr. Christine Jackson of Nova Southeastern University.

Thursday, September 22nd, 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm

Main Library, 6th Floor, 100 S. Andrews Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Make your personal Louisa May Alcott journal with writer and artist Susan Buzzi. Susan Buzzi will talk about Louisa May Alcott as a young writer and have teens decorate and design their own journals.

WPBT2 will broadcast the documentary Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women during the libraries program series. The first presentation of the 1-1/2 hour documentary is May 1st at 6:00 pm on WPBT2.2 Create (Comcast 202).

Miami-Dade Public Library System presents Art of Storytelling Festival on April 30, 2011 from 10:30 am to 4:00 pm.

Storytellers from around the world will take center stage in downtown Miami  
as Miami-Dade Public Library System celebrates its eleventh annual Art of Story Telling International Festival Day.

A magical adventure awaits as celebrity storytellers, from around the world join the cast of the Bit’s ‘N Pieces Puppet Theatre, Mother Goose on the Loose, Niall de Burca, magician Robert Hermens, the Bahamas Junkanoo Shakers, Geeta Dias: Bollywood Indian Dancers, School of Rock, the Hip Hop Kids and many others! Also back by popular demand is the teen zone-an area just for ‘tweens and teens which features anime, manga and video gaming competitions, plus activities around popular books and lots of cool surprises!

This FREE event is open to people of all ages and takes place at the Main Library - 101 W Flagler Street in downtown Miami. It begins at 10:30 am and ends at 4:00 pm.

Miami Dade Public Library System Celebrates 40 Years!

Join the Miami Dade Public Library System as they celebrate their 40 year anniversary on Thursday, January 20 at the Main Library on 101 West Flagler Street.  The celebration will kick off with the “Dancing through the Ages” dance party at 12:00 p.m.  Wear your favorite outfit from the past four decades and boogie down at the dance contest.  Enjoy music, giveaways, prizes and a performance by the Super Soul Steppers.

The celebration continues that evening at 6:30 p.m. with a reception and art exhibit featuring music from the Greater Miami Youth Symphony and a talk with Miami historian, Dr. Paul George. Assembling an Era, an art exhibit that commemorates the library’s history in the community, will open that night.

Both events are free and open to the public.

For more information, visit www.mdpls.org.

 

 

Where was WPBT2 this week?

It has been a busy one, with stops at  the Arsht Center for the Fall For The Arts street fair, we hit the ground running this week, including stops at Sun Life Stadium, The Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, The Kravis Center and Norton Museum of Art.

Here is some video from the week that was courtesy of WPBT2's uVu Video site:

FALL FOR THE ARTS

THE FORUM CLUB OF THE PALM BEACHES

THE NORTON MUSEUM OF ART

THE FORT LAUDERDALE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

LOX WITH BLACK BEANS & RICE

LOX WITH BLACK BEANS & RICE: PORTRAITS OF CUBAN JEWS IN SOUTH FLORIDA 


From the opening night reception for the exhibition, the audience is welcomed by Executive Director Marcia Jo Zerivitz, Dr. Isidoro Morjaim (part 1), Rabbi Mayer Abramowitz and exhibition photographer, Randi Sidman-Moore (part 2). 


 The Cuban Jewish community in South Florida began with the 1959 communist revolution in Cuba; most Jews fled and started new lives. The 30 large format candid photographs by Randi Sidman-Moore include brief oral histories. They reflect the daily lives and life and holiday cycles rituals of a people and how they are different or similar to the larger society. These "Jewbans" are examples of diversity within one cultural landscape.
 
About 12 years ago, Miami photographer Randi Sidman-Moore was on a trip to Israel when she ended up in a bus with Cuban Jews from Miami. ''They had me in tears they were so funny,'' the photojournalist recalls. "The other Jews were so quiet, but they were having a party on the bus. They introduced me to the whole subculture.'' Sidman-Moore says she knew immediately that she wanted to explore the lives of Cuban Jews, to tell in photographs the story of what makes them different from other Jews, and different from other Cubans. The project took five years to complete, funded with grants from the Palm Beach Community Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and Florida Atlantic University, which first exhibited the photographs.
 
Sidman-Moore, who grew up in New York, studied photography at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and at Studio Art Centers International in Florence, Italy. She moved to Florida in 1995. Her work has appeared in Elle, Life, Time, Cosmopolitan, Ocean Drive and The Miami Herald. 

PBS TO AIR VIDEO GAMES LIVE SPECIAL

Performance to Be Held in New Orleans With the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra

DVD, Blu-ray and Volume Two CD to Follow

LOS ANGELES - DECEMBER 16, 2009 - Video Games Live and PBS are joining forces to create a PBS special based around the highly successful Video Games Live concert series. The breakthrough performance, to be taped February 5, 2010, at the Lakefront Arena in New Orleans with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, is slated to begin airing in June 2010 on PBS stations. Tickets for the performance will go on sale Friday, December 18 at 10 a.m. CST.

 

ECHOES OF THE HOLOCAUST

WPBT2 Premiere on Wednesday, September 23 at 8:00 p.m.

 

To the survivors who frequent it, this is holy ground . . . a Jewish cemetery for the countless souls who perished during the Holocaust, and for whom no grave stone, burial marker or final resting place exists. But the true power of the Holocaust Memorial of Miami Beach can be witnessed when survivors - serving as docents or guides – begin gathering . . . to tell their stories of survival to school children, tourists and visitor groups from across the globe.
 
ECHOES OF THE HOLOCAUST, premiering September 23^rd at 8:00pm on WPBT2, offers an intimate look at four of the survivor docents as they conduct tours of the memorial, but the tours aren’t just informational. The docents relive personal tragedies, of their loved ones who perished and their own private terror, pain and humiliations, and the occasional light of a miracle.
 
These witnesses to history are the Memorial’s watchmen and women. And for the past two decades, they have come . . . every day, rain or shine, as part of a sacred obligation: to never forget.

Dodging The Storm and Honoring the Beaches

Our friends at the Wolfsonian-FIU are having a great series of films this summer and this week there are two that are just "so SoFla" that it is hard to resist plugging them.  Certainly in the 60's,  these films defined (and sold) South Florida to the rest of the of the world.

SUMMER FILM SERIES
Guilty Pleasures: Love and Carnage on the Beach

Thursday, August 20, 1pm, Dynamo Café
Where the Boys Are (USA, Henry Levin, 1960, Color, DVD, 99 min)—Starring George Hamilton, Yvette Mimieux, Jim Hutton, and Connie Francis. Four college girls look for love and excitement during their spring break vacation in Ft. Lauderdale.

 

MGM/Photofest ©MGM 

Thursday, August 20, 7pm, auditorium
Clambake (USA, Arthur N. Nadel and Ladislav Smoecek, 1967, Color, DVD, 100 min)—Set in Miami, Elvis Presley plays a millionaire who switches identities to find out if his love interest likes him for himself or his money.

 

The films are offered at reduced, "recession concession" rates: evening screenings are free for members and students; $10 two-for-one admission for all others. Afternoon screenings free with a purchase in The Dynamo Shop or Café of $5 or more. For more information contact [email protected] or 305.535.2644.

Black Crossroads Exhibition

Excerpts from the Historical Museum of Southern Florida's upcoming historic exhibition, Black Crossroads: The African Diaspora in Miami. The exhibition will open to the public March 5, 2009. You can watch a clip here.