WQED Presents Live Forum Portrayal and Perception: African American Men & Boys

PORTRAYAL AND PERCEPTION: AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN & BOYS
Multi-Part Series to Encore in Advance of New Episode and Live Forum on November 14

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
October 2, 2013

CONTACT:
George Hazimanolis
412-622-1366
ghazimanolis@wqed.org

PORTRAYAL AND PERCEPTION: AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN & BOYS
Multi-Part Series to Encore in Advance of New Episode and Live Forum on November 14

PITTSBURGH -- Building on the success of last year’s Portrayal and Perception: African American Men & Boys initiative, WQED will continue sharing the many stories of African American men and boys who are accomplished members of the community throughout western Pennsylvania.

Past episodes of Portrayal and Perception: African American Men & Boys will re-air on Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. starting October 1 through November 11.

• 10/1 – “Owning It”: Michael Bartley shows how local African American entrepreneurs, often overlooked by commercial media, are not only experiencing financial success, they are inspiring future business leaders.
• 10/8 – “Pitch Perfect”: Minette Seate profiles leaders and members of Pittsburgh's Afro American Music Institute, which goes beyond teaching music to foster a culture of pride and community responsibility.

• 10/15 – “Game Changers”: Chris Moore reveals how One Hood Media combats negative images by urging young men to define themselves using available media, rather than allowing others to do it for them.
• 10/22 – “Teaching Success”: How do you teach an African American boy to become a leader? "Teaching Success" looks at three different on ramps to the road to success: a program for young entrepreneurs and one of its star pupils; the commitment of African American educators at Pittsburgh's Manchester K-8 school on the North Side; and, the Black Male Leadership Development Institute, a seven-day leadership training collaboration between Robert Morris University and the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh.
• 10/29 – “Media Men”: Focusing on communications careers, featured profiles include: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist Tony Norman; WQED/PCNC/KDKA Radio host Chris Moore; Pittsburgh Tribune-Review photographer Sidney Davis; and social media networker Alex Simmons.
• 11/6 – “Journey to Medicine”: Following middle school students, medical school students and seasoned professional physicians, this episode looks at local black males who are pursuing careers in medicine.
• 11/11 – “The New Trailblazer”: After the turbulent 1960s and 70s, the torch has been passed to a new generation of leadership in Pittsburgh’s African American community. Featuring attorney Blaine Jones and Pennsylvania Representative Ed Gainey, this program shows how they are making their mark in law and politics and offers perspective from those who once walked in their shoes.

On Thursday, November 14 at 7:30 p.m. “Have You Ever Considered Teaching?” premieres. This episode encourages African American males to explore a teaching career. For the past twenty years there has been a steady decline of black males in the profession.

Immediately following LIVE at 8 p.m. will be Portrayal & Perception: A Community Forum. During the broadcast, western Pennsylvania community leaders, activists and concerned citizens will discuss how the media portrays African American males and how society views them as a result. The broadcast will engage a studio audience as well as people commenting via social media. The forum is the culmination of eight WQED documentaries that reported on people and organizations working to spotlight positive rather than negative images of black men.

As part of the partnership with BMe (which piloted projects in Philadelphia and Detroit to highlight black males engaging with and leading others in service to their communities), WQED plans to identify and recognize local men and boys who are serving Pittsburgh’s communities with an awards ceremony in 2014. Over 200 stories about Pittsburgh men and boys may now be seen at bmecommunity.org.

WQED Pittsburgh has a proud history of honors, including 134 National and Mid-Atlantic Emmy® Awards, an Academy Award, and many, many others, including two Emmy® Awards for Station Excellence. WQED was founded in 1954 as the nation’s first community-supported broadcaster. WQED changes lives by creating and sharing outstanding public media that educates, entertains and inspires. It is the parent company of WQED-TV (PBS); WQED: The Neighborhood Channel; WQED: The Create Channel; WQED Showcase; Classical WQED-FM 89.3/Pittsburgh; Classical WQEJ-FM 89.7/Johnstown; the Pittsburgh Concert Channel at WQED-HD2 (89.3-2FM) and online at www.wqedfm.org; local and national television and radio productions; WQED Interactive (www.wqed.org) and iQ: smartmedia, WQED’s Educational initiative (www.wqed.org/edu).

Posted on behalf of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates.  Joyce Kane is the owner of Cybertary Pittsburgh, a Virtual Administrative support company, providing virtual office support, personal and executive assistance, creative design services and light bookkeeping.  Cybertary works with businesses and busy individuals to help them work 'on' their business rather than 'in' their business.  www.Cybertary.com/Pittsburgh

WQED Receives Heinz Endowments Grant for Local Initiative

HEINZ ENDOWMENTS AWARDS MAJOR GRANT TO WQED FOR LOCAL INITIATIVE ON AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN & BOYS

PITTSBURGH – WQED Multimedia has been awarded a major grant from the Heinz Endowments to support the continuation of a multimedia initiative to increase awareness of portrayal and perception of African American men and boys.

“This unique partnership will help ensure positive stories and images of African American men and boys from our community provide a more balanced portrayal through mainstream media,” said Carmen Anderson, the Endowments senior program officer for Children, Youth & Families and chair of the foundation's African American Men and Boys Task Force. “This year a new component, modeled after a national initiative that allows the men and boys to tell their own stories, will be added to the program. Both the quality and content of the pilot series were very good; we anticipate building on this success to further this important agenda.”

“This project shares and advances the goals of both the Heinz Endowments and WQED: to educate and increase awareness of community issues, and to work through partnerships toward a community dialogue to deal with those issues,” said Deborah L. Acklin, president and chief executive officer of WQED.

This project has a special focus on the African American community and features stories of African American men and boys who are accomplished members or rising stars in the community.

Last year’s series, also made possible through a grant from The Heinz Endowments, included a televised town hall meeting and four episodes that focused on entrepreneurship, African American musical forms, and media images of African American men and boys.

“Our experience with Portrayal and Perception (the umbrella name for the series), was that the more we produced, the more we learned about the many uncelebrated men in a myriad of professional and academic settings,” said Darryl Ford Williams, WQED vice president of content. “The connection this series made with the audience was notable, and viewers asked for more stories and suggested topics to cover in future segments.”

Broadcast Component
This year’s Portrayal and Perception series will consist of four half-hour documentaries that illustrate stories of African American men and boys in urban, suburban and rural environments. The productions will air on multiple platforms and channels to reach the full range of WQED’s audience.

In addition to new episodes on WQED’s main television channel, the complete catalogue of episodes from years one and two of the project will air in a continuous block on WQED: The Neighborhood Channel. The Neighborhood Channel is one of WQED’s four digital channels available for free over-the-air and on local cable systems.

The initiative will culminate in a town hall meeting that assesses the accomplishments and challenges in the effort to reshape the image of African American men and boys, including a conversation on the importance of mentoring and the role of the church.

Online Component
WQED will partner with the BME (pronounced Be Me) project, a national engagement initiative to create an online portal for African American men and boys to share their positive portraits through a digital story corps. This aspect of the initiative will invite creative voices from the community to participate in the effort to alter perceptions. The Pittsburgh BME initiative will be similar to the BME projects launching in Philadelphia, Detroit and Baltimore.

About The Heinz Endowments

The Heinz Endowments supports efforts to make southwestern Pennsylvania a premier place to live and work, a center for learning and educational excellence, and a region that embraces diversity and inclusion. Its mission is to help southwestern Pennsylvania thrive economically, ecologically, educationally and culturally, while advancing the state of knowledge and practice in the foundation’s fields of emphasis. These include philanthropy in general and the disciplines represented by five grant-making programs: Arts & Culture; Children, Youth & Families; Community & Economic Development; Education; and Environment.

About WQED Multimedia
 WQED Multimedia has a proud history of honors, including 134 National and Mid-Atlantic Emmy® Awards, an Academy Award, and many, many others, including two Emmy® Awards for Station Excellence. WQED was founded in 1954 as the nation’s first community-supported broadcaster. The people of WQED create, produce and distribute quality programs, products and services to engage, inform, educate and entertain the public within their community and around the world. WQED Pittsburgh is one of the first broadcasters in the country to be fully high-definition (HD) in its studio and field production capabilities. It is the parent company of WQED-TV (PBS); WQED: The Neighborhood Channel; WQED: The Create Channel; WQED Showcase; Classical WQED-FM 89.3/Pittsburgh; Classical WQEJ-FM 89.7/Johnstown; the Pittsburgh Concert Channel at WQED-HD2 (89.3-2FM) and online at www.wqed.org/fm; local and national television and radio productions; WQED Interactive (www.wqed.org) and iQ: smartmedia, WQED’s Educational initiative (www.wqed.org/edu).

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Posted on behalf of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates.  Joyce Kane is the owner of Cybertary Pittsburgh, a Virtual Administrative support company, providing virtual office support, personal and executive assistance, creative design services and light bookkeeping.  Cybertary works with businesses and busy individuals to help them work 'on' their business rather than 'in' their business.  www.Cybertary.com/Pittsburgh