Audra McDonald & Dee Dee Bridgewater Set for WLIW21's 'MANY RIVERS TO CROSS' Series, 5/11-18

WLIW21 New York Public Television will air a special presentation of noted Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s groundbreaking series The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. on Sunday, May 11 and 18, from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. with enhanced content that offers a unique local approach to the issues covered in the nationally acclaimed series. During the intermission breaks between episodes, interviews include Tony and Grammy Award winners Dee Dee Bridgewater and Audra McDonald.

In her interview segment, Dee Dee Bridgewater talks about her career from her start in jazz to her Tony Award for "The Wiz," and the role her race played in her career trajectory. Host Denise Richardson also delivers Dee Dee's fans a real treat as she persuades the Tony winner to do an impromptu performance of "If You Believe."

Five-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald discusses her career in the context of the series' themes of African American roles in the community, and her sense of responsibility to be a role model for young singers and actors following her path. She also talks about her current role as Billie Holiday in "Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill" and its impact on her.

Written and presented by Professor Gates, The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross explores the evolution of the African-American people, as well as the multiplicity of cultural institutions, political strategies, and religious and social perspectives they developed - forging their own history, culture and society against unimaginable odds. Commencing with the origins of slavery in Africa, the series moves through five centuries of remarkable historic events right up to the present - when America is led by a black president, yet remains a nation deeply divided by race.

WLIW21's eight-hour broadcast event hosted by PBS personalities Denise Richardson and Lyn May expands some of the topics and issues explored in the acclaimed six-part series, and includes a unique New York focus. A roundtable discussion features Pedro Noguera, Peter L. Agnew Professor of Education, NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education & Human Development; Samuel K. Roberts, Associate Professor of History and Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University; Minister LaKisha N. Williams, Youth and Young Adult Pastor, the Antioch Baptist Church in Harlem, Youth Minister and Public Relations Executive for Women of Virtue, Honor and Purpose Ministries, and Connections Coordinator at Goddard Riverside Community Center; and Javon Jackson, Chair, Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz and Associate Professor of Jazz. The intermission segments also include interviews with Tony and Grammy Award-winners Audra McDonald and Dee Dee Bridgewater; prominent jazz musicians Regina Carter and Ron Carter; and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Douglas A. Blackmon (Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II). Other segments highlight cultural organizations in the New York metropolitan area that play important roles in today's local African-American community. Viewers will learn about the history and current happenings at The Apollo Theater, the Harlem Arts Alliance, the Harlem Children's Zone, the Brooklyn chapter of the NAACP, and the New York Historical Society. Regina Carter also performs two songs from her latest release, Southern Comfort.

"The story of the African-American people is the story of the settlement and growth of America itself, a universal tale that all people should experience," says Gates, director Hutchins Center for African and African American Research and Alphonse Fletcher University professor at Harvard University. "Since my senior year in high school, when I watched Bill Cosby narrate a documentary about black history, I've longed to share those stories in great detail to the broadest audience possible, young and old, black and white, scholars and the general public. I believe that my colleagues and I have achieved this goal through The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross."

The series tells the African American story over six chapters of history:
Airing on Sunday, May 11:
The Black Atlantic (1500 - 1800)
The Age of Slavery (1800 - 1860)
Into the Fire (1861 - 1896)

Airing on Sunday, May 18:
Making a Way Out of No Way (1897 - 1940)
Rise! (1940 - 1968)
A More Perfect Union (1968 - 2013)

The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, the 13th and latest documentary from Gates, is a joint production of Kunhardt McGee Productions, THIRTEEN Productions LLC, and Inkwell Films in association with Ark Media. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Peter Kunhardt, Dyllan McGee and Julie Anderson are executive producers. Stephen Segaller is executive in charge for WNET. Rachel Dretzin is senior producer. Leslie Asako Gladsjo is senior story producer.

Gates is the first filmmaker to employ genealogy and genetic science to provide an understanding of African-American history.