AFROPOP: THE ULTIMATE CULTURAL EXCHANGE Celebrates 10th Anniversary

The acclaimed series AFROPOP: THE ULTIMATE CULTURAL EXCHANGE will celebrate its landmark 10th anniversary with a special screening event and discussion on Friday, February 9, at Harlem Stage Gatehouse at 7:00 p.m. Entitled Lifting the Veil of Disaster Relief: Fatal Assistance in Haiti, Puerto Rico and Beyond, the event will feature a screening of the season finale of AfroPoP, Fatal Assistance, award-winning director Raoul Peck's sobering indictment of the global aid policies that failed Haiti in the aftermath of the devastating 2010 earthquake. The event will be hosted by stage and television actor Nicholas L. Ashe (The Lion King national tour, Kill Floor), star of the hit OWN Network series QUEEN SUGAR and host of this season of AfroPoP. Lifting the Veil of Disaster Relief will also feature a post-screening discussion led by award-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa with Hébert Peck, producer of Fatal Assistance.

Produced by Black Public Media and co-presented by distributor American Public Television (APT), AfroPoP remains the only public television series dedicated to presenting documentary films about the global Black experience. AfroPoP X, which premiered on WORLD Channel on Monday, January 15 and runs through February 12, continues the program's mission of bringing audiences relevant and enlightening films depicting stories about men and women of African descent living in Africa, the U.S., the Caribbean, and beyond. Topics highlighted in this season of AfroPoP include immigration, music and the arts, women's rights and social justice.

This season concludes with Fatal Assistance by director Raoul Peck, a 2017 Oscar nominee for I Am Not Your Negro. Through footage and conversations with politicians, relief workers, contractors and everyday citizens in Haiti, Peck's film takes viewers on a journey through the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake, the promises made, and the global aid policies that ultimately failed the island nation.

Hinojosa and Hébert Peck will discuss disaster relief in Haiti as well as more recent efforts in Puerto Rico and other parts of the Caribbean to see what can be learned from past missteps as more nations begin to be affected by natural disasters prompting serious questions about the adequacy and accountability of the response efforts.

"For ten seasons AfroPoP has broadcast films to engage American audiences in important conversations about Black life, art and culture," said BPM Executive Director Leslie Fields-Cruz. "We are glad to bring Fatal Assistance and its story about failed disaster relief efforts in Haiti, to a public that is still grappling to understand the underwhelming aid response to the recent disaster in Puerto Rico."

Harlem Stage Gatehouse is located at 150 Convent Avenue at 135th Street in Harlem, New York.

Fatal Assistance premieres on WORLD Channel on Monday, February 12, at 8 p.m. EST/7 p.m. CT. Following the television broadcast, the film will be available for online viewing on all station-branded PBS platforms, including worldchannel.org, blackpublicmedia.org, PBS.org, and on PBS apps for iOS, Android, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Chromecast. The entire AfroPoP X season will be released to additional U.S. public television stations in February 2018. AfroPoP is presented by Black Public Media and distributed by American Public Television with the generous support of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the National Endowment for the Arts.

To learn more about AfroPoP, please visit blackpublicmedia.org. For broadcast viewing information, check local listings or www.APTonline.org

ABOUT THE HOST

Nicholas L. Ashe stars as Micah West in the critically acclaimed OWN series Queen Sugar, directed by Ava DuVernay (Selma) and executive-produced by Oprah Winfrey. His harrowing performance in the current season has resulted in critical praise and attention from industry professionals and fans. Earlier he played Viola Davis's son in the courtroom drama Custody, which premiered at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival.

Ashe made his acting debut at age 10 in the role of Young Simba in the national tour of The Lion King. Onstage, he is perhaps best known for his Lincoln Center debut opposite Marin Ireland in Abe Koogler's world-premiere production of Kill Floor, receiving glowing reviews from the New York Times for his pivotal role. Ashe also played the role of Junior in Manhattan Theatre Club's critically acclaimed production of Choir Boy (directed by Trip Cullman), reprising the role at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta and the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles.

Ashe is also a talented vocalist, pianist and composer. Under the tutelage of renowned playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney, he has developed original stories and music of his own. In 2015, he created a scholarship for young artists in his hometown of Freeport, Long Island.

Ashe collaborated with Cierra Glaude on a short film titled Last Looks, which had its world premiere at the 2017 Urbanworld Film Festival.

ABOUT THE PANEL

Maria Hinojosa is an award-winning journalist who was the first Latina reporter in many newsrooms. Having dreamt of a space where she could create independent, multimedia journalism that explores and gives a critical voice to the diverse American experience, she created Futuro Media Group in 2010. An independent nonprofit organization based in Harlem, New York City, Futuro Media Group's mission is to create multimedia content for and about the new American mainstream in service of empowering people to navigate the complexities of an increasingly diverse and connected world.

Hinojosa's nearly 30-year career includes reporting for PBS, CBS, WNBC, CNN, NPR, and anchoring the Emmy Award-winning talk show Maria Hinojosa: One-on-One. As anchor and executive producer of the Peabody Award-winning show Latino USA, distributed by NPR, as well as co-host of In The Thick, a new political podcast from Futuro Media, Hinojosa has informed millions about the changing cultural and political landscape in America and abroad. She is the author of two books and has won dozens of awards, including: four Emmys, the John Chancellor Award, two Robert F. KENNEDY Awards, the Edward R. Murrow Award and the Ruben Salazar Lifetime Achievement Award.

Hinojosa was also the first Latina to anchor a PBS FRONTLINE report: "Lost in Detention" which aired in October 2011 and explored abuse at immigrant detention facilities.

Hébert Peck, Jr., built his career on public broadcasting, social issue video and documentary filmmaking. He co-produced and narrated the documentary film Fatal Assistance and the Oscar®-nominated I Am Not Your Negro." He produced eight seasons of Philadelphia Stories, a ten-hour series of documentaries and short films for public television MiND TV. His award winning Little Hébert aired on PBS and screened internationally. Peck managed the operations of The Scribe Video Center in Philadelphia where he facilitated the production of more than 50 film or video documentaries.

He served on the board of The Alliance for Media Arts and Culture and in an advisory capacity in such areas as film and video for the Rockefeller Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Peck also oversees the Rutgers University Television Network (RU-tv), teaches Television Production as an adjunct faculty and runs Orélus Media, a production and media consulting company.

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS

ABOUT BLACK PUBLIC MEDIA:
Black Public Media (BPM), formerly the National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC), is committed to enriching our democracy by educating, enlightening, empowering and engaging the American public. The nonprofit supports diverse voices by developing, producing and distributing innovative media about the Black experience and by investing in visionary content makers. BPM provides quality content for public media outlets, including, among others, PBS and PBS.org and BlackPublicMedia.org, as well as other platforms, while training and mentoring the next generation of Black filmmakers. Founded in 1979, BPM produces the AFROPOP: THE ULTIMATE CULTURAL EXCHANGE documentary series and manages the 360 Incubator + Fund, a funding and training initiative designed to accelerate the production of important Black serial and interactive content.

ABOUT HARLEM STAGE:
Harlem Stage is the performing arts center that bridges Harlem's cultural legacy to contemporary artists of color and dares to provide the artistic freedom that gives birth to new ideas. Our singular mission: to perpetuate and celebrate the unique and diverse artistic legacy of Harlem and the indelible impression it has made on American culture. We provide opportunity, commissioning and support for artists of color, make performances easily accessible to all audiences and introduce children to the rich diversity, excitement and inspiration of the performing arts. For more than 30 years, Harlem Stage has been one of the nation's leading arts organizations focused on identifying and supporting visionary artists of color. We fulfill our mission through commissioning, incubating and presenting innovative and vital work that responds to the historical and contemporary conditions that shape our lives and the communities we serve.

ABOUT AMERICAN PUBLIC TELEVISION:
American Public Television (APT) is the leading syndicator of high-quality, top-rated programming to the nation's public television stations. For more than 10 years, APT has annually distributed one-third or more of the top 100 highest-rated public television titles in the U.S. Founded in 1961, among its 250 new program titles per year, APT programs include prominent documentaries, performance, news and current affairs programs, dramas, how-to programs, children's series and classic movies. AMERICA'S TEST KITCHEN From Cook's Illustrated, Cook's Country, AfroPoP, Rick Steves' Europe, Christopher Kimball's Milk Street Television, Front and Center, Doc Martin, Nightly Business Report, Midsomer Murders, A Place to Call Home, Lidia's Kitchen, Globe Trekker, New Orleans Cooking with Kevin Belton, Simply Ming and P. Allen Smith's Garden Home are a sampling of APT's programs, considered some of the most popular on public television. APT licenses programs internationally through its APT Worldwide service. Entering its 13th year, Create®TV - featuring the best of public television's lifestyle programming - is distributed by American Public Television. APT also distributes WORLD™, public television's premier news, Science and documentary channel. To find out more about APT's programs and services, visit APTonline.org.

ABOUT WORLD CHANNEL:
The WORLD Channel delivers the best of public television's nonfiction, news and documentary programming. The channel features original content by and about diverse communities to U.S. audiences through local public television stations and streaming online at worldchannel.org. WORLD reached 33.3 million unique viewers 18+ last year (52% adults 18-49) and over-indexes in key diversity demographics. Online, the WORLD Channel expands on broadcast topics and fuels dialogue across social media, providing opportunities for broad and diverse audience interaction. WORLD has won numerous national honors including an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award, Tellys, a Media for a Just Society Award, two Lesbian & Gay Journalist Awards, a Gracie, an Asian American Journalists Award and many others. WORLD Channel also won the Radio Television Digital News Association's 2017 Kaleidoscope Award for its critically-acclaimed series, AMERICA REFRAMED and has received four National News & Documentary Emmy Nominations.

WORLD is programmed by WGBH/Boston, in partnership with American Public Television and WNET/New York, and in association with PBS and National Educational Telecommunications Association. Funding for the WORLD Channel is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Wyncote Foundation and the Kendeda Fund. For more information about The WORLD Channel, visit www.worldchannel.org.

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