Nikki Beharie is the host of season 9 of AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange. Beharie is known for her previous role on the TV show Sleepy Hollow and her appearance in the movie Shame. The five-week National Black Programming Consortium series presents documentaries on contemporary life, art and culture across the African Diaspora. AfroPoP premieres on WORLD Channel on Monday, January 16—Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
The five-week series travels from North America to Africa to the Caribbean and back again, taking viewers on a journey of hope throughout the Diaspora. Episodes include:
George Potter and Andy Adkins’ gripping An American Ascent (January 16) highlights the first African-American team of climbers as they attempt to summit Denali, North America’s highest peak, challenging their personal limits as well as society’s notions of what a mountaineer looks like.
The moving Intore, by Eric Kabera (January 23), demonstrates the impact a new generation of artists in Rwanda is having in healing a nation that suffered greatly in the horrific 100-day genocide in 1994.
Tyler Johnston and Miquel Galofré’s beautiful My Father’s Land (January 30) follows an illegal immigrant in the Bahamas and the lengths to which he goes to return to his native Haiti to see his ailing 103-year-old father, while exploring issues of immigration and human rights.
Eva Weber’s important documentary Black Out (February 6) shines the spotlight on schoolchildren in Guinea who trek for miles each day during exam season to find places with light so they can study and better themselves and their families. Black Out will air with Olivia Peace’s narrative short Pangaea, a moving story of a young girl who was trapped on a rooftop after Hurricane Katrina.
The series finale is the heartwarming Omo Child: The River and the Bush by John Rowe (February 13) which shows the positive impact one determined individual can have on his community to save lives. Shot over five years, the film follows Lale Labuko, from the Kara tribe in the Om33o Valley, Ethiopia, as he works to create a cultural shift in his tribe by ending an ancient practice that will save a generation of children.
AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange is produced by Angela Tucker and directed by Duana Butler with the generous support of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and National Endowment for the Arts.
To find out more about AfroPoP, visit www.blackpublicmedia.org. For viewing information, check local listings or www.APTonline.org.