Irish Heaven on Earth: Celtic Woman - Songs from the Heart

Experience a piece of Irish heaven on earth on Thursday night when WSBE Rhode Island PBS airs Celtic Woman – Songs from the Heart on March 4 at 7:30 P.M. This is the last airing of the televised concert before the troupe's live performance at the Providence Performing Arts Center on March 9 and 10. Rhode Island PBS has concert tickets – among the best seats in the house – for viewers who pledge support for public television in Rhode Island.

The televised concert was filmed in HD in the lush Irish country setting of the majestic Powerscourt House & Gardens. Under a dramatic evening summer sky with the backdrop of the historic estate and musical support of a 27-member film orchestra, 20-member Discovery Gospel choir, 12-member Aontas Choir, 10-member Extreme Rhythm Drummers and an 11-piece bag pipe ensemble performing on a rooftop, the radiant Celtic Woman uplifted their adoring audience with Songs from the Heart.

Musical director David Downes has created a completely new program repertoire for TV, DVD, and CD that showcases the beauty and ethereal presence of vocalists Chloë Agnew, Lisa Kelly, Lynn Hilary, and Alex Sharpe, along with the energetic inventiveness of Celtic violinist Máiréad Nesbitt within a setting of cinematic proportions that was transformed for the first-time-ever into a concert stage.

 Rhode Island PBS will air the two-hour special on Thursday, March 4 at 7:30 P.M. on digital 36.1; Cox 08 / Cox HD 708, Verizon 08 / Verizon HD 508, Full Channel 08; Comcast SD subscribers should check local listings for channel number, Comcast HD 819; Dish 7776; DirecTV36.

Celtic Woman is coming to Rhode Island for two live concerts at the Providence Performing Arts Center on March 9 and 10. Through a fundraising agreement with concert organizers, Rhode Island PBS has prime-location concert seats available. Details for acquiring the concert tickets will be explained during the televised special.

Celtic Woman was created specifically to feature the special talents of these vocalists and fiddle player, and was such a success that it was developed into a touring production. Since the release of the Celtic Woman CD and DVD in March 2005, the CD has been certified gold and the DVD certified platinum. The CD literally made history, setting the all-time record for the number of consecutive weeks in the number one position on the Billboard World Music Chart. Songs from the Heart is the fifth collaboration between the performers and PBS.

Televised Concert Song List

Part 1
•    “The Call”
•    “Fields of Gold”
•    “When You Believe”
•    “The Coast of Galicia”
•    “The New Ground”
•    “Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears”

Part 2
•    “Non c’é piu”
•    “Galway Bay”
•    “Goodnight My Angel”
•    “O, America!”

Part 3
•    “Nil se’n la”
•    “The Moon’s a Harsh Mistress”
•    “You’ll Be in My Heart”
•    “My Lagan Love”
•    “Amazing Grace”

Part 4
•    “Pie Jesu”
•    “Slumber My Darling/The Mason’s Apron”
•    “Danny Boy”
•    “You Raise Me Up”

Finale: “Mo Ghile Mear”
Encore: “At the Ceili”

For more information, please contact Membership at 401-222-3636 x204 or 209.

American Masters: David Hockney, Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye tonight

After A Lively Experiment tonight, stay tuned for a night of great insight and great music with AMERICAN MASTERS, starting at 8 P.M.

One of the best-known artists of the twentieth century, David Hockney is renowned for his prolific production, high level of technical skill, and extreme versatility. Numerous films have captured David Hockney’s originality and prolific artistic accomplishments in the fields of drawing, painting, printmaking and photography. But “David Hockney - The Colors of Music” shows a rare and intimate portrait of Hockney’s private passion – designing for the opera stage (such as in the photo below).

At 9 P.M., American Masters celebrates the music game-changer and definitive soul singer Sam Cooke: Crossing Over. Narrated by Danny Glover, the film features archival footage and interviews with Cooke’s family and friends including Muhammad Ali, Herb Albert, James Brown, Dick Clark, Smokey Robinson, Jerry Wexler, and more.

Interview with narrator Danny Glover:




Then at 10 P.M., it's Marvin Gaye: What's Going On, a personal look at the complex and contradictory man who left behind one of the great legacies in American music.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

WSBE Rhode Island PBS transmits over the air on digital 36.1; Cox/Verizon/Full Channel 08; DirecTV 36; Dish Network 7776; ComCast subscribers, please check local listings for the channel number in your area. WSBE Rhode Island PBS HD programming over the air on digital 36.1, Cox 708, Verizon 508, ComCast 819.

Rhode Island Stories: Boy in the World

BOY IN THE WORLD: Preschool Inclusion at Brown/Fox Point is the story of Ronen Kadmon, a 4-year-old boy with Down syndrome, and his inclusion in a regular education preschool classroom. The film looks at his day-to-day life in a regular education classroom at Providence’s Brown/Fox Point Early Childhood Education Center, as well as his family life and community activities. By focusing on Ronen’s success at Brown/Fox Point, the film shows how inclusive classrooms can benefit all children, both those with special needs and their typical peers.The documentary airs Saturday, February 20 at 7 PM, as part of Rhode Island Stories, and will be rebroadcast on Sunday, February 21 at 11 PM on WSBE Rhode Island PBS (on digital 36.1, RI cable 8, DirecTV 36 and Dish 7776).

The film is the collaborative effort of local filmmaker Jessica Jennings, Dr. Penny Kadmon, and the Pawtucket-based Rhode Island Parent Information Network (RIPIN), a nonprofit advocacy organization that supports parents and children in Rhode Island.

Marking the Grim Anniversary of The Station Nightclub Fire

Saturday, February 20th, marks a grim anniversary for Rhode Island: it is the night The Station nightclub fire snuffed out 100 lives and irreparably altered the lives of 300 more who survived the inferno. Even seven years later, stories are still being written, opening old wounds fresh and new. Admittedly, for the loved ones of the 100 - brothers and sisters, sons and daughter, fathers and mothers, husbands and wives - seven years is a blink in time. As for the rest of us who were not directly affected, we are reminded that life can be turned upside down in a matter of minutes.

On Saturday night at 10 P.M., WSBE Rhode Island PBS will re-broadcast the film, 41. It's a story about the fire's youngest victim, Nicholas O'Neill, then only 18. The film was produced and directed by Christian De Rezendes and Christian O'Neill (Nicky's older brother).

This earlier blog, from our television debut of the film in November, describes the documentary and includes a video clip from WPRI's The Rhode Show of an interview with Nicky's father, Dave Kane.

41 will be re-broadcast on Monday, February 22 at 2:30 A.M. 

WSBE Rhode Island PBS transmits over the air on digital 36.1; Cox/Verizon/Full Channel 08; DirecTV 36; Dish Network 7776; ComCast subscribers, please check local listings for the channel number in your area.

WSBE Learn transmits over the air on digital 36.2; Cox 808; Verizon 478; ComCast 294.

Viewers with high definition (HD) capability can receive WSBE Rhode Island PBS HD programming over the air on digital 36.1, Cox 708, Verizon 508, ComCast 819.

Three stories from the Urban Collaborative Accelerated Program - UCAP

The award winning documentary Accelerating America follows three students at the Urban Collaborative Accelerated Program (UCAP), an independent public middle school located in Providence, RI. The film airs Wednesday, February 17 at 8 P.M.(digital 36.1, Cox/Verizon/Full Channel 8, Dish 7776, DirecTV 36). After the film's debut on WSBE last May, the school received a large monetary donation to help advance its work.

New York-based filmmaker Timothy Hotchner became involved in the school while he was a student at Brown University. Accelerating America is his first feature documentary. Hotchner gained the trust of the three students over several months. As a result, the film presents an intimate look at the children's struggles to overcome abandonment, poverty, and previous educational failure:

America - Sassy but wounded, fourteen-year-old America (whose name inspired the film’s title) was placed in foster care after her allegations of sexual abuse against her brother. Her family returned to the Dominican Republic without a word to her - she learned of their disappearance from a friend.

Jason - Steadfast even in the face of the odds stacked against him, Jason’s prior school experience was of teachers ignoring him or worse - telling him he could never succeed.

Yasmine - With her hardened outer shell, Yasmine hovers on the edge of making some really big mistakes. Two of her brothers have been in and out of the justice system and a third dropped out of school. She has never met her father.

A public but independent middle school, UCAP is the only school in the nation that gives at-risk students - students who would likely quit school otherwise - the chance to complete three years of study in two, by dramatically improving their academic and social skills.

Hotchner's film also captures the fierce determination of Robert DeBlois, UCAP’s founder and director. DeBlois actively runs the school despite his physical limitations as a quadriplegic - the result of a diving accident while in college. The film depicts a highly dedicated teaching staff and a non-traditional learning environment that includes efforts to engage families in their children’s education.

UCAP serves students from Providence, Central Falls, and Cranston, Rhode Island. Rob DeBlois, Director, lives in Seekonk, MA. Also prominently featured is DeBlois’ assistant Lynn Prentiss of Providence, and school social worker Albert Lemos of Cumberland.

Accelerating America took Special Jury Prize for documentaries at the Seattle International Film Festival “…for capturing the inspiration of the subject and the humanistic heart of the film.”

Rhode Island's Schools: Where We Stand - 3

On Wednesday night at 9:30 P.M., WSBE Rhode Island PBS presents the latest in its quarterly series, Rhode Island's Schools: Where We Stand. Education broadcast journalist Kelley McGee hosts the magazine.

The first two segments introduce school programs that improve students' skills in personal finance and financial literacy. Chariho High School in Wood River Junction in southern Rhode Island is the only high school in the state that requires students to complete and pass a personal finance course. At Tolman High School in Pawtucket, students can take a course to become IRS-certified tax preparers in the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program. And at URI, Joan Gray Anderson instructs student teachers in the art and science of personal finance education.

The next segment discusses "Race to the Top" with Education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist, NEARI Executive Director Robert Walsh, and RI Federation of Teachers Executive Director Marcia Reback.

The final segment, "New Schools, New Ideas," explores alternative learning: mayoral academies, and a proposed new parochial high school at St. Patrick's in Providence.

Rhode Island's School: Where We Stand airs Wednesday, February 17 at 9:30 and re-broadcast on Friday, February 19 at 2 A.M. on WSBE Rhode Island PBS; and on Sunday, February, 28 at 10:30 P.M. on WSBE Learn.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

WSBE Rhode Island PBS transmits over the air on digital 36.1; Cox/Verizon/Full Channel 08; DirecTV 36; Dish Network 7776; ComCast subscribers, please check local listings for the channel number in your area.

WSBE Learn transmits over the air on digital 36.2; Cox 808; Verizon 478; ComCast 294.

Viewers with high definition (HD) capability can receive WSBE Rhode Island PBS HD programming over the air on digital 36.1, Cox 708, Verizon 508, ComCast 819.

“Blacking Up: Hip-hop’s Remix of Race and Identity”

Blacking Up explores tensions surrounding white participation in hip-hop. Popularly referred to by derogatory terms such as “wannabe” or “wigger,” the figure of the white person who identifies with hip-hop often invokes heated responses. For some, it is an example of cultural progress – a movement toward a color-blind America. For others, it is just another case of cultural theft and mockery – a repetition of a racist past.

Blacking Up will air on WSBE Rhode Island PBS on Wednesday, February 10 at 10 P.M., with re-broadcast on Friday the 12th at 2:30 A.M. WSBE Rhode Island PBS broadcasts over the air on digital 36.1 on Cox/Verizon/Full Channel 08, on Dish 7776, and on DirecTV 36; ComCast subscribers should check local listings for correct channel number.

One of the characters in the film is Paul “Sage” Francis, a hip-hop artist from Providence, Rhode Island. Francis is the owner/CEO of the independent hip-hop record label Strange Famous Records. He is also part of the contemporary spoken word movement, performing at poetry events and blurring the lines between poetry and hip-hop.

Also in the film:
Amiri Baraka (formerly Leroi Jones), author of more than 40 books of essays, poems, drama, and cultural history, and founder of The Black Arts Movement in Harlem in the 1960s.

Paul Mooney, comedian, actor and writer, who started his professional career as a writer for Richard Pryor.
Mooney also wrote for Red Foxx’s Sanford and Son and was head writer for the television shows Good Times and In Living Color. More recently, Mooney was both a writer and actor on Chappelle’s Show with David Chappelle.

Russell Simmons, co-founder Def Jam Recordings, a record label that was at the epicenter of hip-hop’s development into a widely popular genre in the 1980s and 90s.

Nelson George, author, screenwriter, television producer and cultural critic.

Chuck D., founding member and frontman for the rap group Public Enemy.

Greg Tate, cultural critic and long-time staff writer for The Village Voice, and has published writings on art, music, and culture appearing in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, and The Nation.

Vanilla Ice (Robert Van Winkle), rapper best known for the song “Ice Ice Baby,” the first hip-hop single to top the Billboard charts.

Aesop Rock (Ian Bavitz), a Long Island-born MC signed to Manhattan-based label Definitive Jux.

M1 (Mutulu Olugbala), rapper, activist, author, and one half of the political hip-hop duo, Dead Prez.

Power (Oli Grant), manager of the Wu-Tang Clan since 1997 with Mitchell “Divine” Diggs.

For more information, visit the film's Web site or the Facebook Fan Page.