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I • Entertainment extra • 1/29/99 thru 2/4/99
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African-American
artists in the spotlight
on PBS
By Cynthia Werthamer
©TVData Features Syndicate
I’ll Make Me a World: A Century
of African-American Arts, a sweep
ing six-hour overview of African-
American art over the past century,
launches PBS’ celebration of Black
History Month in a kaleidoscope of
photographs, film clips and inter
views.
Airing Monday through
Wednesday, Feb. 1-3 (check local list
. iags), the six hourlong segments, nar
rated by singer-actress Vanessa L.
Williams, present personalities from
dance, film, literature, art and music.
Some, such as dance pioneer Alvin
Ailey and musical powerhouse
Quincy Jones, are familiar, while oth
ers are highlighted for recognition
they never received. Yet we may learn
things even about those we thought
we knew, such as Dizzy, the Duke,
Bessie and Spike.
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Diuy Gillespie
The shows present a virtual Who’s
Who of black artists in almost every
. discipline, charting the major trends
that mark the history and impact of
black creativity from vaudeville to
rap. The Herculean task is tackled
both chronologically and by art form,
occasionally with story lines inter
weaving.
The fascinating and tragic story of
singer, actor and activist Paul
Robeson, for example, comes to the
forefront, recedes and reappears in
the second night’s airing.
We move from the 19305, when
Robeson goes to Russia to discuss a
film project with noted director
Sergei Eisenstein, through the 19405,
19505, when he is blacklisted by the
House Un-American Activities
Committee.
. In between, we learn about what
jpade Dizzy Gillespie’s jazz so innov-
Choreographer Alvin Ailey is among the artist
whose lives and work are celebrated in I’ll Make Mt
a World: A Century of African-American Arts. Th
ambitious six-hour special airs Monday, Tuesday
and Wednesday on PBS (check local listings).
ative, and about the little-known
Augusta Savage, who created a pow
erful sculpture for the 1939 World’s
Fair and whose art school in Harlem
launched many careers.
The series is filmed in classic PBS
documentary style: a mix of histori
cal film footage, old stills, filmed
Interviews and "talking; heads” of
critics, scholars and artists who com
ment on their own and others’ work.
Co-executive producer Sam
Pollard (Eyes on the Prize, Clockers)
says he’s aiming for “a PBS audi
ence,” but also wants to entice young
people “because it’s important they
understand the legacy.”
At times, uninspired visual content
- close-ups of a table’s china place
settings during a description of a his
toric luncheon of black and white
artists, for example - makes for dull
viewing, despite the clearly interest
ing nature of the subjects. The on
camera recollections of the time by
artist Dorothy West, by turns witty
and caustic, are far livelier.
“Some of it may not be as enter
taining because we’re trying to be
true to history and not titillate,”
Pollard says. “It becomes a little
more somber.” Nevertheless, the
visual choices might have been more
entertaining and still have been edu
cational.
One riveting segment during the
final hour consists of recent inter
views with, and dances by, dancer
choreographer Bill T. Jones. A film
clip shows Absence, his tribute to his
dance partner and lover, Arnie Zane,
who died of AIDS.
Along with the poignancy of the
lierVdescription of the costumes: the
bedsheets Zane had lain on. “I had
tears streaming down,” he says.
The audience might well respond
the same way.
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