Inkwell Society Newsletter Summer 2021 edition

“The first step toward tolerance is respect and the first step toward respect is knowledge.”

-Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. What is Inkwell Society?

Inkwell Society is a group of committed donors who are passionate about the important work of Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. in partnership with WETA. They are dedicated to promoting and funding Dr. Gates’s pipeline of films that examine the rich history of this country and the African American experience. Inkwell Society members support the production of these high-quality, impactful films, as well as accompanying educational outreach materials, digital and social media activities, and community engagement.

Greater Washington Educational Television Association

Summer 2021

INKWELLNEWS PBS Honors Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. for Outstanding Contributions to American Culture and History

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uring the 2021 PBS Annual Conference, Dr. Gates was honored with the PBS Beacon Award in recognition of his leadership, service and work which continues to inspire and enrich our stations and national audiences. The PBS Beacon Award, formerly known as the Be More Award, was established in 2004. As an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic and institution builder,“Skip” was applauded for his wide variety of works including Black America since MLK: And Still I Rise, Finding Your Roots, The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, Reconstruction: America After the Civil War and, most recently, The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song.

“Professor Gates has brought new light to the people, events and institutions that shaped American history, and his collective body of work has deepened our understanding of our national identity,” said Paula Kerger, President and CEO, PBS.“His extraordinary contributions to African and African American studies will serve as an essential historical record for generations.”

For more information, please view the following: https://www.pbs.org/about/about-pbs/blogs/news/pbs-honors-dr-henry-louisgates-jr-for-outstanding-contributions-to-american-culture-and-history/

Telly Awards

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ornerstones: Founding Voices of the Black Church, an animated biography series created by the digital team at WETA, was awarded four Telly Awards! Two gold awards were received in the Online General-Biography and Branded Content Craft-2D Animation categories along with two silver awards received in the Online Series-Web series: Scripted and Non-Broadcast General-Biography categories.

This series promotes and extends the reach of The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song by highlighting important figures who shape the Black Church. Based on our collective desire to produce new creative content, we look at a few pivotal people who brought the reality of the right to gather, read, sing and worship.

Each story is told through illustration, animation, voice and sound in a 60-second format. The videos are primarily for a general audience on social media and other digital platforms. With the Telly Awards honoring excellence in video and television across all screens and receiving over 12,000 entries from all 50 states and 5 continents, winning gold and silver with our content is a significant achievement. Thank you for collaborating, engaging and supporting national productions and digital content!

Coming Soon

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hanks to your generous support, we are pleased to provide insider information on projects currently in production.

Making Black America: African American Social Networks, a four-episode, four-hour documentary series, is currently in production and projected to air nationally on PBS in Spring 2022. This is the story of remarkable black social networks and how they created a web of opportunity and uplift for generations otherwise trapped behind what W. E. B. Du Bois famously called “the color line.”

As a follow-up to the hit PBS series, The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song, we are happy to announce a new series dedicated to the exploration of African American religion’s two transcendent gifts to national and world culture: The History of Gospel and Black Preaching. This four-hour documentary will dig deep into the history and future of both important components of the Black Church. We will be highlighting how Black preaching, through remarkable collaborations, advanced Christian theology and its prophetic mission that has galvanized the long human rights struggle. At the same time, examining the origin story of Black gospel music as it soared to new heights during the Great Migration providing a soundtrack of healing and uplift to those at the front lines of protest and change.

WETA, Skip and McGee Media thank you for your support of our work!

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Finding Your Roots Update

Mom and I wish all Mothers everywhere a Happy Mother’s Day. Jeannette says its been a great Mother’s Day because no one is bothering her. I got to see her this week and we watched Finding Your Roots. There are no words.

Finding Your Roots, the groundbreaking genealogy series, will premiere its eighth season in January 2022. We are very grateful to see Skip’s impact as this series has been applauded for its capacity to “educate millions of Americans about the histories and cultures of our nation and the world.”

Thank You

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his past year’s events, from the pandemic highlighting inequality in healthcare to the murder of George Floyd, have brought about a “re-awakening” to the Civil Rights movement. Dr. Henry Louis “Skip” Gates, Jr. and McGee Media have been telling the rich, powerful stories of African Americans through impactful historical documentaries for several years, but this work is more important and more relevant now than ever before.

A year ago, WETA partnered with Skip to create the affinity group, Inkwell Society. During its inception, we aimed for 20 members to support Skip’s efforts in creating a national MEMBERS Roger Altman and Jurate Kazickas Anonymous Georgette Bennett and Leonard Polonsky Lloyd Carney Joanne L. Cassullo Richard Cohen Nicole Commissiong and Darnell Armstrong David M. Cote Beth R. DeWoody/Beth Rudin DeWoody Foundation David and Nina Fialkow Jesse Fink John H. Fisher and Jennifer Caldwell Nancy Garvey

dialogue through content and education. Today we are so grateful for our 26 loyal members (and counting), and several major funders that help to ensure we continue to produce content that educates and inspires viewers and enriches the cultural fabric of our nation.

As headlines bring encouraging news regarding the pandemic, we hope to get together in person when it is safe to do so. Meanwhile, as a thank you for your generous support and engagement, you will be receiving a small gift package with edible goodies from WETA the week of July 5th. The work of the Inkwell Society is just beginning and we appreciate the role you play in our success.

Benjamin A. and Felicia Horowitz Grant S. Johnson Mitch Kapor and Freada Klein Demond and Kia Martin Howard and Abby Milstein Peter and Gwen Norton Deval L. Patrick Steve Rattner Sheryl Sandberg and Tom Bernthal Peter Schwabach and Misan Sagay Robert F. Smith Josh Steiner Jim and Susan Swartz Richard and Kathy Taylor Candace King Weir Fletcher and Benaree Wiley Anne Wojcicki

MAJOR FUNDERS Ancestry AT&T Bank of America Carnegie Corporation Ford Foundation Gilder Foundation Johnson & Johnson John S. and James Knight Foundation Lilly Endowment Inc. Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Open Society Foundations The Zegar Family Foundation

We would be happy to hear from you! For more information, please CONTACT contact Danielle Manning-Halsey, Senior Director, Principal and Major Gifts, at dmanninghalsey@weta.org or by phone at 703-998-2812. You may also head over to our website: weta.org/inkwellsociety.

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