(upbeat music) - I'm Paris Jackson of the Crosscut KCTS 9 Newsroom.

She's a trailblazer described as a ray of sunshine.

Val Thomas-Matson is the executive producer and host of children's programming show, "Look, Listen, and Learn TV."

As a child, she was inspired by the magic and wonder of shows like "Boomerang" and "Zoobilee Zoo", which she watched on local Seattle TV stations.

- [Val] I decided I wanna go into television, I wanna be a producer, so that I can identify the best person to be on camera that's sharing expertise, and the expertise deserves to look like me, my friends, and my gender.

- Thomas-Matson is featured in the second season of Crosscut's Black Arts Legacies, which highlights more than a dozen Black Seattle area artists and arts organizations in a digital archive.

You can watch the series for yourself the entire month of June on KCTS 9 every Thursday night at 8:50, or you can read extraordinary profiles by going to blackartslegacies.com.

I'm Paris Jackson, find non-profit Northwest news every day on crosscut.com.

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