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Lorraine Hansberry - Playwright at Work From our partners at AllArts, this 1961 episode shows writer Lorraine Hansberry fresh off her success from "Raisin in the Sun." We see a scene, directed by Lloyd Richards, from a play she was writing about Haitian revolutionary Toussaint ...

LENA: A Moment with a Lady From our partners at AllArts: Actress, singer and playwright Syndee Winters brings the legendary Lena Horne to life in this new theater work celebrating this Black American icon. Accompanied by a jazz quintet, Winters uses her powerful vocals to ...

Willie Nelson is a superstar of country music (“Red Headed Stranger,” “Shotgun Willie,” “Stardust”). He reinvented the genre as one of the founding fathers of outlaw country, forging a style of music that went against the convention of its time. Here are five videos from ...

Sissieretta Jones became the first Black woman to headline a concert on the main stage at Carnegie Hall in 1892. Jones was heralded as the greatest singer of her generation and a pioneer in the operatic tradition at a time when access to most classical ...

Toni Morrison was inspired to write because no one took a “little Black girl” seriously. She published 11 acclaimed novels that illuminate the experiences of Black America and inspired generations of writers. According to her good friend Fran Lebowitz, the legendary Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning author was, ...

In this excerpt from Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am, Toni Morrison recalls the time a Black childhood friend, who was 11 at the time, told her that she had been praying for blue eyes for two years. “This kind of racism hurts. This is not ...

In this excerpt from Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am, Toni Morrison talks about writing without the “white gaze.” She says, “I have spent my entire writing life trying to make sure that the white gaze was not the dominant one in any of my ...

In this excerpt from "Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am," Toni Morrison tells the story of going to Stockholm to accept the Nobel Prize. "I like the Nobel Prize. Because they know how to give a party," she said. A film by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders.

Cultural critic Fran Lebowitz says there's a specific reason why she would ask her good friend Toni Morrison for advice. In these outtakes from "Toni Morrison: The Pieces I am," she also talks about the time someone asked if she and Morrison were related. A ...

Mae West didn’t keep up with the latest fashions. Her persona, with the exaggerated hourglass figure and luxurious clothing, was inspired from trends in the 1890’s. It’s perhaps because of this outdated style that she was allowed to get away with saying so many sexually ...