In honor of Women’s History Month, PBS Western Reserve celebrates women who were trailblazers in many different fields, including authors Henrietta Boggs and Flannery O’Connor; choreographer Twyla Tharp; artist Elizabeth Black and many more.
Find our full schedule for both PBS Western Reserve (WNEO 45.1 / WEAO 49.1) and Fusion (WNEO 45.2 / WEAO 49.2) here. Shows airing for the first time are marked with an asterisk (*).
Meet the indomitable Dolores Huerta, who tirelessly led the fight for racial and labor justice alongside Cesar Chavez, becoming one of the most defiant—and unheralded—feminist activists of the 20th century.
This one-on-one interview program taped in 2005 provides a rare look into the life and career of the legendary mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves. Academy Award-nominated actress Angela Bassett serves as the program’s host.
On Easter Sunday 1939, contralto Marian Anderson stepped up to a microphone in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. She was barred from performing at Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution, and first lady Eleanor Roosevelt publicly resigned her D.A.R. membership in protest. This film marks that landmark moment.
Discover the Pulitzer Prize-winning author behind "Gone With the Wind." No ordinary writer—or woman—Margaret Mitchell was a charismatic force who challenged the stifling Southern social order and struggled with the changing role of women.
Experience a unique interpretation of feminist icon Gloria Steinem’s life told by an all-female cast starring Emmy Award winner Christine Lahti and directed Tony Award winner Diane Paulus.
Narrated by journalist Michelle Miller, this film chronicles the humble beginnings of a young girl from Madisonville, La., and how she became one of the top multi-award-winning chefs in the nation.
Experience the power of song in the struggle for equality through the story of feminist singer and activist Holly Near, who for the last 40 years has worked on global social justice coalition-building in the women’s and lesbian movements.
This is the story of Carrie Chapman Catt, the women's suffrage movement and the passing and ratification of the 19th Amendment. Catt, raised in Charles City, Iowa, devoted most of her life to the expansion of women's rights around the world, and is recognized as one of the key leaders of the American women's suffrage movement.
Celebrate the legendary Queen of Soul and the first woman inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with her greatest hits from television appearances spanning the 1960s-2000s.
This program paints a portrait of the young, brilliant Russian emigrant, called "the most dangerous woman in America," and expelled from the United States 34 years after she arrived.
Join five remarkable women rebuilding their lives with humor and heart in the Ms. Veteran America Competition. Wounded in action and transitioning to civilian life, these women seek to help others struggling with homelessness, PTSD, and other trauma.
Learn of the pioneering military career of Charlotte Dee Mansfield, a photographer and photo analyst in the Women's Army Corps. The film draws from her personal writings, archival film resources, historian interviews and a conversation with Charlotte's lifelong companion, Chief Master Sgt. Lorraine Caddy.
Explore the interesting life and career of one the nation's top women in media and entertainment. Features tribute performances from Eric Benet and Chaka Khan.
Henrietta Boggs, a reluctant Southern belle, finds her way to Central America in the 1940s, in search of freedom and adventure. Instead, she is swept up in political upheaval, when her new husband is elected president of Costa Rica. This documentary portrays a courageous woman who escaped the confines of a sheltered existence to help nurture a young democracy.
Join Quincy Jones, David Foster and the multi-talented Sheléa for this intimate concert taped in Los Angeles. Sheléa performs a wide range of songs, including a Whitney Houston medley, a tribute to Aretha Franklin and West Side Story's "Somewhere."
Be transported to Ireland to celebrate magical moments and memories from 15 years of making music. Filled with favorite songs from their journey so far, this new special showcases Celtic Woman's angelic voices and instrumental virtuosity.
Diahann Carroll is one of America’s major performing talents with a career on the Broadway stage, as a Las Vegas headliner and as an actress in both motion pictures and on television. In this 2005 interview with veteran journalist Gwen Ifill, Carroll tells her life story, shares her career experiences and offers her feelings about being a pioneer.
In August of 1943, the last surviving clandestine radio operator in Paris desperately signaled London. Everything depended on her and the Gestapo was at the door. How did a Sorbonne educated musician and author of a book of fairy tales become a daring spy who died fighting the Nazis?
On special assignment at the height of World War II, Elizabeth Black sketched hundreds of soldiers, sailors and airmen throughout Europe and sent the treasured portraits to worried families back home. Seventy years later, Black's son uncovered photographs of her sketches, scrapbooks, news clippings and other memorabilia from her forgotten footlocker.
Join the country music superstar to celebrate her 50 years at the Grand Ole Opry. Bringing together five decades of hits into one unforgettable evening, Dolly is joined by special guests including Emmylou Harris, Toby Keith and more.
Explore the lives and trailblazing careers of iconic African American entertainers Lena Horne, Abbey Lincoln, Nina Simone, Diahann Carroll, Cicely Tyson and Pam Grier, who changed American culture through their films, fashion, music and politics.
BLACK BALLERINA is a story of passion, opportunity, heartbreak and triumph of the human spirit. Set in the overwhelmingly white world of classical dance, it tells the stories of several black women from different generations who fell in love with ballet.
Experience the beloved American soprano perform arias by Puccini and Massenet to selections by Handel and Korngold from the intimate music salon of Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C.
In August of 1929, 20 women pulled on britches, snapped on goggles and climbed into their cockpits to race across the country. It was the first women's national air derby. There was the media darling, the Hollywood starlet, the aviatrix record-breakers and the unforgettable foul-mouthed wife of a preacher.
Explore the life and career of Sheila Johnson, one of the nation's most successful businesswomen. The interview was taped at the historic Art Institute of Chicago and hosted by veteran PBS NewsHour journalist Gwen Ifill.
Dive into the life and career of groundbreaking writer, performer and subversive star Mae West. Over a career spanning eight decades, she broke boundaries and possessed creative and economic powers unheard of for a female entertainer in the 1930s.
Follow Queen Elizabeth II's remarkable life, from her youth to her uncle's abdication, her father's coronation as King George VI, her experience during World War II, her sudden ascension to the throne and her eventful reign of more than 60 years.
Visit the Hasidic enclave of Borough Park, Brooklyn and meet a group of tenacious women who are smashing the patriarchy in their community by creating the first all-female volunteer ambulance corps in New York City.
This one-on-one interview program provides a rare look into the life and times of the artist who bridged the gap, Dionne Warwick. Taped in Chicago in front of a live audience, singer Dionne Warwick was interviewed by her friend actress and entertainer, Diahann Carroll.
This is the untold story of American Indian Movement activists who fought for civil rights in the '70s, anchored by one of the Red Power Movement's most outspoken Lakota leaders, Madonna Thunder Hawk, and her daughter Marcy Gilbert.
Explore the life of Flannery O'Connor whose provocative fiction was unlike anything published before. Featuring never-before-seen archival footage, newly discovered journals and interviews with Mary Karr, Tommy Lee Jones, Hilton Als and more.
Trace Dorothy Day's journey from a young communist journalist, to a Catholic convert, to the co-founder of The Catholic Worker newspaper and the first "houses of hospitality," which sheltered New York City's homeless during the Great Depression.
Explore legendary choreographer Twyla Tharp's career and famously rigorous creative process, with original interviews, first-hand glimpses of her at work and rare archival footage of select performances from her more than 160 choreographed works.
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts presents the 21st annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor to 11-time Emmy winner Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who has starred in the acclaimed comedies "Seinfeld" and "Veep."
Beatrix Farrand was responsible for some of the most celebrated gardens in the United States and helped create a distinctive American voice in landscape architecture. The film follows award-winning public garden designer Lynden B. Miller as she sets off to explore the remarkable life and career of America's first female landscape architect.
This is the story of Cecile McLorin Salvant, a talented jazz singer with a timeless voice, who developed an inimitable vocal style and earned three Grammy Awards before the age of 30. Interviews with fellow jazz musicians Wynton Marsalis and Bill Charlap, along with Salvant, her family members and bandmates, tell the story of her success in the insular world of jazz.
Taped in 2008 at Northwestern University, legendary actress and singer Eartha Kitt is interviewed by journalist Gwen Ifill. Kitt distinguished herself in film, theater, cabaret, music and on television. The interview covers Kitt’s childhood and her musical and acting career in the United States and abroad.