Through its grant-making to thousands of nonprofits each year, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) promotes opportunities for people in communities across America to experience the arts and exercise their creativity.
In the second major grant announcement of fiscal year 2015, the NEA will make a $40,000 award to the National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC) for its AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange public television program. The NEA will make 1,023 awards totaling $74.3 million nationwide in this funding round.
NEA Chairman Jane Chu said, “The NEA is committed to advancing learning, fueling creativity and celebrating the arts in cities and towns across the United States. Funding these new projects like the one from NBPC represents an investment in both local communities and our nation’s creative vitality.”
“For the fourth year in a row, the National Endowment for the Arts has helped make it possible for us to bring AfroPoP to American audiences,” said NBPC Executive Director Leslie Fields-Cruz. “We are heartened that the NEA values the diversity the stories that comprise the series bring to the public television landscape.”
Produced by the National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC) and distributed by American Public Television (APT), AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange is the nation’s only public television series of documentaries on contemporary art, life and culture across the African Diaspora. To date more than 36 documentaries have been presented, among them such titles as An African Election, Rise Up: Reggae Underground, Fighting Spirit, Calypso Rose: Lioness of the Jungle, Hip Hop Revolution, Doin’ It In the Park: Pick Up Basketball NYC and Boys of Summer. Since 2011, AfroPoP’s online content has featured short web serial content as well. Hosts of the series have included Idris Elba, Anika Noni Rose, Gabourey Sidibe, Wyatt Cenac, Anthony Mackie and Yaya DaCosta. The NEA grant will help bring the eighth season of the series to the small screen.
To join the Twitter conversation about this announcement, please use #NEASpring2015. For more information on projects included in the NEA grant announcement, go to arts.gov. For more information on National Black Programming Consortium, visit www.blackpublicmedia.org, or follow us on Twitter @blkpublicmedia or on Facebook.
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