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Learning at Home | Week of 6/13 – 6/17

Take advantage of this week’s Learning at Home broadcast schedule – great for students engaged in hybrid or distance instruction, and families looking to spend some extra, quality time together!

After watching these fascinating programs, explore the PBS LearningMedia and web resources to learn more.

Highlight of the Week

American Masters | Ballerina Boys
Tuesday, June 14, 2 PM

Ballerina Boys is a portrait of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo (The Trocks), an all-male ballet company and international dance sensation. For over 45 years the company has shared their signature style and message of equality, inclusion and social justice with audiences around the world. The men perform classical ballet en pointe and in drag, challenging the art form’s rigid gender norms as they mix rigorous technique with comedy and satire. Inspired by the Stonewall Riots of 1969, the company was fueled by the spirit of defiance and creative exuberance that the gay rights movement unleashed. The film follows The Trocks on tour in the Carolinas, an epicenter of continued struggles for LGBTQ rights.

Learning at Home
Week of 6/13 – 6/17

Monday, June 13

1 PM: American Experience: Space Men

In the 1950s and early ’60s, a small band of high-altitude pioneers exposed themselves to the extreme forces of the space age long before NASA’s acclaimed Mercury 7 would make headlines. Though largely forgotten today, balloonists were the first to venture into the frozen near-vacuum on the edge of our world, exploring the very limits of human physiology and human ingenuity in this lethal realm.

2 PM: Hawking

This is the intimate and revealing story of Stephen Hawking’s life. The audience joins him at home, under the care of his nursing team; in San Jose as he wows a packed theatre audience; in Silicon Valley as he meets a team of technicians who hope to speed up his communication system; and as he throws a party for family and friends. “Hawking” carefully tells Hawking’s life journey.

Tuesday, June 14

1 PM: Canfield Roots: Episode 1

Canfield Roots shares the history of some of the Black families who lived and thrived in a small rural town in Southern Ontario. It follows present-day descendants in Canada and the U.S. as they learn about their family history, share their early experiences, and fight to preserve the Street cemetery, now the focus of a restoration project. In the series’ first episode, we meet Bill Douglas, a native of Canfield for most of his life, who is surprised when local historians reveal his family’s role in Canfield’s history of Black ancestry.

1:30 PM: Canfield Roots: Episode 2

As Bill Douglas visits the BME Church Salem Chapel in St. Catharines to learn more about freedom seekers in Ontario his sister Betty Ann confronts her memories of Canfield. Outside the village an abandoned family cemetery containing the grave site of Harriet Tubman’s niece attracts the attention of local historians.

2 PM: American Masters | Ballerina Boys

Ballerina Boys is a portrait of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo (The Trocks), an all-male ballet company and international dance sensation. For over 45 years the company has shared their signature style and message of equality, inclusion and social justice with audiences around the world. The men perform classical ballet en pointe and in drag, challenging the art form’s rigid gender norms as they mix rigorous technique with comedy and satire. Inspired by the Stonewall Riots of 1969, the company was fueled by the spirit of defiance and creative exuberance that the gay rights movement unleashed. The film follows The Trocks on tour in the Carolinas, an epicenter of continued struggles for LGBTQ rights.

Wednesday, June 15

1 PM: Canfield Roots: Episode 3

On a cloudless February night in 1953, former Canfield resident Harry Lee was hung for murder in Hamilton, the last man to to be executed at that city’s notorious Barton Jail. Seventy years later, former residents of Canfield reflects on the impact of Lee’s hanging on the village community while Betty Ann Newman grapples with the memory of the man she called Uncle Harry.

1:30 PM: Canfield Roots: Episode 4

An estate sale in Houston, Texas leads a collector to research an artist with a connection to an abandoned family cemetery in Canfield. As more details rise to the surface, an ancestor of Harriet Tubman’s niece shares her family’s remarkable story and link to this cemetery as well.

2 PM: Out in Rural America

Out in Rural America is a film that explores the struggles and joys of being lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender, and genderqueer in rural America. Following five stories from the LGBTQ+ community over six years, the film explores the issues of self-doubt, discrimination, acceptance, and small-town and Midwestern LGBTQ+ life from a cultural, social, familial, and religious perspective.

Thursday, June 16

1 PM: Canfield Roots: Episode 5

Frustrated over delays, a group of residents and descendants meet to discuss what to do over an abandoned family cemetery in Canfield, the final resting place of freedom seekers who settled in Canada in the mid-1800s.

1:30 PM: Canfield Roots: Episode 6

As descendants of freedom seekers gather at an abandoned family cemetery to mark Emancipation Day, they reflect on the struggles and successes of their ancestors. In Spokane, Washington Betty Ann Newman shares the stories and photos of her family in Canfield with her grandchildren.

2 PM: Prideland

“Prideland” is a one-hour special and short-form digital series following host and “POSE” actor Dyllón Burnside on a journey across the American South to meet diverse members of the LGBTQ+ community who are finding ways to live with pride in the modern South. We begin with a one-hour broadcast special, kicking off Burnside’s expedition in his own hometown of Pensacola, Florida. He explores what the South means to him, talks about how he was fired from his church for coming out, and discusses how the South is home to more queer people than any other region in the U.S.

Friday, June 17

1 PM: Walk Together Children: The 150th Anniversary of the Fisk Jubilee Singers

In Walk Together Children: The 150th Anniversary of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, Dr. Paul T. Kwami and the current singers explore the stories of the world-renowned ensemble’s original nine members and reflect on their roles as students and preservers of the group’s legacy. Directed by Jon Royal in collaboration with Dr. Kwami, the performance film is produced by Tennessee Performing Arts Center.

2 PM: Amen! Music of the Black Church

Explore the authentic spiritual experience of African American gospel music in the one-hour performance documentary Amen! Music of the Black Church. Taped before a live audience at the Second Baptist Church congregation in Bloomington, Indiana, Rev. Dr. Raymond Wise guides viewers on an educational and uplifting learning experience while leading the Indiana University African American Choral Ensemble in a performance of sacred music deriving from African traditions.

Learning at Home on Mountain Lake PBS is supported by:
Adirondack Foundation