The Big Red Couch – 5 Decades of Black Music

Saturday, Feb. 8, 15 and 22 from 9-10pm

The Big Red Couch produced and hosted by Peabody Award Winner Jim Luce is a nod to five decades of black music that has shaped popular musical culture all over the world.  Luce mixes tunes like eclectic gemstones by musicians who have had a great impact on music worldwide over the past fifty years.  A music lover himself, he does not go for the low-hanging fruit; he goes deeper into each artist’s discography to create a refreshing retrospective.

Artists heard in this 3-hour special include Joe Henderson, Curtis Mayfield, Duke Ellington, Moacir Santos, John Hicks, Irma Thomas, Earth Wind & Fire, Albert King, Sly & the Family Stone, Jackie McLean, Jimmy Cliff, Arthur Blythe, The Temptations,  Michael Jackson, Dorothy Coates & the Gospel Harmonettes, Luciana Souza, Donny Hathaway, War, Aretha Franklin, Gregory Porter– and more!

The Writ Writer-The Story of Scipio Africanus Jones

Wednesday, Feb. 12 at 8pm

One man’s gallant and courageous effort to fight murder convictions brought against 134 black sharecroppers, 12 of whom were sentenced to die in the electric chair. Very few are aware of what became known as “The Elaine Massacre,” where hundreds of blacks were murdered and five white men were killed. Nor are many aware that Scipio Jones, a black attorney from Little Rock, Arkansas succeeded against all odds, and brought about the reversal of several lower court decisions. His tenacity resulted in the release of all of the imprisoned black sharecroppers; this included the 12 men sentenced to die.