Title: Talking Black in America - ROOTS  Documentary Screening with Executive Producer Walt Wolfram and Producer Renée Blake
 
Abstract: Talking Black in America — ROOTS is a celebration of African American resiliency, creativity, and ingenuity, finding a connection of the spirit among the peoples and societies of West Africa and the African Diaspora. Filmed in Ghana, The Bahamas, and throughout the United States, it is the third program in the Emmy Award winning TALKING BLACK IN AMERICA series, five interrelated documentaries on African American language and culture and their transformative influence on the United States and beyond.
 
Bios: 
Walt Wolfram, Executive Producer, is a Distinguished University Professor at North Carolina State University, where he also directs the Language and Life Project. He has pioneered research on social and ethnic dialects of American English since the 1960s, including early research on African American speech in the urban North and later work on its regional distribution in the rural South. He has authored or co-authored 23 books and over 300 articles, including four books and more than 100 articles on African American Language. He has served as a linguistic consultant to Children’s Television Workshop, the producers of Sesame Street, and been the executive producer of 13 television documentaries on language differences in American society, including several Emmy-winning documentaries that include Talking Black in America. 

Renee Blake, Producer, is an Associate Professor of Linguistics, New York University. Blake’s research examines language contact, race, ethnicity and class with a focus on African American English, Caribbean English Creoles and New York City English.

Attend in Person:
General Academic Building, Room 105

Attend Virtual via Zoom: Link Expired