American Icons on Studio 360
FAIN: TR-253351-16
Public Radio International (Minneapolis, MN 55401-2097)
Leslie B. Wolfe (Project Director: June 2016 to June 2016)
Melinda Ward (Project Director: June 2016 to July 2023)
American Icons on Studio 360 is a recurring series of
special features embedded within Studio 360 which examines time-tested works –
of literature, music, film, architecture, design or visual art – that have
achieved the status of an “icon” in American culture. Since the series was
first launched in 2001 with funding from the NEH, Studio 360 has produced three
American Icons seasons on topics ranging from Moby-Dick to The House of Mirth
to The Autobiography of Malcolm X; from The Wizard of Oz to I Love Lucy; from Appalachian
Spring to “Anything Goes” to Kind of Blue; and from Monticello to Fallingwater
to the Vietnam War Memorial. The requested NEH funds will enable us to produce
3 new segments to be aired in the coming summer and fall. The three new
segments we would like to produce are: 1) “Amazing Grace” – how this 18th
century hymn became America’s spiritual national anthem, and why its message of
sin and redemption resonates so deeply with Americans, both religious and
secular; 2) Shaft, Gordon Parks – how this film and its award-winning funk
soundtrack by Isaac Hayes unleashed the Blaxploitation boom and created a new
popular iconography of blackness; 3) Leonard Bernstein’s Young Peoples Concerts
– how this popular concert series enchanted a generation of young people, and
changed the meaning of “music appreciation” during the era of rock and roll.
Along with the completely new material, we would like to update an re-release
the 14 hour long shows already in our inventory, creating an interim series
that mixes original pieces with restored episodes, in order to help maintain
the continuity of the American Icons brand and keep the series fresh and alive
in our listeners’ minds.