Afropop Worldwide

FAIN: TR-50052-09

Afropop World Wide (Brooklyn, NY 11232-2408)
Sean Barlow (Project Director: August 2008 to September 2010)

Production of six new one-hour episodes, re-editing of twelve encore episodes, development of a set of interactive maps of the history of music in Mali, and revision of the website to enhance user-friendly access and interactivity.

Since 1988, the public radio program Afropop Worldwide has introduced American listeners to the cultures of Africa and the African Diaspora. The series is distributed by PRI to 113 U.S. stations, and is available via XM radio, and on-demand streaming from our website, www.afropop.org. Over the past five years, Afropop has collaborated with scholars and authors to develop the acclaimed, NEH-funded Hip Deep series, which introduces humanities themes to general audiences. Our 2007 NEH grant also funded a prototype "exploratory map," providing interactive, online access to Hip Deep materials. This year, World Music Productions requests a grant of $200,000 from the NEH to continue this work by 1) producing 6 new and 12 encore programs. 2) develop a new exploratory map set focused on the history and music of Mali, and 3) overhaul our website to support dialog and exchange between listeners and scholars, and make Hip Deep materials dramatically more available to web users everywhere.