February 2, 2010
For Immediate Release
Contact: Lorna Bryant (707) 826-4807
KHSU Celebrates Black History Month With Special Programming
Throughout the month of February, KHSU-FM is turning its popular weekly program, “Through the Eyes of Women,” into “Through the Eyes of Sistas,” with special guest host Lorna Bryant, in honor of Black History Month.
“Through the Eyes of Women,” provides programming that explores women’s political, social and economic lives, as well as the obstacles and restrictions that discriminate against women. The program’s various local hosts interview women involved in local, national and international issues and activities.
“As a woman of color, I felt it was important to specifically give African-American women a voice through the station and to the listening audience, throughout Black History Month,” says Bryant.
Bryant kicked off Black History Month last Monday, Feb. 1, by interviewing Liz Smith, executive director of the Boys and Girls Club of the Redwoods. February 8, Bryant will talk to Shirley Powell and “Aunt Esther” Washington, both officers in the Eureka branch of the NAACP. Powell has organized a soul food dinner for the last 17 years, which benefits the local NAACP and its work in the community and “Aunt Esther” is a local culinary celebrity best known for her southern barbecue.
On February 15, Bryant will be speaking with Anita Woodley, a former HSU student and current producer of American Public Media’s “The Story.” Woodley is also the playwright of a one-woman touring show called “Mama Juggs: Three Generations Healing Fractured Body Images.”
For the final week, February 22, Bryant will moderate a roundtable discussion with women from various departments at Humboldt State University and College of the Redwoods on issues related to diversity and the Humboldt County experience.
Bryant is a broadcast journalism student at HSU and plans to graduate this spring. She first came to HSU from Los Angeles in 1986, attended classes for two years and moved back to L.A. and Mississippi. Bryant has been back in Humboldt since 2007, works in the office at KHSU and is the station manager for KRFH, the student-run radio station on the HSU campus.
“The women I selected for ‘Through the Eyes of Sistas,’” says Bryant, “are people you may see in the local community, but you may not know their stories. I thought this was a great way to let the women tell them.”
“I think that it’s important that we take this opportunity to bring attention and focus to significant black women in our community and the nation,” says Beth Rogers, who produces “Through the Eyes of Women” for KHSU. “I’m hoping to slowly change the regular program’s focus to telling women’s stories — listening to your mother, your sister, your lover — and I think this is a great place to start.”
An archive of every episode of “Through the Eyes of Sistas” can be heard for two weeks after its broadcast at www.khsu.org. The first episode with Smith is available for download, now.
“Through the Eyes of Women” runs every Monday at 1:30 p.m. on 90.5 KHSU and streaming online at www.khsu.org. The station can also be heard on 91.9 KHSR-FM in Crescent City and Brookings, 88.7 FM in Ferndale and Fortuna, 89.7 FM in Garberville and 99.7 FM in Willow Creek.
