“The Kennedy Center is an organization that has a very strong contemporary culture program locally, but nationally, we sometimes feel like we're only known for The Kennedy Center Honors and The Mark Twain Prize,” said Matthew L. Winer, who has produced those televised events. Beginning on Friday, October 14th, PBS viewers will get a look at the breadth of culture on display at The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. through the new series Next at The Kennedy Center. Matthew recently joined other creatives from the series during a TCA press conference to provide some insight into the new series. “This series is meant to highlight our contemporary culture programs in a much broader way… We want to feature younger artists who are influenced and inspired by the greats.”
(Courtesy of PBS)
In the series premiere, titled “Let My Children Hear Mingus,” The Kennedy Center celebrates jazz icon and social activist Charles Mingus. “In the case of somebody like Charles Mingus, he's made such an incredible impact on so many artists, and we want to tell a broader story,” Matthew added when explaining the format of Next at The Kennedy Center. “While the show on PBS will be anchored by the Mingus Big Band performance here at The Kennedy Center Terrace theater, we have another performance featuring Jason Moran and Georgia Anne Muldrow. Interpreting Mingus pushing the boundaries, in terms of the evolution of modern-day, how they had taken his influence and interpreted into their own way as well as different speakers and storytellers from all generations about either working with him or what they learned from him, or how his music, how his influence, how his social commentary, how his personality informed how they live their life and reflected in art. So that's the kind of essence that we're taking for all these episodes, featuring cultural change-makers and how the long tail has penetrated our current culture and society and the arts, in general.”
The second of five episodes in this introductory season is “A Joni Mitchell Songbook” and you can mark your calendars for Friday, November 18th, to see that special, featuring performances by Renée Fleming, Raul Midón, and Lalah Hathaway. “I've been a Joni Mitchell fan my whole life,” singer Lalah Hathaway shared. “Her music, particularly as a really young kid, it spoke to me in a way that I can't really describe to you, other than the lyrics made me think about things that I hadn't thought about before, and they still do, in a big, big way. I was always inspired, after listening to her, to try and write, to see what I had. After she showed me what she had, I was always, like, let me figure out what I have. There's something about her that is all at once grounding because it will put you in your place, but it will make you want to get up and try and fly. I can't really describe it any other way… There is a reason why we relate to her in that way, because she's telling these stories, the arc of which are stories that we have in our own lives. And she tends to ground you in a way, but then make you feel like a phoenix, like you can just rise up. It's an amazing gift that she has.”
PBS hasn’t yet solidified the three other specials that will air in this introductory season, but at the time of the press conference, the plans were to do an episode on The Roots. “The Roots is essentially its own cultural institution when you're thinking about its long-standing tenure within the culture, the ways in which it has created space and platforms for other artists and, I think, just the brilliance of Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson and Tariq ‘Black Thought’ Trotter in terms of who they are as cultural leaders and catalysts,” shared Simone Eccleston, Director of Hip-Hop Culture and Contemporary Music for The Kennedy Center. “When we built out the two-year residency with them, this was about being able to celebrate them as an institution and then celebrate their role as cultural curators. So for us, we provided a full range to their creative expression as it relates to presentations of The Roots proper; Questlove's conversation series that was tied to his latest book, Music is History; Black Thought's ongoing conversation series, ‘Streams of Thought,’ as well as his professional development program that is really dedicated to nurturing the next generation of MC's ‘School of Thought.’” It’s possible that we will see The Roots this season on Next at the Kennedy Center, but with a three-year deal with PBS and another year of residency for The Roots, perhaps they will be held for next year. “We are currently in the midst of planning year two, and it has even more robust programming. But for us, we really wanted to highlight the breadth of who they are as artists and cultural catalysts and to ensure that people both knew that they saw and leveraged the Center as a creative home for them and their work and also as an opportunity to create additional platforms for the next generation of artists.”
(Courtesy of of the Artists)
With The Kennedy Center celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and a long history of collaboration with PBS, you may be wondering why it’s taken this long for a recurring series like Next at the Kennedy Center to get off the ground. “It has been a thought for quite a while,” revealed Robert van Leer, Senior Vice President of Artistic Planning at The Kennedy Center. “Since Deborah [Rutter, President] came in 2014, we've been talking about how can we not only balance our program here in the live-event scope, but also in terms of broadcasting. How can we share with America the breadth of programming that we have at The Kennedy Center and show a diversity of art forms? So this is a real big step in that direction in terms of balancing, with the great work around Honors and Twain, with these five broadcasts a year for the next three years.”
The premiere episode of Next at the Kennedy Center debuts on Friday, October 14th at 9/8c with "Let My Children Hear Mingus." Next month, fans can see “A Joni Mitchell Songbook” on Friday, November 18th, at 9/8c, with more episode details to come in the future.
(Please note this article contains affiliate links. Your purchase will support LaughingPlace by providing us a small commission, but will not affect your pricing or user experience. Thank you.)