Basic Black WGBH

This week, Massachusetts state legislators approved a big boost in K-12 school funding. Now awaiting Governor Baker’s signature, the Student Opportunity Act would pump 1.5 billion dollars in schools which have been chronically underfunded.

The history of education has been ripe with controversy…from the legacy of busing and issues around disparity to opportunities to attend exam schools and reports of re-segregation. How do educators
build success for students and close the achievement gap?

Callie Crossley hosts

Phillip Martin, Sr. Investigative Reporter, NECIR and WGBH News

Edith Bazile, President of BEAM - Black Educator’s Alliance of Massachusetts

Milly Arbaje Thomas, C-E-O of Metropolitan Council for Education Opportunity Inc, or METCO

Dr. Brenda Cassellius, Superintendent, Boston Public Schools.

Will the impeachment hearings make a difference in the mind of citizens and will it impact the upcoming election?

Panelists:

Phillip Martin, Sr. Investigative Reporter, WGBH News

Marcus Walker, a humanities and history teacher at Fenway High school. He also teaches at Harvard University

Prof. Paul Watanabe, Professor of Political Science and Director of the Institute for Asian American studies at UMass Boston

Ivan (EVON) Espinoza- Madrigal, Executive Director of the Lawyers for Civil Rights

Callie Crossley hosts

The courting of the Black Women's vote. Both Democrat and the President are looking for votes from women voters — in particular female voters of color. Will both parties take this important voting bloc serious of merely take them for granted?

Parson Hicks. She was a 2016 elected At-Large Massachusetts Delegate to the R-N-C Convention and is currently a Registrar for the City of Manchester.

Sharon Stout, Deputy Treasurer for the Mass. Dems. She is also the co-chair for the Newton Democrats and a board member of the Emerge Massachusetts chapter, an organization that helps women prepare and run for office

Kim McLarin, Assoc. Prof. of Writing, Literature and Publishing, Emerson College

Callie Crossley Moderates

The 400th anniversary of the first enslaved Africans to arrive to America and Harriet Tubman -- the most well-known conductor on the Underground Railroad, and her amazing story, now portrayed in a newly released film, "Harriet."

Panelists:

Marita Rivero, President and C-E-O of the Museum of African American History. She is also a former VP and General Manager of Radio and Television, here at WGBH

Dr. Kellie Carter Jackson, Asst. Prof. of Africana Studies at Wellesley College. She is the author of, "Force & Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence"

Renee Graham, Assoc. Editor and Opinion Columnist for The Boston Globe

Kim McLarin, Assoc. Prof. of Writing, Literature and Publishing, Emerson College. She is also a columnist, for the Washington Post's "The Lily."

Callie Crossley, hosts.

Recent films like "Get Out," "Us," "Ma" and the upcoming remake of "Candyman" Black horror genre is on the rise. Now, with the explosion of the genre has come new opportunities for actors of color and for Black filmmakers to express their visions and for audiences of all kinds to see new and complex reflections of Black life, all through the lens of horror.

Guest Panelists:

Actor, Naheem Garcia. He is also a Director & Educator

Arjun Singh, Producer, WGBH, Boston Public Radio, 89.7

Lisa Simmons, Founder and artistic director of the Roxbury international Film Festival. She is also the President of the Color of Film Collaborative

Filmmaker and Director, Vladimir Minuty

Kim McLarin, hosts

Massachusetts, along with 11 other states, have legalized marijuana opening up business opportunities in product production and sales. Communities of color were dis-proportionately impacted by past drug policies, and have long argued that they should benefit from the fast growing trade. Who gets a seat at the table and will more entrepreneurs of color get into the growing industry?

Chauncy Spencer, Founder of High Tech Farms. He is also an economic empowerment applicant

Cynthia Mompoint, is an economic empowerment applicant and the co-founder of Danbala Group along with her husband Moor Stringer

Tito Jackson, C-E-O of Verdant Medical, a vertically integrated-recreational marijuana organization that plans stores in Boston, Provincetown, and a store and cultivation facility in Rowley, Mass

Richard Harding, Co-founder of Real Action for Cannabis Equity, or R-A-C-E, and President of the Green Soul Foundation

Callie Crossley hosts