PBS Series ‘American Portrait’ Highlights Our Shared Experiences
PBS
American Portrait, a new series from PBS, is a multiplatform project that explores the fundamental question, “What does it mean to be an American today?” Since the project began in January 2020, the PBS American Portrait website has collected more than 12,00 stories from people across the United States. The stories were collected in response to a series of reflective prompts. These shared stories were then used to help shape the four-part docuseries.
Each episode in the series focuses on a different theme taken from the collected prompts. The first, “I Dream” is about those struggling to achieve “The American Dream.” “I Work” is about those pursuing careers. “I Keep” is centered on our collective values and traditions. “I Rise” is about working to create a better America.
“In many ways, PBS American Portrait” has proven to be the perfect project for a year unlike any other. We’ve given voice to people and communities across America at a time when so many are hoping and needing to be heard.” said Bill Margol executive in charge of American Portrait and senior director of General Audience Programming and Development at PBS.
The project also commissioned artists across the United States to compose murals based off the themes and stories collected through the prompts. Brooklyn-based painter Jon Key is one such artist. He was commissioned to compose a mural here in Atlanta in Little Five Points.
“This mural is inspired by my time growing up in the South and my close friends from high school that were like my brothers…my chosen family,” Key said. “In high school, we were inseparable, connected by an unspoken truth not known to us at the time. Our friendship became a support system, and as we began to understand our queerselves more clearly, a bond that reminded us we were not alone, not invisible, and safe together.”
Margol and Key joined “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes to talk about the series and the importance of having these types of discussions.
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