What's Up - The Community Events Blog

Thomas the Tank Engine Returns to Miami This March!

All Aboard! Thomas the Tank Engine is coming back to Miami this March for the Day Out with Thomas Go Go Thomas Tour 2013.  This fun-filled family event, which offers the opportunity to ride with Thomas the Tank Engine, will engineer miles of smiles at every scheduled arrival. Everyone's #1 Engine chugs into the Gold Coast Railroad Museum for a 6-day event, March 2-3, 9-10, and 16-17.

Join us in a day full of fun featuring a meet and greet photo opportunity with Sir Topham Hatt, Thomas & Friends storytelling and video viewing, free giveaways, live music, arts & craft and more!

For more information, visit http://events.hitentertainment.com/us/day-out-with-thomas/index.asp

 

 

Want a chance to win free tickets? 

 

KidVision will be giving away a set of tickets to the event daily beginning February 6. Each set of tickets include admission into the event, a free professional 8” x 10” photo with Thomas the Tank Engine and a 25 minute train ride!

 

All you have to do is be the first to answer the daily Thomas & Friends trivia question correctly. The trivia questions will be posted on the wall of the KidVision Facebook page. You must be a fan of the KidVision Facebook page to participate.  There can be more than one question posted for each day, so be sure to check often. 

One winner will also be randomly selected to be the KidVision Fan of the Month.

You must be a fan of the KidVision Facebook Page to participate. Contest ends February 22 to allow time for tickets to be mailed. 

Limit 1 set (4 tickets) per family.

Visit www.facebook.com/kidvision for your chance to win!

 

 

 

WPBT2 Premieres New Art Program Highlighting Arts in South Florida and Beyond

A profile of Miami’s own choreographer Rosie Herrera and Delray Beach’s Arts Garage, a cultural hub for visual artists, musicians and performers, kicks off WPBT2 public television’s new original series Art Loft, beginning Tuesday, February 5, 7:30pm. The weekly 30-minute art program will showcase local and national artists, openings, installations, performances, and art organizations that are positioning South Florida as an emerging leader in the world of art.

“With most media outlets cutting back on arts coverage at a time when this region is actually beginning to define itself as an international leader in the arts, it seemed like the right time to shine a light on our local community,” says Neal Hecker, Chief Content Officer for WPBT2. “Art Loft will draw on the wide variety of local producers to help develop and produce content that will provide viewers a lens on this thriving and exciting arts scene.” Art Loft is designed to be a collaboration between WPBT2, local artists, producers and other PBS stations around the country.

 

Art Loft is hosted by Kalyn Chapman James.  James has performed and worked in the arts since age 9. She has studied tap, jazz, ballet, modern, and acrobatics, and hip-hop dance at various schools in Alabama, New York and California.  She has been a model and spokeswoman for the UPN Network and served as a television journalist for Fox Sports Network.  James worked as a teaching artist for Arts for Learning Miami where she instructed after school programs in some of Miami’s most underserved communities. 

James also performed in the MTV Video Music Awards, the Latin Video Music Awards, the Latin Billboard Awards, and danced and choreographed for the Univision and Telemundo Television Networks in Miami.   She has worked extensively as an events emcee, a print and television model appearing on the pages of Glamour, Ebony, Essence, Jet, and O Magazine and has been featured in national commercials for Crocs, Hershey’s Air Delights Chocolate Candy, Old Navy and Walt Disney World. James is currently Corporate Sponsorship Coordinator for the Adrienne Arsht Center, where she secures funding to support the Center’s education and outreach programs.

Funding for Art Loft is made possible through generous grants from Newman’s Own Foundation and Chappman Foundation.

Related articles

Art Loft Profiles Art, Dance, Music, and More

WPBT2 Premieres Makers: Women Who Make America

WPBT2 will premiere Makers: Women Who Make America, a new PBS documentary , on Tuesday, February 26, 2013 at 8 p.m. The film tells the story of how women have helped shape America over the last 50 years through one of the most sweeping social revolutions in our country’s history.

Leveraging the combined reach of television and internet (makers.com), the project shares the stories of exceptional women whose pioneering contributions continue to shape the world in which we live and the film will continue to chronicle the stories of women who led the fight, those who opposed it, and those — both famous and unknown — who were caught in its wake.

Narrated by three-time Academy Award-winning actress Meryl Streep, Makers: Women Who Make America takes its cue from the Movement’s motto, “the personal is political,” delving into the personal lives of its subjects.

The film is built from first-person, intimate accounts of women who experienced this time of change, including movement leaders such as author and feminist activist Gloria Steinem and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton; opponents like conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly; celebrities including media leader Oprah Winfrey and journalist Katie Couric; political figures like former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; and many “ordinary” women who confronted the dramatic social upheaval in their own lives.

 

 

 

Watch MAKERS: Women Who Make America Trailer on PBS. See more from Makers: Women Who Make America.

                  

Watch MAKERS: Women Who Make America on PBS. See more from Makers: Women Who Make America.

 

 

WPBT2 Premieres Documentary About First Openly Gay Mayor in Key West

WPBT2 marks the 30th anniversary of the election of America's first openly gay mayor with the broadcast premiere of The Newcomer on Monday, January 14 at 9:00 p.m.  The Newcomer is a documentary that focuses on the life and career of Richard Heyman, who was elected America’s first openly gay Mayor for the city of Key West.

Directed by Emmy Award-winning journalist John Mikytuck, the Newcomer tells the story about a forgotten gay icon and the tragic circumstances which arrested the political and social progress he made for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people in the 1980s.

While the culture wars inflamed by Anita Bryant and the religious right had a powerful impact on the march toward gay civil rights in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the AIDS epidemic was ultimately much more destructive to the movement. The film focuses attention on that tragedy through the story of Heyman. 

“John Mikytuck's, The Newcomer, recalls Key West in the 1980s, when the island had the highest AIDS rate in the nation and city leaders, including Mayor Richard Heyman, struggled to keep the truth quiet from mainstream tourists. Ironically, within a few years the AIDS virus killed Heyman and hundreds of other gay Key Westers,” stated Steve Rothaus with the Miami Herald.

The Newcomer includes interviews with such longtime Keys notables as Peter Ilchuk, June Keith, John Kiraly, Joan Higgs and Dr. Mark Whiteside.

The Newcomer was made possible with support from The Miami Foundation.

 

 

BBC Crime Series, DCI Banks, Premieres on WPBT2

WPBT2 will be among over 160 public televisin stations that will premiere the Left Bank Productions crime drama seies DCI Banks beginning Thursday, January 3 at 9 pm. Stephen Tompkinson (Father Peter in Ballykissangel) and Andrea Lowe (Lady Eleonore Luke in The Tudors) star as tenacious Chief Instpector Alan Banks and feisty Detetive Sergeant Annie Cabbot in seven thrilling crime stories.

The Yorkshire countryside provides a striking backdrop to these chilling murder stories based on the Inspector Banks novels by award-winning author Peter Robinson. With Andrea Lowe taking maternity leave during the second series, Stephen Tompkinson is joined by actress Caroline Catz (headmistress Louisa Glasson in Doc Martin) in the role of DI Helen Morton.

 

WPBT2 Invites You to a Downton Abbey Season 3 Preview Screening!

It's been a long wait, but that wait will soon come to an end.  Downton Abbey returns with Season 3 in January!  

In celebration of it's return to the airwaves, WPBT2 wants to invite you to a free preview screening of the first episode of the new season!  The screening will be held on Saturday, January 5 at Cinema Paradiso in Fort Lauderdale.  Beginning at 5:30pm, get dressed in your best Downton Abbey inspired hat and enter to win the hat contest!  There will be trivia games and more!  The screening will follow at 6:30pm- 7:30pm.  

Seating is limited and RSVPs are required.  Please RSVP to Kristina Gutierrez at 305-424-4025 or kristina_gutierrez@wpbt.org.

WELCOME THE SEASON WITH US AND ROD STEWART

 

 

                                                        
 Welcome the holiday season with legendary rocker  and Grammy award-winning artist.  Two time rock and roll hall of famer, Rod Stewart, hosts his first holiday special, ROD STEWART, MERRY CHRISTMAS, BABY AIRING MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26 AT 11 p.m on WPBT2. The program features Stewart with an incredible array of superstar artist including, Michael Buble, Mary J. Blige, Cee-Lo Green and Trombone Shorty.

 

 

Join us to Celebrate Oscar Hammerstein Followed by Motown's Big Hits and More!

                

Celebrate the legendary works of the most acclaimed lyricist and librettist of the 20th century with Oscar Hammerstein II: Out of My Dreams. Matthew Morrison (“Glee”) hosts this celebration of Hammerstein's extraordinary work as a humanitarian and political activist, which was a part of his life that is not as well known as his artistic achievements. Hammerstein used his talents through out his career to raise social conciousness of audiences all over the world.

Brimming with movie clips from his greatest musicals, this special features interviews with Stephen Sondheim, Harold Prince, Shirley Jones, Mitzi Gaynor, Hammerstein family members and others. The program will broadcast some footage of his most legendary work.

The program will air Saturday, November 24 at 7:30 p.m. on WPBT2.

 

Stay tuned after Oscar Hammerstein II for Motown Big Hits and More! 

 Enjoy Motown's original hits from the late 1950s to the '60s. featuring many first-time extended stereo mixes of Motown’s biggest hits, B-sides, album cuts and radio classics from the Temptations, the Four Tops, Marvin Gaye, the Supremes, the Miracles, Martha & the Vandellas and more.

The program contains footage of past motown's performances that will take viewers down memory lane. The program will be broadcast SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 24 AT 9 p.m. on WPBT2.

 

 

 

 

Making War Horse

 

Tune-in to WPBT2 on Sunday, December 2 at 9 pm and Wednesday, December 5 at 8 pm. for a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the National Theatre of Great Britain's epic staging of Michael Morpurgo children's novel. Making War Horse traces the development of the British production, including rehearsal and backstage footage of the original cast and staging, as well as excerpts from the show.  War Horse premiered in London in 2007 and opened on Broadway in 2011, uses life-size equestrian puppets to tell its tale of a young English boy and his horse at the dawn of WWI.

An exclusive ticket offer for an upcoming performance at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts will be offered for WPBT2 supporters during the broadcast.

 

Money, Power and the American Dream

INDEPENDENT LENS: PARK AVENUE: Money, Power and the American Dream airs Monday, November 12 at 10 p.m. on WPBT2.

 The upper East Side of Manhattan is home for the wealthy, top of the latter people in the United States and those that donate money for political campaigns and lobby for tax reduction for the wealthiest in the United States. Ironically, only ten minutes away,  the poorest percentage of people in the United States call the South Bronx their home .  The average person on this side of the strip makes $40 a day. 

 Will they ever make it to the upper East Side? Witness the economic disparities faced by New Yorkers only four miles away from one another.