WBTS, the NBC-owned affiliate in Boston, branded as NBC10 Boston, used an original poem about Boston’s Black history to create videos celebrating Black History Month. Robert Poulton, NBC10’s VP of brand and marketing, reached out to me on social media to share the station’s work.
WBTS, NBC’s O&O in Boston, branded as NBC10 Boston, used an original poem about Boston’s Black history to create videos celebrating Black History Month.
Robert Poulton, NBC10’s VP of brand and marketing, reached out to me on social media to share the station’s work. Here’s what he wrote as background:
Black Beacon is an original poem written and performed by Porsha Olayiwola, telling the story of Boston’s Black history.
The poem begins in the 1600s with King Phillip’s War and a slave ship called Desire and moves through key moments of revolution and achievement as well as monumental Black Bostonian figures leading up to present day.
The video adds faces to names, and carries a visual motif throughout the piece using imagery from the Salem, Mass., port where Desire set sail.
The archive images were collected from the public domain, Getty Images and The History Project, a historical society in Boston. Each image was carefully selected to match the poet’s narration of this history. They move sharply to match the rhythm and tone of the audio performance and music.
Olayiwola is the sitting poet laureate for the city of Boston, an Individual World Poetry Slam champion and the artistic director of MassLEAP, a literary youth organization.
Originally from Chicago and a graduate of the University of Illinois, Olayiwola is the author of “I shimmer sometimes, too.” She is an MFA candidate at Emerson College.
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