For this month's Digital Media Spotlight, we are celebrating Black History Month and the lives and achievements of African Americans in film, music, literature, and other multimedia, all available through our Digital Media Portal.

Film
Hoopla

Hoopla's curated movies for Black History Month this year include many thought-provoking documentaries and biopics featuring such inspirational figures as Toni Morrison, Jackie Robinson, Coretta Scott King, Rosa Parks, and James Baldwin.
 

Kanopy

Kanopy's selections of African American cinema include award-winning films such as Moonlight, the groundbreaking and experimental Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, the North Philadelphia family documentary Quest, the cult music and action thriller The Harder They Come, and the innovative and stylized horror film Ganja & Hess, to name just a few.

ebooks and Audiobooks
African Americans and Voting Rights

This Hoopla collection of ebooks, audiobooks, and even graphic novels, puts the spotlight on the political and social activists that fought for civil rights and equality.
 

Black History Audiobooks for Children

Once again, Hoopla's collection of audiobooks for children is full of entertaining and informative stories from authors like Jacqueline Woodson, Matt De La Pena, Kadir Nelson, Carole Boston Weatherford, Ibi Zoboi, John Howard Griffin, and even the staff of ESPN's TheUndefeated.com.

Music

There are thousands of songs and albums available for streaming from African American musicians, artists, and singers ranging in genres from Contemporary World Music
such as reggae, worldbeat, zydeco, and gospel; to American Songs of the Civil War, anti-war protests, and Civil Rights; to one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of Jazz Music available online.

Multimedia
Input

Perhaps the most interesting multimedia relating to Black History Month available through our databases is the time-capsule that was the local Philadelphia panel discussion program, Input, that aired Sunday mornings from 1968 through early 1971. Librarian, civil rights activist, and Germantown resident Marion Stokes was a producer on the show, which explored pressing social issues including everything from prison reform and women’s rights to the nature of gossip and astrology. Marion saved every one of the original Ampex 1” videotapes of the show and following her death in 2012, her son donated the tapes to the Internet Archive, where they were digitized. 66 episodes of this unique show can currently be streamed online.
 

Visit our Digital Media Portal today for all of the above and much more, during Black History Month and all year long!

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