Throughout the year, NEPM celebrates women’s vital role in our society and their achievements in history, science, culture, education and the arts. This month, we proudly present programs to provide a deeper understanding of women’s contributions to America and the world.
Saturday Classical
Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel: Lieder fur das Pianoforte, Op. 6
Saturday, March 2 following the Metropolitan Opera broadcast on Classical NEPM
Matthias Kirschnereit plays Fanny Hensel’s Lieder ohne Worte
Jazz à la Mode: Women in Jazz
Listen Fridays March 1 – 16 at 8 p.m. on 88.5 NEPM
Over the course of three consecutive Fridays, Jazz à la Mode host Avery Sharpe will feature performances by pioneering and up-and-coming women jazz instrumentalists including Mary Lou Williams, piano; Terri Lyne Carrington, drums; Hazel Scott, piano; Shirley Scott, organ; Alice Coltrane, piano and harp, Marian McPartland, piano; and many others. Sharpe, a world-renowned bassist, composer and educator with deep roots in western Massachusetts, joined NEPM last November as Friday Jazz à la Mode host.
Sunday Classical
Listen Sunday, March 3 from 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. on Classical NEPM
Classical NEPM Host Jon Solins will feature works by Margaret Bonds, Gwyneth Walker, Amy Beach, Fanny Mendelssohn. Plus, performances by Marin Alsop, Martha Argerichm, and Michelle Cann.
Jazz à la Mode: Women in Jazz
Listen Wednesdays March 6 – 27 at 8 p.m. on 88.5 NEPM
Jazz à la Mode host Tom Reney will be highlighting prominent women jazz artists every Wednesday during the month of March. On March 6, hear performances by Jo Stafford, Anita O'Day and Blossom Dearie. March 13 features saxophonists Anat Cohen, Alexa Tarantino, and Camille Thurman. On March 20, Tom’s playlist includes pianists Marian McPartland and Renee Rosnes, the DIVA Jazz Orchestra and guitarists Mary Osbourne and Emily Remler. March 27 honors the Sarah Vaughan Centennial.
American Masters: Mae West: Dirty Blonde
Watch Monday, March 11 at 10 p.m. on NEPM TV
Dive into the life and career of groundbreaking writer, performer and subversive star Mae West. Over a career spanning eight decades, she broke boundaries and possessed creative and economic powers unheard of for a female entertainer in the 1930s.
American Experience: The Sun Queen
Watch Tuesday, March 12 at 9 p.m. on NEPM TV
Scientist Mária Telkes dedicated her career to harnessing the power of the sun. Though undercut and thwarted by her male colleagues, she persevered to design the first successfully solar-heated house in 1948 and held more than 20 patents.
Independent Lens: Storming Caesars’ Palace
Watch Thursday, March 14 at 9 p.m. on NEPM TV
After losing her job as a hotel worker in Las Vegas, Ruby Duncan joined a welfare rights group of mothers who defied notions of the “welfare queen.” In a fight for guaranteed income, Ruby and other equality activists took on the Nevada mob in organizing a massive protest that shut down Caesars Palace.
Fannie Lou Hamer: Stand Up
Watch Thursday, March 14 at 10:30 p.m. on NEPM TV
Civil rights legend Fannie Lou Hamer is remembered by those how worked side by side with her in the struggle for voting rights. An African-American sharecropper from the Mississippi Delta, Hamer’s difficulty registering to vote in 1962 led to her career as an outspoken activist, congressional candidate, and fierce fighter for the rights of all.
Amanda Christina Elizabeth Aldridge
Saturday afternoon, March 23 following the Metropolitan Opera broadcast on Classical NEPM
An important member of London’s black community, Amanda Christina Elizabeth Aldridge was an English composer, singer and teacher. In 1883 she won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music. After a successful career as a contralto, she became a teacher, with pupils that included Marian Anderson and Paul Robeson.
Where I Became
Watch Thursday, March 21 at 9 p.m. on NEPM TV
Where I Became traces the story of 14 women who left apartheid in South Africa to attend Smith College in the U.S. The film, narrated in their own voices and filmed between South Africa and the U.S., follows their stories from childhood to discovering themselves through the power of higher education.
My Music with Rhiannon Giddens: Joy Clark
Watch Thursday, March 21 at 10:30 p.m. on NEPM TV
New Orleans native Joy Clark is a lyrical guitarist and rising singer/songwriter on the Americana music scene. She and host Rhiannon Giddens share music and talk about her religious upbringing and her lifelong love affair with the guitar.
American Masters: Becoming Helen Keller
Watch Thursday, March 28 at 9 p.m. on NEPM TV
Revisit the complex life and legacy of the author, advocate and human rights pioneer. Helen Keller, who was deaf and blind, used her celebrity and wit to champion rights for women, people with disabilities and people living in poverty.
JoAnn Falletta conducts Aaron Copland
Saturday afternoon, March 23 following the Metropolitan Opera broadcast on Classical NEPM
JoAnn Falletta conducts the National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic in a performance of The Tender Land: Suite by Aaron Copland.
STREAM
American Experience: Fly with Me
Fly With Me tells the story of the pioneering women who became flight attendants at a time when single women were unable to order a drink, eat alone in a restaurant, own a credit card or get a prescription for birth control. The job offered unheard-of opportunities for travel and independence. These women were on the front lines of the battle to assert gender equality and transform the workplace.
Girl Talk: A Local, USA Special
Set in the cutthroat, male-dominated world of high school debate, GIRL TALK tells the compelling story of five girls on the diverse, top-ranked Massachusetts team at Newton South. Often talked over, underrepresented and judged differently than their male counterparts, each girl learns to navigate gender biases, reminding us that equal rights and freedom of expression are worth fighting for.
American Masters
Marian Anderson: The Whole World in Her Hands
Stream with NEPM Passport
Discover an international singer who captivated royalty in Europe and defied the conscience of 1939 America. Watch rare archival footage and hear audio recordings exploring her life and career from the Metropolitan Opera to the State Department.
American Experience: The Vote
Stream with NEPM Passport
Over one hundred years after the passage of the 19th Amendment, The Vote tells the dramatic culmination story of the hard-fought campaign waged by American women for the right to vote, a transformative cultural and political movement that resulted in the largest expansion of voting rights in U.S. history.
Frontline: A Thousand Cuts
Stream with NEPM Passport
With press freedom under threat in the Philippines, "A Thousand Cuts" goes inside the escalating war between the press and the government. The documentary follows Maria Ressa, a renowned journalist who has become a top target of President Duterte's crackdown on the news media.
Joni Mitchell: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song
Stream with NEPM Passport
After getting her start in coffee shops Joni Mitchell went on to set a new standard, marrying music and lyrics with such songs as “Both Sides, Now.” While her early material is often categorized as “folk,” she became a household name with music that defies categorization.
Great Performances: The Conductor
Stream with NEPM Passport
Follow Marin Alsop’s journey to become the first female music director of a major American symphony despite repeated rejection by the classical music industry. Features archival footage with her mentor Leonard Bernstein and is set to a soundtrack of her performances.
American Experience
Sandra Day O'Connor: The First
Stream with NEPM Passport
Discover the story of the Supreme Court’s first female justice. A pioneer who both reflected and shaped an era, Sandra Day O'Connor was the deciding vote in cases on some of the 20th century’s most controversial issues—including race, gender and reproductive rights.
American Masters: Twyla Moves
Stream with NEPM Passport
Explore legendary choreographer Twyla Tharp’s career and famously rigorous creative process, with original interviews, first-hand glimpses of her at work and rare archival footage of select performances from her more than 160 choreographed works.
American Masters
Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir
Stream with NEPM Passport
The story of the author whose first novel, “The Joy Luck Club,” was published to great commercial and critical success. With the blockbuster film adaption that followed as well as additional best-selling novels, librettos, short stories and memoirs, Tan firmly established herself as one of the most prominent and respected American literary voices working today.
American Masters: Flannery
Stream with NEPM Passport
Explore the life of Flannery O’Connor whose provocative fiction was unlike anything published before. Featuring never-before-seen archival footage, newly discovered journals and interviews with Mary Karr, Tommy Lee Jones, Hilton Als and more.
American Masters: How It Feels To Be Free
A documentary that tells the inspiring story of how six iconic African American women entertainers – Lena Horne, Abbey Lincoln, Nina Simone, Diahann Carroll, Cicely Tyson and Pam Grier – challenged an entertainment industry deeply complicit in perpetuating racist stereotypes, and transformed themselves and their audiences in the process.
PBS KIDS | PBS PARENTS | PBS LEARNING MEDIA
Students, educators and parents can find a wealth of information and inspiring stories from PBS Kids, PBS Parents, and PBS Learning Media.
PBS Kids: Celebrate Women's History Month with PBS KIDS!
PBS Parents: Children's Books to Celebrate Women's History Month
PBS Learning Media: Celebrate Women's History: Rebel Girls