February is Black History Month and KERA FM is planning several programs to mark it.  For your calendars:

American Radioworks: Say It Loud.  Airs Wednesday, Feb. 8 at 8pm; repeats Monday, Feb. 20 at Noon & 9pm (Presidents Day Holiday)

Say It Loud is a one-hour documentary special that traces the last 50 years of black history through stirring, historically important speeches by African Americans from across the political spectrum. With recordings unearthed from libraries and sound archives, and made widely available here for the first time, Say It Loud includes landmark speeches by Malcolm X, Lorraine Hansberry, Angela Davis, Martin Luther King Jr., Henry Louis Gates, and many others.

Can Do: Stories of Black Visionaries, Seekers, and Entrepreneurs.   Airs Wednesday, Feb. 15 at 8pm; repeats Monday, Feb. 20 at 1pm & 10pm (Presidents Day Holiday)

Can Do: Stories of Black Visionaries, Seekers, and Entrepreneurs is an hour long collection of richly produced and deeply layered stories of people who said “yes we can” and then did – A man tapes the history of his town with a scavenged cassette recorder, a woman fights for social justice with a pie, a DJ ignites his community with a sound. Hosted by Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning actress, Alfre Woodard. These stories come from The Kitchen Sisters collection – stories of black pioneers, self-made men and self-taught women, neighborhood heroes and visionaries.

Maya Angelou’s Black History Month Special. Airs Wednesday, Feb. 22 at 8pm.

Maya Angelou defines Black History, as it is embraced in our popular culture with an emphasis on the civil rights era and a poetic acknowledgement of late activist, Rosa Parks. This one hour historical trek takes us from the 1950’s thru the 1990’s.  Angelou renders a poetic portrait of the day-to-day lives of African Americans during the civil rights era, when artists and activists, musicians and ministers joined hands with people from all walks of life to bring about a historic change in our culture. Highlights include: Congressman John Lewis shares some of his experiences during the Freedom Rides of 1961 and the civil rights era. Also Nikky Finney, winner of the 2011 National Book Award for Poetry, discusses her critically acclaimed acceptance speech and shares stories of growing up in a civil rights family, as she talks about how her work was impacted by the era.