For Immediate Release
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Contact: Vickie Devenport, WSIU Outreach Coordinator, (618) 453-6148, vickie.devenport@wsiu.org
Local Events to Examine One of Nation’s Most Horrific Crimes
Carbondale, Ill. -- WSIU Public Broadcasting, the public media arm of Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, in partnership with the SIU Center for Inclusive Excellence, the SIU Black Male Initiative, and the Carbondale Public Library, will present a series of local events surrounding the April debut of Central Park Five, the newest film from award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns and co-directors/producers David McMahon and Sarah Burns.
Central Park Five tells the story of Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise, five black and Latino teenagers from Harlem who were wrongly convicted of raping a white woman in New York City’s Central Park in 1989. The film chronicles The Central Park Jogger case, for the first time, from the perspective of the five teenagers whose lives were upended by this miscarriage of justice.
First, a free screening and discussion of the film will take place on Sunday, April 14 at 2:30pm at the Carbondale Public Library, 405 West Main in Carbondale.
Following on Tuesday, April 16 at 8pm, WSIU-TV 8.1 and WUSI-TV 16.1 will broadcast the two-hour documentary.
On Wednesday, April 17 from 5:30-7pm, at SIU Morris Library's Guyon Auditorium, the general public is invited to participate in “Justice and the Central Park Five,” a livestream conversation with film producers Ken and Sarah Burns and four of the five exonerated men. This event will be streamed from The Times Center in New York City. The group will be interviewed by New York Times columnist Jim Dwyer for the newspaper’s “TimesTalks” series. A “Q & A” session will follow in Guyon Auditorium, which will be led by SIU Criminology and Criminal Justice graduate Nick Bates. Refreshments will be provided.
Funding for Central Park Five is provided by The Atlantic Philanthropies, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, PBS, and members of The Better Angels Society, including Bobby and Polly Stein.
WSIU, in partnership with the SIU Center for Inclusive Excellence, received a grant from WETA Public Broadcasting in Washington D.C. for community engagement in conjunction with the release of Central Park Five.
About WSIU Public Broadcasting
WSIU Public Broadcasting is licensed to the Board of Trustees of Southern Illinois University and is an integral part of the College of Mass Communication & Media Arts on the Carbondale campus. The WSIU stations reach more than three million people across five states and beyond through three digital public television channels, three public radio stations, a radio information service, a website, and an education and community outreach department.
WSIU's mission is to improve the quality of life of the people they serve. The WSIU stations partner with other community organizations to promote positive change and to support the academic and public service missions of Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Learn more and get the latest station news online at wsiu.org and on WSIU's Facebook and Twitter pages.
WSIU's programs and services are partially funded by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.
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