GBH News Rooted is the latest iteration of Say Brother, which launched in 1968 and became the longest-running program on public television for people of color. Rooted is picking up the mantle from Basic Black with its television debut Tuesday night on GBH 2.
You’ll find host Paris Alston out in New England neighborhoods to listen to what people from across the Black diaspora care about and where they’re finding joy. She joined GBH’s All Things Considered host Arun Rath to discuss the show’s TV premiere this week. What follows is a lightly edited transcript.
Arun Rath: It’s good to see you. I’m super excited to talk with you about this, because I love the show and its history, and I love that you are taking this into its next chapter. So, let me just give you that as an open question. Tell us about what you’re hoping to achieve with GBH News Rooted.
Paris Alston: Yeah, so it’s obviously a continuation of a very long legacy — and a wonderful, beautiful legacy — with Say Brother and Basic Black. So we are continuing to focus on the Black community, as well as other communities of color, and make this really a show that’s for us and by us. But adding a couple of twists, right? I mean, we are positing this as Black intellect, culture and joy, which means that we’re going to have smart and stimulating conversation that is current and that is urgent. But we’re also gonna have some fun.
Rath: Awesome, and tell us what will make it different from the previous iterations, Say Brother and Basic Black.
Alston: Much of what’s going to be different is where people will be able to consume our content. We’re really looking at this as a universe of content. So we have the television show that’s been on air for nearly 60 years now that will remain. But we’ll also be producing content that is digital first, meaning we are making it for YouTube or YouTube audience in case people aren’t able to catch us on channel 2.
And they may find us organically on YouTube. Maybe they’re searching for something about synthetic hair and they come across a video that we did about whether Black women should stop wearing synthetic hair products. And we also will be, of course, pushing things to social media. There may be some things we do that are specifically for, say, an Instagram or a TikTok — that you may not necessarily see on the show, but is still a way to engage the audience.
Rath: Well, I know most people probably under 30 or even 35 are not watching stuff on TV anymore. I know from our national programs like FRONTLINE and NOVA that they’re going to YouTube, and that’s where you connect with people now.
Alston: It’s true, and that’s even true for me as a consumer who is also under 35. I don’t necessarily watch a whole lot of terrestrial TV, as one would say. But I do love finding things on YouTube. I love streaming. I love finding things on my time, essentially, and finding things that remain relevant — even after they air.
Rath: So, tell us more about what we can expect on the program. And I want to hear more about the fun and joy, in particular.
Alston: Yes, I know you’re just the person to talk to about joy, aren’t you, Arun? So we have already put out a few segments on YouTube and with the launch this week, obviously, we’re starting to put things out on television. But there’s some things that folks haven’t seen on TV yet. Like a conversation we had about Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime performance with a wonderful panel, including our very own GBH’s Esteban Bustillos and a number of other folks. And we just talked about not only how much we loved that performance, but what were the nuances behind it? What were the things people may have missed, the deeper meaning?
We also got a chance to have some local folk musicians come in and play “This Little Light of Mine,” and I sang along with them, which was a surprise to me and, I think, anyone else probably who watches. But they came and talked about the roots of folk music in Black culture or folk music’s Black. history, and that was Cliff Notez and Grace Givertz who came along. So all those sorts of things are going to be wrapped up in this whole experience.
Rath: That’s awesome. And you’ve been developing this on YouTube first — I’m wondering if that gives you more of a sandbox initially to kind of figure things out? As well as connecting more with your audience directly.
Alston: 100%. So, launching on YouTube first has actually been a really fun challenge for me, Arun. Because if you think about it, whether it’s on radio or TV, we kind of know how that works. Like, you do the segment, you know where the audience is, you kind of find them.
On YouTube, it’s a little bit more of a Wild West. Everybody’s on there, and that can mean good and bad things. And you cast a really wide net. And so you’re trying to figure out: How we tailor our content to find anyone who this may resonate with, even if it’s not someone who subscribed to our channel, but someone who — I don’t know — maybe they’re in New Zealand, right? And they just find something that resonates with them, and they come to us through the World Wide Web, and they find something that they enjoy, and that entertains and inspires and informs them. And so we really are able to experiment and able to learn a lot from that.
Rath: Paris, something I’m curious to ask you about, and honestly, it’s a thing that’s top of my mind right now as we’re sitting here. I went to a Boston Children’s Chorus Concert — BCC concert — over the weekend. And I know you love the Boston Children’s Chorus. You were in it, as my daughter is. And it was just strikingly political because — I mean, they’re always political. BCC comes out of a social justice, civil rights movement. That’s their ethos.
Right now, the things that they stand for — diversity, equity and inclusion — are against the official policy of the United States government. And so they were feeling the need to really react to that strongly. And, so, I’m curious for you, as you are relaunching the show — it’s not program with a political stance, but it’s very much in your DNA that you are giving voice to diverse communities. Diversity, equity and inclusion are kind of in your valley. What’s going through your mind right now with all of that?
Alston: Yeah, this is a really pertinent point. And for our launch show on GBH News Rooted, we really were intentional about looking at the lineage of where we began with Say Brother.
Say Brother launched in 1968, shortly after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination and all that ensued across the country — and, specifically, here in Boston — after. And so, this show came at a time where Black Americans were wanting to have more conversations about themselves, right? Obviously, there’s always the white gaze, and people are watching the show who don’t necessarily identify as Black. I think that’s still going to be the case with this iteration. But this is really a space where people can come together and tease out those issues.
And so in this inaugural episode for television, we had that conversation about essentially: Is it time for us to have another civil rights movement, especially given the context in which this show is launching? And I think that’s not the last time that we’re going to have that conversation. It’s going to be a continuous revisiting, depending on what happens at the federal level, just to discuss how we move forward from here.
And I’m not going to lie to you, Arun. That makes me feel vulnerable, right? This is a show that that tackles those issues. I am a person who falls into a number of quote-unquote diverse categories and very proud of that. But I am also, at the same time, just conscious of how fraught these conversations can be today. But I think that makes them all the more necessary to have.
You can watch GBH News Rooted Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. on Channel 2 and on the GBH News YouTube channel.
