The Reading Club (partially found WHUT talk show; 1999-2001)
Logo of the show.
Status: Partially Found
The Reading Club was a public TV show that was made by Howard University Television, in cooperation with Dunbar Productions and WHUT, a local Washington, D.C. channel.[1] The talk show was hosted by former WCBS New York anchor Carol Martin, with Renee Poussaint taking over as host for the show's second season after "working on a documentary about a meeting between historian John Hope Franklin and Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa."[2] The first season of the talk show went on for 13 weeks.[3][4]
Premise
Allison J. Davis, one of the many executive producers of The Reading Club was inspired by her friends, to create and air a talk show on books.[5] The series focused on serving "the African American community by educating, informing and inspiring individuals to broaden their horizons through more reading." Each episode had different "club members," which were various African American women selected from book clubs across the U.S.[1] Usually, they would discuss various topics in several books like self-discovery and love.
Availability
The lack of video footage is due to the fact that The Reading Club only aired episodes for a short time. Only 26 half-hour episodes were produced.[6] It is speculated that the series aired reruns until September 30, 2002, when the PBS Kids Bookworm Bunch block was airing, thus kicking the show to obscurity.
While the Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Colletion does own every episode of the show, they are currently unavailable to the public outside of the first seven episodes.[7]
| Television Station | Location | Date of Debut |
|---|---|---|
| WCEU | Daytona Beach, Florida | Sep 5, 1999 |
| KNME | Albuquerque, New Mexico | Sep 6, 1999 |
| WTBU | Indianapolis, Indiana | Sep 6, 1999 |
| WTVS | Detroit, Michigan | Sep 6, 1999 |
| WHUT | Washington, District of Columbia | Sep 7, 1999 |
| KDTN | Dallas, Texas | Sep 8, 1999 |
| WKMJ/KET 2 | Louisville, Kentucky | Sep 9, 1999 |
| KLCS | Los Angeles, California | Sep 10, 1999 |
| KLRU/2 cable | Austin, Texas | Sep 10, 1999 |
| WNET | New York, New York | Sep 10, 1999 |
| WPTO | Oxford/Cincinnati, Ohio | Sep 10, 1999 |
| KRCB | Rohnert Park, California | Sep 12, 1999 |
| WHUT | Washington, District of Columbia | Sep 12, 1999 |
| WGVK | Grand Rapids, Michigan | Sep 13, 1999 |
| KTCI | Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota | Sep 14, 1999 |
| WHMG | Schenectady, New York | Sep 26, 1999 |
| WLAE | New Orleans, Louisiana | Oct 1, 1999 |
| Kentucky ETV | Statewide Kentucky | Oct 2, 1999 |
| Mississippi ETV | Statewide Mississippi | Oct 2, 1999 |
| Nebraska ETV | Statewide Nebraska | Oct 2, 1999 |
| WXXI | Rochester, New York | Oct 4, 1999 |
| WYIN/Channel 56 | Merrillville, Indiana | Oct 6, 1999 |
| WKAR | East Landing, Michigan | Oct 18, 1999 |
| WYBE | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | Nov 1, 1999 |
| WIPB | Muncie, Indiana | Jan 9, 2000 |
| Vermont ETV | Statewide Vermont | Unknown; Only mentioned June 18, 2000 |
Episodes
The series debuted on WCEU on September 5, 1999.[8]
Season 1 (1999-2000)
| # | Book | Host | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lawrence Graham's Our Kind of People: Inside America's Black Upper Class | Carol Martin | Found |
| 2 | Pearl Cleage's What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day | Found | |
| 3 | Jill Nelson's Straight, No Chaser: How I Became a Grown-up Black Woman | Found | |
| 4 | Benilde Little's The Itch | Found | |
| 5 | Shireen Dodson's Mother and Daughter's Book Club | Found | |
| 6 | Janet McDonald's Project Girl | Found | |
| 7 | Iyanla Vanzant's Yesterday, I Cried | Found | |
| 8 | Ralph Ellison's Juneteenth | Lost | |
| 9 | Edwidge Danticat's The Farming of Bones | Lost | |
| 10 | Harriett Cole's How to Be: A Guide to Conscious Living for African American People | Lost | |
| 11 | Sister Souljah's The Coldest Winter Ever | Lost | |
| 12 | Myrlie Evers-Williams' Watch Me Fly | Lost | |
| 13 | Linnie Frank and Andria Hall's This Far by Faith | Lost | |
| 13 | Renita Weems's Listening to God | Lost |
Season 2 (2000-2001)
| # | Book | Host | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Color of Water by James McBride | Renee Poussaint | Lost |
| 2 | Diane McKinney's Blues Dancing | Lost | |
| 3 | Wilson Wesley's The Devil Riding | Lost | |
| 4 | Van Whitfield's Something's Wrong With Your Scale! | Lost | |
| 5 | Breena Clarke's River Cross My Heart | Lost | |
| 6 | Eric Jerome Dickey's Cheaters | Lost | |
| 7 | T.D. Jakes' Maximize the Moment: God's Action Plan for Your Life | Lost | |
| 8 | Douglas F. Greer's Blind Ambitions | Lost | |
| 9 | Shay Youngblood's Black Girl in Paris | Lost | |
| 10 | Tananarive Due's The Black Rose | Lost | |
| 11 | A'Lelia Bundles's On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam CJ Walker | Lost | |
| 12 | Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Talents | Lost | |
| 13 | Rene Swindle's Please, Please, Please | Lost |
Gallery
Videos
Gallery
Renee Poussaint in The Reading Club.
External Links
- Official website (accessible via Wayback Machine) Retrieved 15 Feb '18
- A schedule page, mentioning The Reading Club. Retrieved 14 Feb '18
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Reading Club, Peabody Awards Collection, 2000049 PST 1 of 1, Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection, University of Georgia, Athens, Ga. Retrieved 13 Feb '18
- ↑ The Washington Times article about black history Retrieved 14 Feb '18
- ↑ The Washington Post article on The Reading Club. Retrieved 14 Feb '18
- ↑ A Chicago Sun-Times article on The Reading Club. Retrieved 14 Feb '18
- ↑ Black Issues Book Review article on the origin of The Reading Club Retrieved 14 Feb '18
- ↑ TV Guide page with a cast an inaccurate episode list Retrieved 14 Feb '18
- ↑ Search result for The Reading Club on the Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Colletion. Retrieved 08 '24
- ↑ Official chart of when the series debuted across the U.S. Retrieved 15 Feb '18