Free Event – Limit 2 per customer
Presented by The Inkwell Society
Renowned scholar Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. returns to the Martha’s Vineyard Film Center for a special screening of FINDING YOUR ROOTS. Gates will present an episode of the show featuring actor and activist LeVar Burton, who will then join Gates on stage for a discussion. Gates uses genealogical detective work and cutting-edge DNA analysis to guide guests through the branches of their family trees. Uncovering buried secrets and inspiring stories of long- forgotten ancestors.
FINDING YOUR ROOTS highlights the genealogical backgrounds and ancestral stories of prominent guests that helped to define who they are today. At the center of it all, guiding every discovery, is host and executive producer Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University.
Gates remarks, “I am deeply proud of this series—and especially this season. I think it is so important today to show what we have in common, as Americans, and as human beings, despite our apparent differences. The stories we find in our guests’ family trees demonstrate—repeatedly— that we are a fundamentally blended nation that draws strength from our diversity.”
Assembling the extensive family trees and ancestral narratives alongside Dr. Gates are DNA expert CeCe Moore (chief genetic genealogist for Parabon Nanolabs and host of ABC’s “The Genetic Detective”) and genealogists Nick Sheedy and Kimberly Morgan, who together have solved hundreds of mysteries and reconnected innumerable lost relatives over the past two decades.
LeVar Burton launched his acting career while still a student at the University of Southern California. At 19, he found himself on the cover of Time Magazine, after landing the groundbreaking role of Kunta Kinte in the landmark television series Roots. A seemingly impossible act to follow, Burton achieved further global acclaim as Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge in the iconic Star Trek: The Next Generation television series – a role he reprised in Star Trek: Picard in 2023. However, it has been his role as host and executive producer of the beloved PBS children’s series Reading Rainbow of which he is most proud. Airing from 1983 to 2009, it was not only one of the longest-running children’s television shows in history, but also one of the most acclaimed, earning over 200 awards including multiple Emmys and a Peabody. As a lifelong literacy advocate, Burton has dedicated decades to encouraging children to read. In 2017, long-standing literacy non-profit, Reading is Fundamental, acquired Burton’s Skybrary reading app in order to provide access to millions of children both at home and at school. Always committed to improving children’s education through the latest pioneering technologies, Burton partnered with Osmo’s Reading Adventure, an innovative technology that uses speech recognition and digital storytelling to teach children to read. In 2023, Burton premiered his first documentary, The Right to Read, a film that positions the literacy crisis in America as a civil rights issue. The Right to Read was an official selection at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival and SXSW Edu.
Most recently, Burton launched LeVar Burton Entertainment (LBE) with a mission to create content that fosters empathy, champions diversity, and builds community. Under this banner, Burton develops projects in the film, television, podcasting, and publishing space. Now in its 12th season, the enormously popular LeVar Burton Reads podcast has over 175 episodes in its catalog, boasting 25 million downloads. LBE’s first Kids & Family podcast, Sound Detectives, will debut on Stitcher in August of 2023. Burton continued to exercise his passion for storytelling as the award-winning author of Aftermath, The Rhino who Swallowed a Storm, and A Kids Book About Imagination. A modernday griot, Burton launched his first book club with Fable, a digital book club community. In his partnership with Masterclass, Burton shared the power of storytelling by offering insights into his own life and the importance of authenticity, and dynamic expression. As the honored recipient of seven NAACP Awards, a Peabody, a Grammy, and 15 Emmys, including a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Inaugural Children’s & Family Emmys, Burton has demonstrated that he can do it all.
