Juneteenth Jamboree on KRLU-TV Thursday, June 19th

Dreamtime friend Michael Emery, Director/Producer at PBS station KLRU-TV, Austin, TX writes:

Contributors, supporters, and friends, it is done! JUNETEENTH JAMBOREE looks a bit different than what I initially envisioned, but the result yet fetches an appealing look and enlightening message. You can see the results of the past 13 months of effort on KLRU-TV (broadcast channel 9) at 8 p.m. on Thursday, June 19th. (There will also be previews of the program at the African American Cultural Center at ACC's Eastview Campus and at the George Washington Carver Museum, both on Juneteenth.)

And if you can't watch the show on TV or attend a public screening, there's always the internet: . You can watch program segments on your computer equipped with a high-speed connection. I owe some of you a JUNETEENTH JAMBOREE DVD; if you can't wait for its arrival, catch the show online.

Thanks to everyone who contributed, and particular thanks to the late Alvin Patterson. My sister played in his Anderson Yellowjacket band, and she was the tall and graceful drum major of the band as a high school senior. My dad played alongside the Patterson brothers in earlier Anderson bands that were led by B.L. Joyce. I cannot overstate how much influence the Patterson clan had in East Austin back in the day.

Before I had any tight ideas on how to proceed, Google and the search term "Juneteenth" led me to . Mr. Fred Bals, I thank you for telling the story and playing the music of Gladys "Fatso" Bentley. Her song, "Juneteenth Jamboree," became the theme song and the title of my program. The joy of the song harmonizes well with the spirit of Juneteenth!

And special thanks to the very patient and resourceful Brian Joseph, whom I filmed and had intended to include in the show. Well, the content sort of went out of my control, and I hope to deliver Brian's story as an Internet extra on the JUNETEENTH JAMBOREE website...coming soon.

There are also the faceless many at KLRU who have been supportive of this project. These folks know how to get a TV show on the air with last year's "Show World" and aluminum foil. Amazing!

My thanks, all, and my hope: I do hope that some money will fall out of the sky, and it will provide sufficient means to create JUNETEENTH JAMBOREE 2009. And 2010. And 2011. And on and on.

Juneteenth Jamboree | Black History in Texas from klru tv on Vimeo.