WXXI TV

My Ascension • WXXI-TV

Emma sitting cross-legged under a tree, reaching toward the sunlight. A suicide attempt left Emma paralyzed but propelled her on a mission to help others. — A suicide attempt left Emma paralyzed but propelled her on a mission to help others.

A suicide attempt left 16-year-old varsity cheerleader, Emma Benoit, paralyzed, but propelled her on a mission to use her painful experience to help other young people find hope and stay alive.

My Ascension airs Saturday, January 18, 2025 at 11 p.m. on WXXI-TV and streams live on the WXXI app.

As Emma navigates the challenges of her physical and mental health recovery, she works to shine more light on the fact that 20 young people die every day by suicide in the in the United States.

This program is presented as part of Dialogue on Disability, a partnership between WXXI and Al Sigl Community of Agencies – in conjunction with the Herman and Margaret Schwartz Community Series. Dialogue on Disability is supported by the Fred L. Emerson Foundation with additional support from The Golisano Foundation. The weeklong initiative runs January 13-19, 2025

WXXI and Al Sigl have been hosting Dialogue on Disability since 2005. In 2014, with the support of businessman and philanthropist Tom Golisano and the Golisano Foundation, Move to Include™ was formed. This initiative enables WXXI to present and develop programming that promotes inclusion year round.

The Letter: A Message for Our Earth

This film tells the story about the Pope’s call to care for our planet. In 2015, Pope Francis wrote Laudato Si’, a letter to the world confronting the looming calamity of human impact on Earth and ourselves. It is one of the most ambitious and revolutionary papal statements in history and outlines the most critical environmental and social issues that we collectively face. The Letter: A Message for Our Earth airs Sunday, April 2 at 2:30 p.m. on WXXI-TV

Great Performances at the Met: The Hours

Premieres Friday, March 17 at 9 p.m. on WXXI-TV

Rochester’s own Renée Fleming makes her return to the Met in this new opera by from Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Kevin Puts, adapted from Michael Cunningham’s novel, inspired by Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway.” Also inspired by the 2002 Oscar-winning film, the opera follows three women from different eras who each grapple with inner demons and their roles in society. The opera also stars Tony winner Kelli O’Hara and opera star Joyce DiDonato. Phelim McDermott directs with Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting. Christine Baranski hosts.

Independent Lens: Love in the Time of Fentanyl

Airs Monday, February 13 at 10 p.m. on WXXI-TV

As deaths in Vancouver, Canada reach an all-time high, the Overdose Prevention Society opens its doors—a renegade supervised drug consumption site that employs active and former drug users. Its staff and volunteers do whatever it takes to save lives and give hope to a marginalized community in this intimate documentary that looks beyond the stigma of people who use fentanyl and other drugs. Independent Lens: Love in a Time of Fentanyl premieres Monday, February 13, 2023 at 10 p.m. on WXXI-TV.

This broadcast is part of New York State Public Media Overdose Epidemic, an initiative funded by the New York State Education Department that has called on NYS public media organizations to create a multi-platform project to help address mental health and addiction throughout the state. Additional programming will air in WXXI-TV the week of February 13-19,2023.

Making Black America: Through the Grapevine

Hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., this four-part series chronicles the vast social networks and organizations created by and for Black people—beyond the reach of the “White gaze.” Professor Gates sits with noted scholars, politicians, cultural leaders, and old friends to discuss this world behind the color line and what it looks like today. Making Black America: Through the Grapevine airs Fridays, February 3 and February 10 at 9 p.m. on WXXI-TV.

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