Highlights Archive

Local, USA Firelighters: Fire Is Medicine • WXXI-WORLD

Indigenous people have deep knowledge of the art of using fire. Follow the work of women leaders from the Yurok and Karuk Tribes who are building resources to share indigenous practices and create policies to take back indigenous burning rights

Local, USA Firelighters: Fire Is Medicine airs Monday, November 17 at 8 p.m. on WXXI-WORLD and streaming live on the WXXI app.

For centuries, most landscapes in North America were shaped by fire between lightning strikes and Indigenous burns. Indigenous people had deep knowledge of the art of using fire, and still do today. Follow the work of women leaders from the Yurok and Karuk Tribes who are building resources to share indigenous practices and create policies to take back indigenous burning rights.

POV EMERGENT CITY Screening & Panel Discussion • The Little Theatre

Join WXXI for a special FREE screening of EMERGENT CITY, a film by by Kelly Anderson and Jay Arthur Sterrenberg and Brenda Ávila-Hanna. that looks at a new “innovation district” that tests local democracy in a divided Brooklyn community. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion moderated by Brian Sharp, WXXI News Investigations and enterprise editor. Panelists and community members will discuss issues in the Rochester area involving development, neighborhood representation in planning and local issues raised in the film. ASL Interpreting will be provided for the opening remarks and the panel discussion.

The event is free but we encourage registration for event planning.

This event is a collaboration with POV, PBS’ award-winning nonfiction film series.” POV website: https://www.pbs.org/pov/ This program is made possible by a grant from American Documentary | POV, with funding provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Details:
Tuesday, November 18, 2025
The Little Theatre, L1, 240 East Avenue
The event begins at 6:30 p.m. (Doors open at 6:00pm)

Panelists include:
Moderator: Brian Sharp is WXXI’s investigations and enterprise editor. He also reports on business and development in the area. He has been covering Rochester since 2005. His journalism career spans nearly three decades.

Panelists:

Gladys Pedraza Burgos, Non-profit strategist and neighborhood/community member

Melissa Suchodolski, president, USC Builds

Kevin Kelly, Office of City Planning Manager

More about the film:
Residents of Sunset Park, Brooklyn face rising rents, a legacy of environmental racism and the loss of the industrial jobs that once sustained their community. When a global developer purchases a massive industrial complex on the waterfront and lays plans for an “innovation district,” a battle erupts over the future of the neighborhood and of New York City itself. Co-produced with ITVS.

Credits:

Director(s): Kelly Anderson, Jay Arthur Sterrenberg
Producer(s): Kelly Anderson, Brenda Ávila-Hanna
Co-produced with ITVS

ASL interpretation will be provided for opening remarks and post-screening panel discussion. This film is presented with open captions. For more information on parking and accessibility, please visit https://thelittle.org/accessibility/. Additional accommodations may be requested during the registration process. Please contact Sarah Murphy Abbamonte, Project Manager for Move to Include, at sabbamonte@wxxi.org with any questions.

Indigenize The Plate • WXXI-TV

Extraction, water displacement, and climate change have impacted food sustainability in Indigenous communities, and the combination of these challenges has also affected cultural sustainability. A Diné woman travels from the Navajo Nation to a Quechuan community in Peru to see how they address these issues in their region.

Indigenize The Plate airs Saturday, November 15 at 3p.m. on WXXI-TV and streaming live on the WXXI app.

Indigenize The Plate tells the stories of Indigenous people across the world and shows viewers how their communities are working together to address some of the many challenges that the world faces collectively.

Photo: Two members of Oliver Alvarez’s family preparing cuy, a traditional dish of the region.

Rematriated Voices with Michelle Schenandoah • WXXI-TV

A groundbreaking talk show to empower truth, reclaim democracy, and live in balance with Mother Earth.

Rematriated Voices with Michelle Schenandoah airs Monday, November 10 through Friday, November 14 at 3 p.m. on WXXI-TV and streams live on the PBS app and the WXXI app.

Grounded in Haudenosaunee principles, Rematriated Voices invites viewers and listeners to consider their answer to one of the most common Haudenosaunee greetings, “Are you at peace?”

Episode Airdates/Times:

Doctrine of Discovery: Monday, November 10 at 3 p.m.

First Environment: Tuesday, November 11 at 3 p.m.

Hidden Roots of Democracy: Wednesday, November 12 at 3 p.m.

Eve Meets Sky Woman: Thursday, November 13 at 3 p.m.

Matrilineal Men: Friday, November 14 at 3 p.m.

Bring Them Home • WXXI-TV

Witness the Blackfoot tribe’s restoration of buffalo, culture, and land in BRING THEM HOME.

Bring Them Home airs Monday, November 24 at 10 p.m. on WXXI-TV and streams live on the PBS app and the WXXI app.

This film tells the story of a determined group of Blackfoot people striving to re-establish the first wild buffalo herd on ancestral lands since the species near extinction a century ago. The film captures the decades-long efforts to restore buffalo along with the land, re-enliven traditional culture and bring much needed healing to the Blackfeet community. Narrated and executive produced by Oscar nominee and Blackfeet / Nez Perce actor, Lily Gladstone, the film has screened at over 40 film festivals; earning multiple awards and playing as an audience favorite.

Photo credit: Thunderheart Media

American Experience “Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On” • WXXI-TV

Oscar-winning Indigenous artist who rose to prominence in New York’s Greenwich Village folk music scene and has had a six-decade groundbreaking career as a singer-songwriter, social activist, educator and artist.

American Experience “Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On” airs Saturday, November 1 at 4 p.m. on WXXI-TV and streaming live on the WXXI app.

Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On features never-before-seen archival material, new performance footage and interviews with Sainte-Marie, Joni Mitchell, Sonia Manzano, John Kay, Robbie Robertson, Jackson Browne and others. Over a career spanning six decades, Cree musician, artist and activist Buffy Sainte-Marie has used her platform to campaign for Indigenous and women’s rights and inspired multiple generations of musicians, artists and activists.

Photo credit: Tim Ryan/Matt Barnes

The Best of the ’60s • WXXI-TV

The decade of peace, love and happiness is celebrated in this My Music compilation.

The Best of the ‘60s airs Saturday, October 25 at 3 p.m. on WXXI-TV and streams live on the WXXI app.

Legends from Pop, Folk, Rock, The British Beat, Motown, Soul and Great Rock and Roll all perform their biggest 1960s hits, classics and more live on the MY MUSIC stage.

Great Performances: Ann • WXXI-TV

Enjoy a powerful and revealing look at legendary, larger-than-life Texas governor Ann Richards who enriched the lives of her followers, friends and family in this critically acclaimed play written by and starring Emmy Award-winner Holland Taylor.

Great Performances: Ann airs Friday, October 24 at 10 p.m. on WXXI-TV and streams live on the WXXI app.About the Episode

Great Performances: Ann is a no-holds-barred theatrical portrait of Ann Richards, legendary Governor of Texas (1991-95). Written and performed by Emmy Award-winning actor Holland Taylor (“Two and a Half Men,” Broadway’s “The Front Page”), the play is a compelling look at the impassioned, inspiring woman who enriched the lives of her followers, friends and family. Beginning with a commencement address, the play bursts into a blistering day in the life of the governor, with a cascade of task-wrangling and conversations with everyone from Richards’ friend Bill Clinton to her grandbaby Lily. We see the grit, warmth and depth in her colorful, captivating character, bigger than the state from which she hails. Directed for the stage by Benjamin Endsley Klein (Broadway credits include “The Ferryman” and “Carousel”), this production was recorded at the Zach Theater in Austin, Texas, following its national tour and Broadway run at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater in 2013, which earned Taylor a Tony Award nomination for Best Lead Actress in a Play.

Neither partisan nor political, Ann began as Taylor’s quest to understand what it was about this housewife, mother, grandmother, leader and iconic patriot who inspired so many people so deeply. Writing the play became a four-year journey for Taylor, crisscrossing the country, interviewing people who knew Richards, watching countless hours of video coverage and pouring over reams of her personal and public papers at the University of Texas. In the end, Taylor’s greatest resources were the family, friends, staff and colleagues of the governor who allowed Taylor to know Ann Richards.