After Congress’s 2025 vote to rescind public media funding put the future of Peabody Award-winning series AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange at risk, Black Public Media (BPM) is bringing its signature series back for an 18th season — remaining on track for the series’ milestone 100th film presentation later this year.

Presented by BPM and PBS Plus, AfroPoP is the only U.S.-based public media show devoted to independent documentaries and narrative films about contemporary life, art, and culture across the African diaspora.

BPM said on Tuesday, April 14, 2026, that the new season premieres June 15 with “Listen to Me,” timed ahead of Father’s Day and the national Juneteenth celebration.
The series continues July 2 with This World Is Not My Own, as the nation marks the 250th anniversary of American independence and reflects on the contributions of all Americans.

A third title, planned for November, will be announced later this year, BPM said.
It said Listen to Me, by Kanika Harris and Stephanie Etienne, follows the stories of three Black women on the journey to motherhood as they navigate pregnancy, birth, and care in America.

BPM said the feature documentary sheds light on the racial disparities and compounding challenges driving the Black maternal health crisis while honoring the strength, sorrow, joy, and resilience that shape these women’s lives.
“Through intimate storytelling, Listen to Me becomes both an urgent portrait of systemic inequity and a call to action for justice, healing, and generational care,” BPM said.

It said the film premieres June 15 on the PBS App and PBS.org. Check local listings for broadcast times.
BPM was an early funder of “Listen to Me,” which won BPM’s 2021 PitchBLACK Forum, a competition for Black film and immersive stories.
BPM said this “World Is Not My Own,” by Opendox (Peter Ringbom & Marquise Stillwell), is an award-winning feature documentary about Nellie Mae Rowe, the self-taught Black artist whose “vibrant, unconventional work emerged from the rural South and gained broader recognition late in her life.”

Covering Rowe’s life over the 20th century, BPM said the film traces her evolution as an artist and how her experiences as the daughter of a sharecropper and a formerly enslaved father deeply influenced her work and late success.

“Combining documentary footage with animation and scripted scenes, the film presents a luminous portrait of an artist whose imagination transformed the ordinary into the unforgettable,” BPM said.

It said the film also portrays the unlikely friendship Rowe had with gallery owner and arts patron Judith Alexander, whose father was a segregationist attorney.
BPM said Emmy Award-winning actress Uzo Aduba, known for her roles on the hit television series The Residence and Orange Is the New Black, gives “voice and movement to Rowe, while Broadway veteran Amy Warren does the same for Alexander.”

“This World Is Not My Own” is the first feature-length documentary to premiere on BPM’s YouTube channel.
AfroPoP is executive produced by BPM Executive Director Leslie Fields-Cruz. Denise A. Greene is the series producer/director.

“Congress’ 2025 rescission vote threatened this season of AfroPoP, but it did not stop it,” said Fields-Cruz. “As AfroPoP returns and reaches its 100th film presentation, it underscores both the endurance of the series and the continuing need for Black stories in public media.”

With season 18, AfroPoP reaches its 100th film, showcasing diverse stories from the African Diaspora since 2008.
Fields-Cruz said directors whose films have appeared in the series include George Amponsah, Joel Zito Araújo, Violeta Ayala, Blitz Bazawule, Yaba Blay, Barron Claiborne, Rebecca Richman Cohen, Bobbito Garcia, Alain Gomis, Thomas Allen Harris, Eric Kabera, Terence Nance, Raoul Peck, Sam Pollard, Michèle Stephenson, Anisia Uzeyman, Marco Williams, and Saul Williams.

AfroPoP is supported by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the MacArthur Foundation.