WETA Celebrates Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

Saturdays at 2 p.m. on WETA PBS

Follow Luckyrice culinary festival founder Danielle Chang as she travels across America exploring the Asian food landscape, featuring many of the country’s most renowned chefs and culinary personalities. 

Repeats Fridays, 11am on WETA Metro

Thursday, May 1 at 9:30 p.m. on WETA Metro

Discover the inspiring story and considerable impact of five-time Olympic medalist Duke Kahanamoku. He shattered swimming records and globalized surfing while overcoming racism in a lifetime of personal challenges. 

Repeats Sun, 5/4, 12:30 pm on WETA PBS

Saturday, May 3 at 8 p.m. on WETA PBS

Directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, the documentary is an immersive, 360-degree narrative, that tells the epic story of the Vietnam War as it has never been told on film. In this episode, Americans begin to doubt Johnson's promise of "light at the end of the tunnel after seeing the violence and brutality of the Tet Offensive unfold on television..." The country is staggered by assassinations and unrest.

Saturday, May 3 at 8 p.m. on WETA Metro

Follow three generations of women to discover the complex, ever-evolving nature of inheritance and the hurt that is entangled within familial bonds.

Saturday, May 3 at 9:30 p.m. on WETA Metro

For thousands of years women have been locked out of Taiko drumming. Not anymore. In the dead of a Minnesota winter, Asian drumming divas smash gender roles and redefine power on their own terms. Finding Her Beat dives into the rhythms and struggles that lead to an electrifying historic performance that changes everything.

Monday, May 5 at 8 p.m. on WETA PBS

Travel with Roadshow as it turns the spotlight on incredible items with Asian and Pacific Islands origins, including a Hawaiian Kou bowl, a Gandhi presentation spinning wheel, and an 1888 Joseph Nawahi painting. Tune in to see which is valued at $250,000-$300,000. 

Repeats tonight, 9 pm on WETA Metro

Monday, May 5 at 8:30 p.m. on WETA Metro

At four years old, Dora Fugh Lee’s grandfather encouraged her to become an artist and taught her ink painting and calligraphy. She honed her artistry studying with renowned masters over the years and is now considered one of the last Chinese literati painters. 

Repeats Sat 5/10, 11pm on WETA PBS

Thursday, May 8 at 8 p.m. on WETA Metro

Discover the art, life, and enduring impact of Tyrus Wong, the renowned Chinese-American painter behind Bambi and Rebel Without a Cause, via new and never-before-seen interviews, movie clips, and art. 

Saturday, May 10 at 8 p.m. on WETA PBS

After chaos roils the Democratic Convention, Nixon, promising peace, wins the presidency.

Saturday, May 10 at 10 p.m. on WETA PBS

In 1971 a small group of U.S. table tennis players made history, by traveling to a then-isolated China. The first Americans to legally visit in more than 20 years, they opened lines of communication that remain vital today, succeeding where diplomats had failed. The people-to-people links they established are being carried on today by a new generation of American and Chinese college students.

Thursday, May 15 at 8 p.m. on WETA Metro

See the world through the eyes of Nam June Paik, the father of video art and coiner of the term “electronic superhighway.” Born in Japan-occupied Korea, Paik went on to become a pillar of the American avant-garde and transformed modern image-making with his sculptures, films, and performances.

Friday, May 16 at 9 p.m. on WETA PBS & Metro

Enjoy Tony winner David Henry Hwang’s comedy starring Daniel Dae Kim as an Asian American playwright who protests “yellowface” casting in the musical “Miss Saigon” only to mistakenly cast a white actor as the Asian lead in his own play.

Saturday, May 17 at 8 p.m. on WETA Metro

Two Korean American children of liquor store owners reconcile their own dreams with those of their immigrant parents. Along the way, they confront the complex legacies of LA's racial landscape, including the 1991 murder of Latasha Harlins and the 1992 uprisings sparked by the police beating of Rodney King, while engaged in current struggles for social and economic justice.

Saturday, May 17 at 8 p.m. on WETA PBS

Nixon withdraws troops but upon sending forces to Cambodia the antiwar movement reignites.

Saturday, May 17 at 9:30 p.m. on WETA Metro

In this semi-animated documentary, POV recounts the harrowing tale of Aurora, a survivor of the 1915 Armenian genocide, who lost her family, fled slavery and after escaping to America, becomes the face of a massive humanitarian campaign. 

Monday, May 19 at 10 p.m. on WETA PBS

After decades in obscurity, artist Michael Jang uses graffiti tactics to share his previously unknown body of fine art photography with unsuspecting audiences. 

Repeats Sat 5/24, 10 pm on WETA Metro

Saturday, May 24 at 8 p.m. on WETA Metro

The gripping story of families attempting to escape oppression in North Korea, reveals a world many have never seen.

Saturday, May 24 at 8 p.m. on WETA PBS

South Vietnamese forces fighting on their own suffer a terrible defeat in Laos. After being re-elected in a landslide, Nixon strikes a peace deal with Hanoi that allows American prisoners of war tofinally to come home to a bitterly divided country.

Thursday, May 29 at 10 p.m. on WETA Metro

The documentary tells the story of how a little-known military intelligence school in Minnesota played a pivotal role in ending WWII. The institution trained more than 6,000 Japanese Americans to be translators, interrogators, and Japanese military specialists. After decades of being classified, the story of their courage, sacrifice, and valor is finally being told.

Saturday, May 31 at 8 p.m. on WETA PBS

Saigon falls and the war ends. Americans and Vietnamese from all sides seek reconciliation.