Vote because it matters. Then keep the ripple moving, one honest conversation at a time.
How do you decide? Do you vote from hope, despair, anger, or urgency? Does a system that shapes your daily life feel out of touch, unfair, or made for someone else? Does your choice feel right, or does it feel like a lack of options?
Do you ask who looks like me? or who do I want to lose? Or do you ask who is this vote actually building for? Each of us is more than one label. We are parents, neighbors, workers, believers, doubters. When we vote on one fear or one trait, we shrink ourselves and hand someone else the victory.
My friend Elijah, whose life’s work is justice, puts it this way: representation matters, and so do values. Does the person who looks most like you hold the values you hold? Do those values lift people up, or push them down? And if we find ourselves reducing someone to a single part of their identity, what are we afraid of?
Words, Fear, and Change
If you vote to change a system, you know how hard that is. Fear is part of the reason, and fear is not new. Othering is one of the oldest human habits: sorting people into “us” and “them” so that “them” becomes easier to blame. Every era has used it as a strategy.
What is new is the engine. Today’s media landscape can carry that old strategy to millions of people instantly, tailored to what each of us already fears, and repeated until it feels like common sense. The tactic hasn’t changed. Its reach has.
Rick Steves, best known for his travel guides, put together a glossary of the language of fear in today’s politics, written in the context of MAGA’s extreme makeover of the USA. Every camp uses framing, so I’m borrowing his terms to practice noticing it everywhere. Two to keep in your pocket:
OTHERING:
Treating a group as so different from “us” that they become easier to fear, to blame…and to discriminate against (or worse).
WHATABOUTISM:
Dodging an uncomfortable truth by pointing to someone else’s alleged wrongdoing.
Naming a tactic loosens its grip. And because the engine runs on attention, the most powerful response is still the oldest one: talking face to face with the person we’ve been taught to see as “other.” Steves’s call to action is worth borrowing too: armed with this glossary, connect with your friends and neighbors, and vote.
Every vote cast for everyone’s wellbeing, not just our own corner, adds to something bigger than any single ballot. Change has always started with people willing to vote and to keep showing up afterward.
Does the Ripple Become a Wave?
Whatever the results of any election, the work of community well-being continues. I believe conversation is the next step. We need to acknowledge what we have in common, take stock, and keep uplifting the human spirit.
I believe in staying connected locally, and in conversations that give us permission to question what we hold onto and the fear that wraps it. There will always be a need for repair and healing. A vote is not the finish line. It’s a beginning.
Back to System Change
Income equality will change a lot, but it won’t change racism, homophobia, or transphobia. It won’t end othering or remove a person’s bigotry. Othering is a human trait that gets deployed as strategy, so no policy alone can switch it off. It has to be met person to person.
Equal access will help people have more money and get what they need, and that matters. But a good election result is a moment in the game, not the championship. All of it is temporary and depends on the players.
Affordability won’t undo fear either, especially fear stoked by what Steves calls a chaos strategy: a steady stream of disruption meant to overwhelm, distract, and demoralize. So we have to ask where hatred toward people seen as “less than” comes from. Do you want quality of life for all, or only some? What are you afraid of, and why?
This is where public historian Tad Stoermer comes in. His book A Resistance History of the United States argues that people have always had to force change against institutions built to resist it, and that those institutions then adapt to contain whatever resisters win. It’s a sobering lens, and a useful one. Progress was never handed down. It was organized, demanded, and defended. A ripple only becomes a wave when people keep it moving.
On This Side of Common
If ‘othering’ thrives at a distance, this show can close the distance. A show at studioW, On This Side of Common, invites people who believe they’re opposites to sit down together and discover how much they value the same things. No winners, no shouting, just one question: where do we agree?
Initiated by David and Andrew, it is open to all viewpoints. Respect is required.
We record a few Tuesdays a month in the evening at studioW at WPAA-TV and Community Media Center in Wallingford. If you want a seat at the table and have a topic on your heart and mind, send us a note at reserve@wpaa.tv. Don’t just sign up. Sign on: help close the distance, one conversation at a time.
Our last Same Day Sunday will be December 27, 2026. Starting in 2027, WPAA-TV ends its extraordinary commitment to cablecast services on the same day faith communities hold them. As always, we’ll support the extra holiday services over the coming weeks.
This is not necessarily the end of faith-based content on WPAA-TV. Each faith community will decide whether to continue being Content Producers for community TV. In December we’ll confirm each community’s 2027 plan and play schedule (if applicable). Per state regulation and our policy, WPAA-TV is obligated to distribute properly submitted content. For communities of faith this is typically 6 plays per week. Continuation will require an updated organization media release with contact information and program plan. As producers, faith communities are obligated to tell their communities the TV schedule in the program plan. WPAA will commit to a predictable schedule.
Viewers
If you watch on Comcast channel 18 or 1070 HD, or at wpaa.tv/watch, the schedule is changing in 2027. Sunday content will not match the liturgical calendar. The year of COVID is shown below.
New Life Church is currently at 9 p.m.
Catholic Mass from St. Benedict of Nursia is at 7 and 10 p.m.
UCC First Congregational and St. Paul’s Episcopal have the same Sunday times they had in the 1990s: 3:30 and 5 p.m., respectively.
Christadelphians ceased production.
We have a few evergreen programs from the Muslim Community like ‘Jesus in India’.
Christ Presbyterian Church came and went with the planting Pastor.
1000 Sundays: Tea and stories to faceless file transfers.
Same Day Sunday started with Sharon Kesilewski of St. Paul’s Episcopal, who joined our board to have Sunday access to the building. When she could no longer continue, our Executive Director began her 1,000 Sundays. Church volunteers record and transfer video; WPAA staff and volunteers retrieve and prepare files for plays starting at 3:30 p.m. We’ve moved from VHS to S-VHS, DVDs, flash drives, and now the cloud. Tea and stories have become faceless file transfers.
Every week, WPAA-TV has worked collaboratively with several teams. The process begins with on-site recording and completes with TV scheduling. Church volunteers record and transfer video files. WPAA staff handles file retrieval and prepares content for multiple plays starting at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday.
For many years, the teams exchanged physical media at the station. Our shared history courses through VHS, S-VHS, DVD, and flash drives. Currently, all content is transmitted via the cloud. What was once sharing tea and stories is now faceless transactions with strangers who may have little awareness of the expectations of this file exchange or who the audience may be.
Another Extra
Did you know having a predictable cablecast time is also unusual in community media? Sometimes, what may appear logical, or just common sense, requires taking extra steps. For regulatory compliance, in 2018, our policies were innovatively aligned with practice to maintain the established recurring play schedule. Concurrent with this pivot, we ended our Bulletin Board. Among the announcements, were pictures of every local church with key contact information.
Why Discontinue? There are other convenient viewer options!
All our faith partners use social media, and all offer on-demand viewing. During extraordinary times, COVID, these partners turned to us to reach you. Soon thereafter, they implemented social media alternatives. Some stream ‘as it happens’ and all provide ‘on demand’ access.
Many shut-in viewers are gone, and young people aren’t connecting to cable. The feed to SNET (now Verizon) hasn’t been supported for more than two years by those companies including AT&T.
We don’t know if anyone is watching, and the schedule has been missing from producer community bulletins for some time. If our faith communities decide they are reaching their community well enough on new platforms, we understand and agree with any decisions to cease content submission.
However, this does not mean we are no longer relevant; it is just a pivot to provide different meaningful service: in studioW content makers.
We remain committed to all voices from within our community. We are the place & space to uplift voices from the commons.
It all adds up to discontinuing the “extra”
Community Media in Wallingford began in 1975 as a library bulletin board. Church volunteers brought video services to WPAA-TV when the nonprofit was formed in 1993. Back then, we even provided the tripods and cameras to the churches. St. Paul’s still has a WPAA-TV Tripod. In 2005, there were a few same-day cablecasts.
In 2010, Same Day Sunday, we elevated this ‘extraordinary’ service to priority status. The WPAA-TV team committed five hours every Sunday. For a brief period and paid staff. 35% of our staff budget went to scheduling communities of faith (30% of channel hours). Per regulation, 13 plays in a week left little room for other voices. In 2016, we modified policy to align with predictable view times. In 2018, policy reduced the number of plays by defining a program as 30 minutes. By 2018, the public notice of play time was solidly a producer responsibility.
Technology has cut processing time to as little as 2 hours a week, but asking a non-faith organization to commit a volunteer every Sunday no longer seems essential. We are grateful to the church video teams who provided content every Sunday for TV, some of them for decades. That step can continue, but timely processing will not be within hours; it will be later in the week.
If you have questions or want to tell us whether you are a WPAATV viewer, please call (203) 294-9722 or email wpaatv@gmail.com. You can influence when we schedule content in the future.
It was difficult to write this. There was so much camaraderie when it all began. I especially miss Bob Berlepsch, who was on this faithful journey for many years. When he left this earth, it was like a sign. Realign to be a better servant. He was a servant in faith. April 19, 1946 – September 22, 2026.
Performance Speech Simulcast Worldwide: History Revealed, Rescued
The Rescue Trial, a new play by educator and playwright Latisha Jones will world premiere October 17th, 2026 at 8:00 PM via WPAA-TV Internet Simulcast. With a belief that performance speech is the richest kind of free speech, Artistic Director Josiah Houston has facilitated distribution of several performances by poets and playwrights at WPAA-TV.
Nothing can replace the theater experience; however, the investment of time by the playwright, actors and supporting crew deserves another level of reach. Giving a second life to theater as community media is a creative practice.
— Artistic Director Josiah Houston
Stage Performance Footage captured by LoneBear Productions on August 1st, 2026, at Silver Spring Stage, Maryland, was remastered by WPAA-TV to simulate a multicamera capture for an intimate viewing experience that still feels like you’re in the theater. The video premiere of The Rescue Trial is part of WPAA-TV’s annual celebration of community media as a creative practice.
The Internet simulcast makes this significant dramatic work available worldwide. We believe it is significant because 1) it expands the historical record by centering women’s perspectives within the abolitionist movement, 2) it interprets and rescues the human stories behind the 1851 Hayden trial and the broader overlooked 19th‑century Black abolitionist movement, and 3) Ms. Jones reanimates the lived texture of Black abolitionist history — the humor, domestic labor, and everyday courage often lost in traditional narratives.
About the Play: History Brought to Life
Set in 1851, amidst the turbulent fallout of the Fugitive Slave Law, The Rescue Trial centers on Rosetta Douglass (played by Iyanu Bishop)—the educated, ambitious daughter of Frederick Douglass. As Rosetta and her brother Henry (Tone Arce) travel to Boston to report on the federal court case of local freedom fighter Lewis Hayden (De’Maryo Platt), slave catchers arrive in town, threatening the security of free-born and formerly enslaved Black citizens alike.
Rather than treating history as a series of distant icons, Latisha Jones grounds the narrative in the human reality of the Black Anti-Slavery community in Boston. By making Rosetta the point-of-view character, the play explores what it meant for a young Black woman to find her voice as an activist, writer, and editor for The North Star.
World Premiere Details
🗓️ World Premiere Date: Saturday, October 17th, 2026 (Replay Sunday 1pm)
🎬 Recorded Stage Premier: August 1st, 2026 at Silver Spring Stage, Maryland
Reflections on The Rescue Trial
The stage premiere of The Rescue Trial at Silver Spring Stage on August 1st offered more than a night of historical drama — it offered a reminder of how art can make the past feel startlingly present. Latisha Jones’s play, centered on Rosetta Douglass and the Black anti‑slavery community of Boston in 1851, doesn’t simply recount events surrounding Lewis Hayden’s federal trial. It re-humanizes the people who lived through those events, restoring their humor, domestic realities, and everyday courage.
Two lines from the transcript capture this beautifully:
“I want to go to Boston as a writer, not as a housekeeper.” “Perhaps you’ll find time to do both.”
That gentle teasing between Rosetta and Anna Murray Douglass is the heartbeat of the play: liberation work is never only speeches and trials. It is meals, caretaking, sarcasm, exhaustion, and the friction between generations trying to survive and push forward at the same time.
Humanizing the Icons
Jones’s artistic philosophy — “bringing historical figures down to earth” — is everywhere in this production. She refuses to present Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, or Lewis and Harriet Hayden as marble statues. Instead, she imagines them as people who laughed, cooked, argued, and worried.
One of the most striking choices is her elevation of Rosetta Douglass as the point‑of‑view character. Aging her up allows Rosetta to become the lens through which we see the movement: a young, educated Black woman writing for The North Star, trying to define her own role in a world where domestic duty and political urgency collide.
This choice mirrors what Jones described in her #DouglassWeek conversation: the need to amplify women’s perspectives, especially the quiet strength of figures like Anna Murray Douglass and Harriet Hayden, whose domestic labor made resistance possible.
Domesticity as Resistance
Some of the funniest and most tender moments in the play come from domestic interactions:
“You must be exhausted from your journey… Let me get some food in your belly.” “I am certain there are fugitive slaves here that could use that more than us.”
These lines reveal the tension between care and urgency, between feeding your guests and hiding freedom seekers from federal agents. They also echo Jones’s broader theme: small acts of love are themselves forms of resistance.
Her anecdote about Frederick Douglass’s mother walking 12 miles to bring him a heart‑shaped cake — an act that ultimately shaped Black History Month generations later — reframes “winning” not as defeating oppression outright, but as sustaining one another long enough to keep fighting.
Humor as a Political Tool
The play’s humor isn’t incidental; it’s strategic. Elijah Garrett’s satirical monologue skewering President Millard Fillmore — calling him “the biggest dog in all the pack” — punctures the solemnity of federal power.
Rosetta’s sharp retort to Margaret Pierce about “decentralizing advertisements” exposes class tensions within abolitionist circles. Humor becomes a way to survive, to critique, and to remind the audience that ordinary people often see political absurdity more clearly than elites.
The Hobbit’s‑Eye View
Like Tolkien’s “Hobbit’s‑eye view,” The Rescue Trial insists that the grand narrative of liberation is carried by people who worry about meals, chores, and family expectations even as they confront overwhelming injustice.
Samwise Gamgee carries a cooking pot to Mordor; Harriet Hayden carries the responsibility of feeding fugitives while her husband faces 15 federal charges. Domesticity doesn’t trivialize the struggle — it grounds it.
Monologues as Moral Anchors
The monologues in the play serve as bridges between the political and the personal. Garrett’s opening speech exposes federal hypocrisy. Rosetta’s internal reflections reveal the cost of being young, gifted, and expected to serve a movement larger than herself. Anna Murray Douglass’s monologues remind us that survival is its own form of activism.
These moments ensure that the audience doesn’t get lost in legal proceedings or historical exposition. They keep the focus on individual agency, quiet sacrifice, and the emotional labor behind collective action.
Why This Story Matters Now
Jones’s work resonates because she understands that contemporary audiences face their own overwhelming questions:
How do I deal with something so big and so intense?
Her answer — through Rosetta, Anna, Harriet, and Lewis — is that ordinary people have always asked that question. And they have always answered it through community, humor, domestic care, and persistent courage.
In that sense, The Rescue Trial is not just historical interpretation. It is a rescue of memory itself — a reminder that the people who built freedom movements were not icons, but humans. And that their humanity is what makes their legacy powerful.
Cast Spotlight
Iyanu Bishop as Rosetta Douglass: The educated, ambitious daughter of Frederick Douglass. Working as her father’s assistant and editor, she travels to Boston to cover the federal court case of Lewis Hayden while striving to find her own distinct voice as a writer and activist rather than remaining in domestic roles.
Colie Aziza as Anna Murray Douglass / Nancy Prince: The matriarch of the Douglass family. Deeply practical, protective, and grounded, she emphasizes survival, domestic work, and patience, urging her daughter to consider a life of stability while honoring the sacrifices made to build their family’s foundation.
Tone Arce as Henry Douglass: Rosetta’s brother who travels with her to Boston to assist with coverage for their father’s newspaper, navigating the dangers of anti-slavery reporting alongside his sister.
Darcella Owens as Harriet Hayden: A formidable Boston abolitionist and the wife of Lewis Hayden. Her home serves as a pivotal, highly secretive sanctuary for freedom seekers and community organizers during the trial.
De’Maryo Platt as Lewis Hayden: A prominent Black freedom fighter and abolitionist in Boston who faces 15 federal criminal charges for his role in the courthouse rescue of Shadrach Mink, openly defying the Fugitive Slave Law.
Thomas Friend as Elijah Garrett: A writer for the Massachusetts Liberator whose biting, satirical commentary critiques federal hypocrisy, President Fillmore’s mandates, and the state’s targeting of Black freedom seekers.
Dana Fleischer as Margaret Pierce: A representative of the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Association who embodies upper-class, “respectable” abolitionist politics, clashing with Rosetta over the tone and public presentation of women activists.
David Jackson as Robert Morris: One of the pioneering Black attorneys in the United States, serving on the legal defense team for Lewis Hayden to fight the federal indictments in court.
Carl Miller as John Hale: An attorney co-counseling on Lewis Hayden’s defense team, working alongside Robert Morris to challenge the legal basis of the federal government’s prosecution.
John Cholod as President Millard Fillmore (Judge Benjamin Curtis): The 13th President of the United States, who issues an official federal proclamation commanding military and civil authorities to prosecute those who aided in the Boston courthouse rescue. (The presiding federal judge overseeing the court proceedings, representing the legal authority of the federal government enforcing fugitive slave legislation.
Colie Aziza as Nancy Prince: A prominent Black abolitionist author and civic leader in Boston who participates in community organizing and public activism.
Najah Bayyan as Joan Dorsey: A member of the local Boston Black community supporting the resistance efforts and the sanctuary network surrounding the trial.
Rocky Nunzio as George Lunt (Callum Woodfork): U.S. District Attorney prosecuting the case on behalf of the federal government (represents the figures entangled in the fugitive slave enforcement apparatus.)
Joshua Union as Officer Asa Ross: A law enforcement officer charged with executing federal warrants, apprehending freedom seekers, and maintaining court custody under the Fugitive Slave Law.
We are putting our marketing budget into our viewers’ pockets. We hope to do this again, but for right now, the deadline is Oct 10th. 📣 (Extended to Midnight October 16th)
Watch. Review. Discover. Win. A community television celebration designed to reward curiosity, local engagement, and first‑time viewers and old friends. $550 in food/gas gift cards.
🎯Celebrating What We Do Every Day
🏆Main Rewards
Three $100 Winners
Drawn October 17 at 4:30 PM Each entry = one chance to win $100
More watching = more entries.
How to earn entries: For every verified hour watched, submit:
A list of what you watched
When you watched it
One thing you discovered by watching OR submit a show review (one entry for every 100 words)
Include your name and telephone number
🎖️ Special Awards
$50 – Most Submissions Award
The winner is the person with the most verified entries.
$50 – President’s Choice Award
The winner is the person who shares the most interesting discovery from watching WPAA-TV.
$50 – Celebrating Our Winners
The winner checks out our winners. Celebrate our 2026 winners. Comment on the Festival clips. Find the festival winners list HERE.
📬How to Enter
Email all submissions to: movie@wpaa.tv Deadline: Midnight Oct 10th. 📣 (Extended to Midnight October 16th)
🎁Bonus Social Engagement Rewards
📣Four $25 Winners Eligible if you complete all four actions:
Subscribe to WPAA-TV on YouTube
Follow the WPAA-TV Facebook Page
Become a Friend with Freeman
Comment on the campaign announcement post
Email your name + telephone number to movie@wpaa.tv
Already doing the above: Tell us why you have been our friend.
Make new friends, but keep the old. If you are already part of our community, you can submit reviews or just tell us why you are already connected. Check that you are subscribed to YouTube @wpaaTV, following wpaatv on Facebook, and are friends with Freeman P Quinn on Facebook and Instagram. Ps. We are on Threads but not on Twitter. 3 out of these = an entry.
There is no limit on the number of entries. You do not need to be a Wallingford Resident to be eligible. If you attend the Open House in person and Make TV, there will be more prize opportunities.
The strength of #In2Languages / #en2idiomas lies in its delivery design. Each day, WPAA‑TV airs four 30‑minute programs from Deutsche Welle (DW) in a bilingual sequence: English → Spanish → Spanish → English. This creates a solid one‑hour block of current Spanish news content at midday, framed by English‑language counterparts. This creates a full hour of Spanish‑language news at midday, framed by English‑language counterparts.
Because each program covers the same topic areas — Global News, Health, Technology, Art & Culture — viewers can watch the same stories in both languages.This parallel structure supports natural language learning through repetition, context, and curiosity. Our partnership with DW ensures access to reliable global news, culture, science, and health content while strengthening dual‑language literacy.
The program’s reach is amplified through WPAA‑TV’s internet simulcast, which requires dedicated infrastructure and ongoing bandwidth. WPAA‑TV prioritizes this capability in technical grant funding to ensure the service remains accessible beyond cable TV.
Isn’t Comminity TV Local?
A local‑global collaboration is exactly what makes this literacy initiative local.
Community TV content produced outside Wallingford gains local purpose when a local organization believes it is Good Enough To Share. Since the pilot in 2013, the Spanish Community of Wallingford (SCOW) has been that connection — identifying DW’s content as valuable for Spanish‑speaking residents and language learners.
DW permits redistribution of their content within this service structure because it mirrors how the programming appears on cable TV. WPAA‑TV connects each collaborator doing what they do best in the public interest.
For more than a decade, #In2Languages / #en2idiomas was available only to Wallingford cable subscribers. It served a small but steady group of viewers improving their language skills through current news. During COVID, WPAA‑TV explored simulcasting. Even with limited outreach, the channel averaged about 100 daily midday views.
Backstory – Nearly Lost
Despite promising simulcast engagement, maintaining the technical and fiscal capacity to continue was unsustainable. Once technical issues were resolved, community dynamics had shifted. Our local partner, SCOW, refocused on the new realities facing agencies serving non‑English‑speaking residents. They formally withdrew sponsorship — which had also been our marketing and outreach.
With licensing and distribution costs looming, the program’s continuation was suddenly at risk.
This challenge prompted us to rethink how we support language learners and community media viewers. Literacy is not just a skill — it is a pathway to confidence, connection, and long‑term community resilience.
We asked: How can this program continue to provide a foundational means of gaining long‑term language agency?
The Recovery
What saved #In2Languages was a powerful combination of generosity, partnership, and community leadership.
DW Support DW extended our license at no charge through September 1, 2026, keeping the signal live while we rebuilt stability. Their message underscored the value of the collaboration:
Simulcasting DW content on your channel via the Internet complies with DW regulations as long as …We can also agree to an extension of the renewal…We highly value our collaboration with WPAA TV and will do our best to assist you.
Essential Fiscal Support The William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund awarded an $1,800 grant, securing our Spanish news contract and reinforcing community well‑being and equity.
“With deep respect for the work Wallingford Public Access Association Inc is undertaking, I share that your grant request for #in2languages / #en2idiomas has been approved in the amount of $1,800.00. The William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund is honored to support this critical effort within the community.”
Community Leadership A former SCOW Executive Director stepped forward to help reconnect the program with Spanish‑speaking families. Her endorsement reflects the program’s value:
I’m a big fan of what WPAA-TV has done with DW’s content to create #In2languages as a daily resource! The production quality from DW is outstanding. The content is always informative, engaging, and relevant. If you’re looking to improve your English or Spanish, this is an excellent resource. Listening to the programs is a fun and effective way to build your listening comprehension, expand your vocabulary, reinforce grammar, and improve pronunciation—all while learning about fascinating topics and current events from around the world. I highly recommend giving it a try. Learning a language is so much easier when you’re genuinely interested in what you’re listening to!
— former SCOW Executive Director Maria Fernanda Campos Harlow
Why It Matters Now More Than Ever
Access to reliable, high‑quality bilingual information is not a luxury — it is a cornerstone of an inclusive community. #In2Languages / #en2idiomas does more than inform; it strengthens language literacy, cultural understanding, and equitable access to global perspectives for English‑learners, Spanish‑speakers, and dual‑language families.
Language literacy builds confidence, connection, and shared purpose — all essential to community resilience.
The program has been renewed. Now we must sustain it. Let’s build awareness together.
How You Can Help
Watch & Share: Tune in Monday–Saturday, 11 AM–1 PM here on the internet wpaa.tv. (Wallingford residents who subscribe to Comcast Cable can watch on Comcast Channel 18 / 1070)
Spread the Word: Connect educators, advocates, and families to the resource.
Partner With Us: Help expand language‑literacy access.
One of the goals of the Moses Yale Beach_Revealed Project is to understand today in the context the ideologies enabled and fostered by the Penny Press in Antebellum America. The Teleplay, Fit to Print, examines six entrepreneurial decisions in what Frank Michael O’Brien, author of The Story Of The Sun (New York, 1833 -1918) referred to as Era of Hustle (Chapter VI), the period Beach was publisher.
‘The Question’ encounter was built upon a reference to a letter to Beach in Free Man of Color: The Autobiography of Willis August Hodges (written 1848–49, publ. 1896; ed. Gatewood, 1982).
It’s easy to think about history and how it has transformed and still influences our present. But what isn’t always easy is to understand that same history.
Thinking and understanding are two very different things, and do not necessarily involve each other. However, when you are learning about history, and you are taking up the opportunity to embody an historic figure (as an actor), you cannot simply think about who they were and how they made decisions. You must understand them. The decisions they made, the lives they touched, the people that influenced them and more. When I read about Willis A. Hodges my first thought was “why have I never heard about this man before!”. Hodges was a man of strong convictions and used his platform to push for changes. Born a free Black man still only allowed for some of the freedoms during the 1800s in Virginia, he forged a life dedicated to abolishing slavery and speaking truth to power. I have heard of many others that shared his views and worked to make similar changes such as Ida B. Wells (the present), and Frederick Douglass (legacy), but this man deserves his recognition outside of Virginia. The fact that Willis Hodges played such an important role in our history and I never heard of him made me want to learn more about him so I could serve his legacy and bring him to people that were like me in never hearing about him before. Bringing him to life for a brief moment was important to me and I was able to discover what I did not know I needed.
I needed to think about history and how it has transformed and still influences our present and embody an understanding that does not come easy.
Embodying the Unspoken: Willis A. Hodges and the Power of the Question
History is often taught as a timeline of sweeping outcomes, but performance demands an accounting of moments.
In the teleplay Fit to Print, Decision 5: THE QUESTION zeroes in on a quiet yet profound transaction in 1846 New York: Willis A. Hodges—a free Black Virginian, activist, and future abolitionist editor—buys temporary access to the authority of the New York Sun. Confronted by a penny press that profits off Black trauma in crime columns while denying Black voices in political debate, Hodges challenges the paper’s lofty motto, “It Shines for All.” Denied space in the editorial section unless he pays, Hodges buys a boxed advertisement containing a single, radical query: “Does the Sun shine for all?”
Moses Yale Beach, publisher of the Sun, agrees to take Hodges’s cash and print the line under the paper’s banner, but buries it in the ad column as a “PAID WARRANT.” Beach sells placement without conceding the answer; Hodges buys space to force readers to confront the lie.
Elijah Manning steps into this tense historical intersection as an actor. Reframing the dramatized conflict, Manning’s performance reveals how historical understanding shapes artistic interpretation—and why Hodges’s legacy can be a vital story for today. Fit to Print exposes the hypocracy of Beach’s claim that The Sun Shines For All.
Understanding vs. Thinking: The Actor’s Method
Manning reflects on how to bridge the gap between historical intellect and lived empathy citing a vital distinction for any historical performance:
“Thinking and understanding are two very different things… when you are learning about history, and you are taking up the opportunity to embody an historic figure, you cannot simply think about who they were and how they made decisions. You must understand them.”
To merely think about Willis A. Hodges in 1846 is to analyze facts:
Born free in Princess Anne County, Virginia, in 1815.
Witness to brutal white vigilante violence, including an assault on his mother and raids that displaced his family.
Sworn to an “eternal war against slavery,” leading him north to organize, edit The Ram’s Horn, and advocate for Black suffrage.
To understand Hodges, however, is to feel the weight of those facts behind his fictionalized actions in the Sun’s office. When Hodges insists on his terms—“Box stays. Motto stays. Question stays.”—it is not polite negotiation. It is the strategy of a man who watched white law function as state-sanctioned violence in Virginia and recognized that the Northern press operated under its own machinery of exclusion. In real life it was the work of the man distilled in the exemplyfying moment.
By insisting that the question sit under the Sun’s house stamp without supplying an answer, Hodges turns the advertisement into a mirror.
Manning captures this resolve, bringing to life a man who understood that if white authority would not grant equality, he would use their own commercial apparatus to expose their hypocrisy.
The Erasure of Radical Voices
Manning’s immediate reaction upon reading the script highlights a recurring tragedy in American historiography:
“When I read about Willis A. Hodges my first thought was ‘why have I never heard about this man before!’… I have heard of many others that shared his views… such as Ida B. Wells and Frederick Douglass, but this man deserves his recognition outside of Virginia.”
Hodges’s relative absence from popular historical memory is not an accident; it reflects the very dynamic dramatized in Decision 5. Penny papers like the Sun eagerly covered Black Americans when sweeping them into vagrancy arrests or sensationalizing street crime, but routinely erased Black intellectual leadership and political critique.
When an editor told Hodges that the Sun “shines for all white men,” it exposed the limits of 19th-century mainstream media. Hodges’s response was twofold:
He forced his way into their print run by paying for a boxed ad.
He went on to co-found The Ram’s Horn in 1847 alongside Thomas Van Rensselaer (and with support from John Brown) to ensure Black Americans owned their own narrative press.
Beach calculates that burying the box dodges responsibility: “If that line runs as news, it’s an attack. If it runs as opinion, it’s a sermon.” But Hodges accepts the ad column placement because he trusts the reader. He doesn’t need the Sun to validate his humanity; he needs the question to linger long enough for the public to answer it themselves.
The scene frames a moral conflict as an ongoing debate rather than a resolved decision. Manning’s performance in Fit to Print, ensures that Hodges is no longer left in the footnotes, linking his legacy directly to iconic crusaders like Douglass and Wells.
The Legacy of the Question
Elijah Manning’s reflection closes with an insight on how historical performance transforms the artist:
“Bringing him to life for a brief moment was important to me and I was able to discover what I did not know I needed. I needed to think about history and how it has transformed and still influences our present and embody an understanding that does not come easy.”
Decision 5 is more than a fictionalized enactment of an 1846 transaction; it is a commentary on access, media ownership, and systemic silence that directly informs our present. By moving past passive historical thinking and stepping into active understanding, Manning’s performance honors Willis A. Hodges’s vow—ensuring that a question posed over 180 years ago continues to demand an answer today.
Moses Yale Beach Revealed “Doing History” Community Project
Adele Houston Productions is thrilled to announce the upcoming film production of Fit To Print, a compelling historical teleplay written by Josiah Houston. This project represents a landmark collaboration between community talent and emerging professional leadership, directed by Adam Benzinane, a recent Cinematography and Film graduate from Boston University.
Production is set to begin in mid-June and will continue through the summer, with a scheduled release during USA250.
At a time when the impact of media and journalism sits at the heart of our democracy, Fit To Print offers a timely, provocative look at the origins of how the news began to control the daily narrative. Wallingford native son, Moses Yale Beach, was at the forefront of this historic journalism pivot.
Our community partner is a CT250 Affiliate @CTHumanities
The Vision: A “Doing History” Initiative
Fit To Print isn’t just a period piece; it’s a high-stakes “chamber drama” designed to function like a machine on screen. Set during the explosive rise of the Penny Press, the film tracks six pivotal moments where the pursuit of news changed American history forever.
The Fit To Print narrative dramatizes six pivotal historical decisions made by The Sun publisher, Moses Yale Beach, between 1839 and 1849. The story of journalism follows Beach’s encounters with a revolving door of historical titans:
1839: Roger Sherman Baldwin & Joseph Cinqué (The Amistad Case)
1842: P.T. Barnum – American Museum Opens
1844: Edgar Allan Poe (The Balloon Hoax)
1844: Jane Storm (Manifest Destiny)
1846: Willis A. Hodges (Anti-slavery activism)
1849: Daniel Webster – Court on Trial
This is not a story of moral collapse, but of procedural adaptation. It illustrates how pragmatic decisions—made one logged line at a time—constructed the governing logic of modern media. The film’s arc is not the corruption of a man, but the expansion of a system through him.
Production Status & Resource Needs
While WPAA-TV and the Community Media Center is providing significant technical resources, and the cast is nearly finalized with talented local performers, we are seeking community partners and journalism scholars to help bring this “Doing History” project to life. We appreciate the contributions of Kathleen Maher, Barnum-Museum and Campbell Harmon, Poe Actor, during the validation phase of script development.
While WPAA-TV and the Community Media Center is providing significant technical resources, and the cast is nearly finalized with talented local performers, we are seeking community partners and journalism scholars to help bring this “Doing History” project to life. We appreciate the contributions of Kathleen Maher, Barnum-Museum , and Campbell Harmon, Poe Actor, during the validation phase of script development. We are seeking history scholars and journalists to join the film release and education tour to prep schools, colleges, and universities.
As A contributor
By contributing, you are part of a community media milestone: the production of a high-caliber historical narrative that challenges audiences to recognize how public reality is manufactured. We invite you to be part of the “machine” that builds this story. Help us document the moment ‘American journalism’ began to not just report the world, but shape it.
Susan Huizenga, WPAA-TV Executive Director, calls this a ‘signature’ local contribution to the ‘Doing History‘ motif embraced by the CT Humanities Commission for the United States Semiquincentennial (USA250). This film interprets the past as shaped by the interests, attitudes, and contexts still present in our evolutionary history. It helps us critically question and understand the role of journalism and newspapers through the lens of Moses Yale Beach, native son of Wallingford, and his impact on his time and ours.
Fine art & tech intersect in the integrated Nelson ‘Carty’ Ford Memorial Gallery with featured installation by Apollo Maldonado at #wpaatv. Other work by featured artists Charles Buzinsky (StreetshotZ), Iyaba Ibo Mandingo (We are not like you & more), and Susan Clinard inspires reflection about our humanity. Content list here.
The gallery fosters conversation about community, history, nature, health, and empowerment. Styles vary from photography to cartoon to mixed media. The art challenges its viewers, but the gallery has a bigger challenge: being seen.
We were ready to welcome guests from #ctmainstreet the day Wallingford #EDC Staff and other community leaders were showcasing how our community embraces art & culture. WPAA-TV and Community Media Center, the location of the 1st ARCY large-scale mural in Connecticut, had no visitors. We were assured by the Executive Director of Wallingford Center, Inc., that we were included on the tour route.
Why wouldn’t we be? We are the only Art & Culture nonprofit with a physical footprint in Wallingford. Volunteers readapted a 1924 cow barn in the town center into a community space. We are recognized by both CT Humanities and the Office of the Arts.
Questions that linger: What is public art? Who decides what is valid, valuable, or what ‘We the People’ voices are represented with public art?
Let me bring part of the experience to you, the audio panels in our podcast room; In Concert
Roll The Credits for Wallingford Lamp & Shade, Wallingford Flower Shoppe, and Modern Formals
The WPAA-TV volunteer research team behind Moses Yale Beach Revealed Initiative had an ambitious capstone goal: produce a classic “rags to riches” documentary about Wallingford’s native son and philanthropist, Moses Yale Beach. However, the scarcity of primary sources created an authenticity gap for the production of a biographical sketch.
While Beach’s most enjoyable time of life was as a resident of Saugerties, NY, his most impactful years were as publisher of the penny paper, The Sun, in New York City.
Our findings suggest his entrepreneurial decisions aligned with the technical revolution anchored in the development of the telegraph. He would influence journalism, in particular, and marketing, more generally, including the production of paper, the mastery of newsprint (column sizes & broadsides), directories, multilingual publishing, syndication, and the co-op that ultimately led to the founding of the Associated Press. He successfully navigated the ‘Era of Hustle‘.
Faced with a lack of a biographical documentary footprint but armed with a fascinating historical figure, the project pivoted from telling his life story to telling a story about what he influenced most: journalism itself.
Documentary Masquerading as Drama
Last Fall, when there was no script, just a concept, the core team invited a cadre of talented community theater actors and content experts to commit to the production of a #USA250 #ct250 film. All we had was ‘Beach in conversation with his contemporaries and willing partners in the creative process,’ said the Artistic Director, Josiah Houston.
By February, Houston and local researchers turn ‘What if’ into insight into the operating system of American journalism—not as it imagines itself, but as it actually functions. Fit to Print dramatizes six editorial decisions Beach made while publishing The Sun penny paper between 1839 and 1849; the decade when modern media learned to shape reality instead of record it.
Beach’s daughter figures prominently in our story that follows the editorial decisions of Moses Yale Beach in Antebellum America. This portrayal was a significant decision in the project.
Bringing the ‘what if’ film to life has become a masterclass in leaning into the strengths of committed partners, turning lemons into soufflés, and embracing the pure serendipity of networking and neighbors.
Today, we share how those neighbors made a difference.
Lighting the Path Through a Changing Decade
The narrative of the film spans a pivotal decade of rapid technological innovation, from 1839 to 1849. It was a period defined by transition, perhaps nowhere more visibly than in how people lit their world—moving rapidly from traditional pewter oil lamps to modern gaslight.
Capturing this evolution visually is critical. The story unfolds inside Moses Yale Beach’s business office on Nassau and Spruce Streets, as well as across the chaotic counters where young newsies gathered to pick up their daily bundles: The same two spaces over ten years.
To accurately guide the audience through this passage of time, the production settled on authentic, period-correct desk lamps. This is where John LeTourneau’s lighting restoration expertise, Wallingford Lamp & Shade, comes into play. “I am happy to supply a few lamps that can support authentic storytelling by just being on Mr. Beach’s Desk. Understanding history is an integral part of my work.”
A Serendipitous Window and a Flapping Success
One of Moses Yale Beach’s most famous real-life business strategies was his innovative use of carrier pigeons to beat rival newspapers to the latest European news. Naturally, the production needed to represent this unique element of 1840 news-gathering.
As fate would have it, the solution was sitting just a few doors away. Tammy Rose from the Wallingford Flower Shoppe—who happens to be the granddaughter of George Mellor, the man whose former antique shop location is now WPAA-TV Community Media Center—is both a local history and theater enthusiast. In a moment of pure serendipity, a unique prop dilemma was solved; her shop’s window display had an antique pigeon carrier. Tammy’s nuanced contribution is as impactful as her effervescence: “Absolutely, I am so glad you asked. If I cannot do something, I will think on it; it never hurts to ask.” is her trademark of neighborliness.
From Scraps to Cinema-Ready Wardrobe
The discovery of that pigeon carrier actually happened thanks to RayRay, the official WPAA-TV greeter pup, who was taking a quick break from a visit with Dylan over at Modern Formals.
Dressing a formidable array of period-accurate characters—and representing the main characters’ evolution in style & wealth—on a community budget is no small feat. But Dylan and the talented seamstresses at Modern Formals jumped right into the fray. “It has been fun and out of the ordinary, with you showing up with new challenges each day.” Turning creative problem-solving into an art form, they became part of the film team, converting material scraps into authentic 1840s ascots, altering simple nightgowns into period-appropriate aprons, and tailoring scavenged dresses and trousers to perfect the illusion of mid-19th-century-like attire for Mr. Beach and his guests.
These three local vendors, neighbors of WPAA-TV, provided essential assistance in preparation for film days.
Chasing the Beach Legacy
The initiative originally set out to uncover the lasting legacy of a forgotten media titan and celebrate local history. Along the way, the team heard from Beach’s living descendants, none of whom belong to today’s billionaire class. Instead, they shared a frustratingly fascinating truth about the family lineage: there have been several “rags to riches” stories across the generations, but they were all temporary. Most ended in debt, primarily because the Beach legacy belongs to a family that consistently chases novel ideas long before their time—including early concepts for subways championed by his son Alfred Ely Beach, and pioneering aviation ventures pushed a generation later by his great-grandson, Stanley Yale Beach. A research contributor said,” The WPAA-TV team also chases novel ideas in authentic storytelling. I am so happy the film is happening, and finding a pigeon carrier is amazing.
The impetus for this Rabbit Hole is “A momentous day in American history” Steve Schmidt from The Warning with Steve Schmidt. He muses about the anniversary of the end of the Civil War (161 years ago) and who he believes ‘Americans’ should be grateful to that the Union survived. He opens with a quote from a memoir edited by Connecticuts own Mark Twain:
“My family is American, and has been for generations, in all its branches, direct and collateral.”
— Opening statement of Ulysses S. Grant’s “Personal Memoirs”
Policy Framework For “What We Foster”
This week the governance team approved our Social Media Policy. It establishes a framework for how I and others can engage publicly as representatives of the organization—aiming for a consistent, positive online presence that supports WPAA-TV’s mission: empowering diverse voices, promoting civic engagement, and advancing media literacy through public interest storytelling.The policy is public in our Sunshine Documents.
Questions are a tool for engagement. We don’t take direct positions with questions, but the questions themselves reflect values and information we consider in the public interest. Today I posted some of this Rabbit Hole thinking in the comments:
#CivicLiteracy#MediaLiteracy Upon whose shoulders do you stand? Our community media movement stands on the shoulders of George Stoney with nods to Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Ulysses Grant and Abraham Lincoln. (These four figures represent the historical foundation of liberation, civic literacy, and the fight for human rights in America.)
The Civil War is said to have ended 161 years ago in April 1865. Lincoln would be assassinated. Who has more Statues* Ulysses Grant or Robert E Lee? Do you know Robert E. Lee had significantly more public statues than Ulysses S. Grant. The Lost Cause Movement had some push back between 2015 and 2024. Iconic Lee statues in Richmond, Charlottesville, New Orleans, and the U.S. Capitol have all been taken down. Do you know The “Silent” Victor: Most Union monuments depict the “Anonymous Soldier” rather than Grant himself.
Do you know that Mark Twain edited Grant’s memoir, a bestseller in 1885?
What stories do you choose to foster in telling, art or in your heart?
*Statuesrefers to full-figure monuments. They are a form of #socialactionart. Historical markers, plaques, and busts, Robert E. Lee also outnumber Grant.
On The Shoulders
The post on WPAA-TV Facebook page suggests these four figures represent the historical foundation of liberation, civic literacy, and human rights in America. All came from humble or oppressed beginnings; each reached heights of influence. Whether escaping slavery (Tubman, Douglass) or rising from financial failure (Grant), they embody “standing on the shoulders of giants” to advance freedom.
Their roles differed, but their efforts were interdependent:
Abraham Lincoln provided the political will and legal framework for the war.
Ulysses S. Grant provided the military strategy to win it.
Frederick Douglass acted as a crucial advisor to Lincoln, pushing him to allow Black soldiers to fight and making the war explicitly about abolition.
Harriet Tubman served as a scout, spy, and nurse for the Union Army, directly assisting the military effort.
After the war, they remained committed to securing the rights of the formerly enslaved:
Grant, as president, worked to dismantle the first iteration of the KKK and signed the Fifteenth Amendment.
Douglass and Tubman continued advocating for suffrage—for Black men and for women—and civil rights throughout their lives.
Harriet Tubman didn’t start with an army. She started with a path through a swamp and the sheer will to return.
Frederick Douglass didn’t start with a printing press. He started with a “stolen” education and the audacity to speak his truth in a country that legally considered him property.
Our Civil War Remains— in Media
Divide is fostered and abetted by capitalized modern media.
“Modern media” is a delivery system. Community media aspires to civic service. It’s the difference between a loud noise in a crowded room and a meaningful conversation at a kitchen table.
Aspires—because we are grit without stone.
I’ve used the David vs. Goliath metaphor before: an underestimated weapon in the hands of the people, a path to victory. Today I align with David’s grit, showing up to do the work—but weaponless. Under-resourced, with phantom engagement, informed consensus in the public interest is far from guaranteed. We operate without the massive stones of corporate funding, high-end lobby groups, or viral algorithms.
Modern media is the giant. Its strength is scale. Its weakness is lack of soul—often aimless, drifting wherever profit or outrage leads.
Modern digital platforms lack town-square accountability. Community media provides a space where creators are also neighbors, creating a natural check on misinformation through shared local reality. One is driven by algorithms, engagement metrics, and speed (which invites misinformation). Community media is driven by the public interest—giving voice to the local collective rather than broadcasting unverified data globally.
To paraphrase Alice’s Cheshire Cat: “If you have no goal, any path will get you there.” George Harrison imprinted this on me with his 1970 song “Any Road”: If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.
In the original Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865), Lewis Carroll wrote it this way:
Alice: “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
The Cat: “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.”
Alice: “I don’t much care where—”
The Cat: “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.“
Community media builds its aim through civic literacy. We’re tossing pebbles with social media so the community can reflect on democracy—why they’re standing on shoulders, and what they’re standing for.
“Standing on the shoulders of giants” isn’t about having it easy. It’s about realizing that others stood in that same aimless, rock-less position before—and still managed to move the needle.
In a space where misinformation is the giant, how does your community find its stone? Through the stories of local people? Through historical context? Both?
