Ma Rainey's Mic Drop

Ma Rainey's Mic Drop

Up next

The First Robot

March 29th, 1923. A new play opens in Berlin, and quietly changes the future. Onstage are workers who never tire, never complain, and never stop. They’re faster, stronger, and more efficient than humans in every way. They’re called robots. A sci-fi play born out of war and indust ...  Show more

HTW Live: Busting the Myths of Irish Immigration — Recorded at the Tenement Museum

March 18, 1879. A crowd gathers around an indoor track in Brooklyn, NY, as an Irish immigrant named Bartholomew O’Donnell attempts a strange feat: walking 80 miles in 26 hours. Newspapers claim he’s eighty years old. Lap after lap, he circles the track: smoking a pipe, sipping ho ...  Show more

Recommended Episodes

Disappearing Acts: Marsha "Mudd" Ferber
Womanica

Marsha “Mudd” Ferber (1941-unknown) was a hippie, a back-to-the-lander, a revolutionary, and an outlaw. She was also the owner of The Underground Railroad, an alternative music haven in Morgantown, West Virginia that hosted the likes of The Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Grateful ...  Show more

Prodigies: Hazel Scott
Womanica

Hazel Scott (1920-1981) was a musical genius who advocated for equal rights in the entertainment industry. She dazzled audiences with her jazz renditions of the likes of Chopin and Bach while bucking racial stereotypes and constraints to become one of the first Black women to hos ...  Show more

Comediennes: Minne Pearl
Womanica

Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon (1912-1996) was better known by her alter ego, Minnie Pearl — a radio, television, and stage personality known as the queen of country comedy. She performed for fifty years in her trademark thrift store dresses and straw hat as a member of The Grand Ol ...  Show more

Trendsetters: Donna Summer
Womanica

Donna Summer (1948 - 2012) was a musician who provided the soundtrack for America’s disco era. Her breathy voice and sensual music gave her the title of the queen of disco, but Donna wasn’t a one-genre diva – she cranked out hits in rock, R&B, hip hop, and gospel over the span of ...  Show more