PBS Honors Hispanic Heritage Mon with the 9 ANNUAL HISPANIC HERITAGE AWARDS, WILLIE VELASQUEZ: YOUR VOTE IS YOUR VOICE And More

Lin-Manuel Miranda. Courtesy of Joseph Sinnott/ 2016 WNET

Lin-Manuel Miranda Hosts This Year's PBS ARTS FALL FESTIVAL Beginning With HAMILTON'S AMERICA on October 21

ARLINGTON, VA - September 15, 2016 - In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, PBS today announced programs that commemorate the experiences, culture and contributions of Hispanic Americans to the United States.

Highlights of this year's lineup include the previously announced October 21 premiere of HAMILTON'S AMERICA from GREAT PERFORMANCES featuring Lin-Manuel Miranda-who also hosts the PBS Arts Fall Festival-and the 29th annual HISPANIC HERITAGE AWARDS, highlighting the country's highest tribute to Latinos by Latinos. The program will feature top Latino performers and personalities paying tribute to the honorees, who this year include Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, author Junot D az and actress and singer Angelica Maria, among others. The program airs Friday, September 30, 2016 at 10:00 p.m. ET.

PBS is proud to showcase diverse faces, viewpoints and talents both in front of and behind the camera, said Beth Hoppe, Chief Programming Executive and General Manager, General Audience Programming. From the incomparable Lin-Manuel Miranda, who has changed the face of Broadway, to Willie Velasquez, who empowered millions of Latinos and other minorities to engage in the political process, to the thoughtful reporting by Maria Hinojosa, this month, and year-round, we celebrate the unique contributions of work by and for Latino audiences.

On October 3, PBS presents WILLIE VELASQUEZ: YOUR VOTE IS YOUR VOICE, a documentary about the charismatic pioneering activist whose rallying cry, su voto es su voz (your vote is your voice), started a grassroots movement that transformed the nation's political landscape and paved the way for the growing power of the Latino vote.

Megastar Lin-Manuel Miranda, the Tony and Grammy-winning creator of the Broadway phenomenon Hamilton, is both the host of the sixth season of the PBS ARTS FALL FESTIVAL and the featured performer in the first festival presentation, HAMILTON'S AMERICA from GREAT PERFORMANCES. The film looks at the creative process during the three years leading up to the Broadway opening of the record-breaking musical, winner of 11 Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize. HAMILTON'S AMERICA airs Friday, October 21.

The eighth season of ART IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, which features exceptional artists working in important hubs of contemporary art today, travels to Mexico City on September 16. Executive produced by Eve Moros Ortega, the program provides unparalleled access to four innovative artists, revealing how they engage with the places where they live and work and how art allows viewers to see the world in new ways.

Hispanic Heritage Month Digital Resources on PBS.org

PBS.org features a Hispanic Heritage Month Online Collection to connect viewers to new programs and to films and digital features that remain on the site year-round, highlighting the stories, people, history and culture of Hispanic Americans. Here, viewers can also watch Latino Public Broadcasting's (LPB) GoldStar - People's Choice winner of the PBS Online Film Festival and other LPB shows available for online viewing.

During September, viewers and fans can follow #MiHistoria to join in the celebration of Latino culture by contributing memories, photos and videos via their favorite social networks. Each week a new theme will invite viewers to celebrate the people, ideas, and moments in Latino history that are important to them. All memories using the hashtag #MiHistoria (and tag @PBS) will be aggregated onto PBS.org and shared across PBS platforms to help celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. Working closely with Latino Public Broadcasting, WORLD Channel and partners from American Documentary, the campaign aspires to educate and excite audiences about Latino identity and culture, and connects them to relevant programs in public media.

Hispanic Heritage Month for PBS KIDS and Education

This fall, PBS KIDS will unveil a Spanish language option for both the PBS KIDS ScratchJr and Ready Jet Go! Space Explorer apps, allowing users to toggle between English and Spanish within the app experience. Developed in collaboration with the MIT Media Lab and Tufts University's DevTech Research Group PBS KIDS, ScratchJr helps children ages 5-8 learn core coding concepts as they create their own interactive stories and games using PBS KIDS characters. The Ready Jet Go! Space Explorer app, based on the popular series of the same name, allows kids to go on a galactic journey with Jet and his friends and learn about planets, stars and constellations.

PBS LearningMedia makes it easy for teachers to integrate Hispanic Heritage Month into their lessons with a trove of curriculum-aligned videos, activities, and interactive resources. Teachers can use this content to help students deepen their awareness of Hispanic American and Latino artists, educators, icons, and everyday people while also building a foundational understanding of the Spanish language. Featured resources in PBS LearningMedia include, All About the Holidays: Hispanic Heritage Month, America By the Numbers, Latino Americans, The Supplemental Spanish Collection; and on iTunes, the Beginning Spanish iBook. Later this fall, teachers will also be able to access new lesson plans based on Hamilton's America. Visit pbslearningmedia.org to explore more.

Listed alphabetically below are Hispanic Heritage Month programs (check local listings):

AMERICA BY THE NUMBERS The New Deciders

Maria Hinojosa hosts this 2016 election special about power and politics, demographics and democracy, showing how Asian-American, black millennial, Arab-American and Latino evangelical voters are exerting their growing strength and influence

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