In-person: Q&A with playwright Jeff Stetson, author of “The Meeting.”

Admission is free. No advance reservations. Your seat will be assigned to you when you pick up your ticket at the box office. Seats are assigned on a first come, first served basis. The box office opens one hour before the event.

City Desk: “Malcolm X”

U.S., 3/17/1963

In this local public affairs program produced on color videotape, civil rights activist Malcolm X fields questions from a panel of white journalists and explicates the meaning of the “X” in his name. The broadcast illuminates a vital period in Malcolm X’s trajectory: in 1963, the leader began a collaboration on his highly influential autobiography with author Alex Haley and, by year’s end, became embroiled in a transformative separation from the Nation of Islam.

DCP, color, 27 min. Production: WMAQ-TV. Guest: Malcolm X. Moderator: Jim Hurlbut. Panel: Floyd Kalber, Charles McCuen, Len O'Connor. Use courtesy of NBC 5 Chicago.
 

American Playhouse: “The Meeting”

U.S., 5/3/1989

Director Bill Duke (The Killing Floor) helms Jeff Stetson’s  powerful adaptation of his acclaimed stage play that imagines a clandestine meeting between Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Jason Bernard) and Malcolm X (Dick Anthony Williams). Secluded in a claustrophobic Harlem hotel room in 1965, the two civil rights activists and ministers debate their divergent philosophies with fire and a weary camaraderie — while right outside their door, deadly forces surveil and plot in the shadows.

DCP, color, 70 min. KCET. Production: KCET in association with Hillard Elkins Entertainment, Yagya Productions, and Jeff Stetson. Executive Producer: Hillard Elkins. Producer: Rick Franklin. Director: Bill Duke. Writer: Jeff Stetson. With: Dick Anthony Williams, Jason Bernard, Paul Benjamin. Use courtesy of PBS SoCal. Special thanks to Gerry Bryant.

—John H. Mitchell Television Curator Mark Quigley