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![Left: Matthew J. Simpson, African American Business Development Manager with the State of Illinois; Right: Danville Alderwoman Tricia Teague, founder of The Trep School](/images/uploads/_small/A36EEF57-0974-49C1-B109-3E3230FDC889.jpg)
A Dialogue about starting and sustaining a Black business
Listen to Dialogue: Saturdays at 11 am and Tuesdays at 7 pm on FM 101.1 and FM 90.9 HD2 Illinois Soul. Or tune in on Wednesdays at 7 pm on AM 580.
![Top row: children in Danville schools, former Evanston alderman Robin Rue Simmons. Bottom row: Dr. Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum, Roger Cooper](/images/uploads/_small/Dialogue2024_EP3_1.jpg)
A Dialogue about literacy rates, reparations, Rantoul police training, ‘walking with the ancestors’, and a pioneering Black classical music host
Saturday mornings at 11 and Tuesdays at 7 pm, we’re bringing you interviews, in-depth stories and events connected to Black communities in Central Illinois.
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Prairie Fire: Episode 9 - February 2024
In celebration of Black History Month, we sit down with Gerald "Candy" Foster, one of the most recognizable names in R&B and blues classics in central Illinois and visit some notable stops on the Underground Railroad in southern Illinois with historian Eric Robinson. We also share a bit about a new initiative here at Illinois Public Media to amplify black voices: Illinois Soul.
![IPM News Director Reginald Hardwick interviews Urbana Police Chief Larry D. Boone for Illinois Soul's new public affairs program, Dialogue.](/images/uploads/_small/DSC001682.jpg)
The state of Black media in Illinois
Is there a role for Black media in 2024 when so much of Black culture and representation is omnipresesent in mainstream media?