What to Watch While Social Distancing:
#PayItForward Live Tonight & More

Self-isolation and social distancing can mean turning to video-streaming for entertainment and even education.  Next time you, your family and friends, or the kids in your life are looking for something to watch we have suggestions - starting tonight.

First, is free entertainment provided by Verizon as part of a partnership with LISC to provide emergency relief for small businesses. Watch Dave Matthews Band kick off this concert series tonight and stay tuned for new artists each week. 

We also want to suggest two deeply affecting programs that entertain, but also offer insights or inspiration about housing, income inequality, and racial segregation - East Lake Meadows: A Public Housing Story and Segregated by Design. 

Find more on each of these below.

Pay It Forward Live:  Dave Matthews Band (Livestream)
TONIGHT at 8 pm ET

LISC has teamed up with Verizon to connect the biggest names in entertainment with small businesses around the country.  Tonight Verizon will launch Pay it Forward Live, a weekly streaming entertainment series in support of small businesses affected by COVID-19.  Verizon has invested $2.5 million with LISC to begin offering critical relief and resiliency-building support to small businesses facing immediate financial threats because of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Watch and tag your favorite local businesses on twitter to unlock up to $2.5 million of additional support. 

Dave Matthews Bank will kick off the series TONIGHT, March 26 at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT.  Tune in to the Livestream on Twitter @verizon and on Yahoo Entertainment.  You can get all of the details here.  LISC expects to start taking grant applications as early as next week.  Interested businesses can sign up here to receive updates and the application for the Verizon Small Business Recovery Fund when it becomes available.

#PayitForwardLive

East Lake Meadows:  A Public Housing Story (PBS)

On Tuesday, PBS released the Ken Burns documentary “East Lake Meadows: A Public Housing Story,” which examines the history of public housing through the lens of a community in Atlanta.  Watch the trailer here.  WGBH is showing the film 5 more times between March 27 and March 30. Check your local listings and tune in.

Segregated by Design (Free Online)

‘Segregated By Design’ is an animated short film that serves up the forgotten history of how our federal, state and local governments unconstitutionally segregated every major metropolitan area in America through law and policy.  It is visually stunning, entertaining, and only 17-minutes. That's less time than you spent checking your social media and less time than your kids spent on tik-tok before breakfast.  You can stream it free online anytime.

Let LISC Boston know what you thought of these programs and share your own viewing recommendations (preferably entertaining, but with some kind of community, equity or development relevance), via social media. Links to our social media accounts are below.

LISC Boston's team is working remotely, but we are just an email or phone call away. We can be reached via our contact information listed here.