The Georgetown County Library is excited to host new series of programs beginning next month that will explore and celebrate the profound enrichment of American life through African American cultural experiences. Called “Shared Traditions,” the series will have a particular emphasis on South Carolina and Lowcountry contributions. The series will run through May 21.
Shared Traditions will feature an array of presenters and performers sharing Gullah heritage, Black Southern musical traditions and stories about significant figures and episodes from African-American history. Programs will take place in the Georgetown Library’s Moody Auditorium. Presentations and performances are scheduled for Wednesdays at 4:00 p.m., beginning Feb. 12. The lone exception is a performance by Bright Star Touring Theatre, which will take place Feb. 26 at 7 p.m.
All programs are free and open to the public. This series is made possible by a $30,000 Library Services and Technology Act grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services administered by the S.C. State Library.
The series schedule is as follows:
• Feb. 12: Author, performing artist and cultural interpreter Ron Daise will engage participants in a scripted exchange about his new historical novel, ”Raptors in the Ricelands.” The story is set in a 21st century fictional community in Georgetown. Through readings of book excerpts, songs, poetry and information about his creative process, Daise will inform about Gullah-Geechee history, culture and legacy.
• Feb. 19: The Plantation Singers of Charleston will deliver a live concert of Lowcountry spirituals. Formed in 1996, they are a professional a cappella singing group renowned locally, nationally and internationally for their performing of the music of the Lowcountry.
• Feb. 26: Bright Star Touring Theatre will offer a theatrical performance that is equally educational and entertaining. “Freedom Songs: The Music of Black History” follows the compelling story of the role that music played in the history of Black Americans, from the work songs of the fields of people who were enslaved, to ragtime, jazz, R&B, and the spirituals of the Civil Rights movement. Meet incredible Americans like Scott Joplin, Billie Holiday, Little Richard and more in a tale that is sure to intrigue audiences of all ages (note this is the one show that deviates from the 4 p.m. timeframe).
• March 12: The Charlton Singleton Trio will play a spirited jazz concert. An Awendaw native, Singleton began his musical studies at age 3 on the piano and would then study organ, violin, cello and trumpet. As the leader of his own ensembles, he has performed across the world and is a founding member of Ranky Tanky, a Grammy Award-winning quintet that interprets the sounds of Gullah. Singleton has performed with some of the most talented entertainers in the world, including Lisa Fischer, Bobby McFerrin, Ruby Dee, Darius Rucker and Cyrus Chestnut, and was the recipient of the 2021 South Carolina Governor’s Award, the highest honor for the arts in the state.
• March 19: Natalie Daise will put on her inspired and inspiring one-person show, “Becoming Harriet Tubman.” The performance tells the incredible story of Tubman’s life, from her time as an enslaved child, to her role as a leader in the abolitionist movement. Daise plays five characters, including Harriet herself, her first mistress and a field hand who injured Tubman.
• April 16: Glenis Redmond, the First Poet Laureate of Greenville, will celebrate the life and work of David Drake, known as Dave the Potter. Born into enslavement in South Carolina, Drake produced hundreds of works of pottery, often inscribing these with his original poems. An award-winning poet who has written works in Drake’s honor, Redmond will present the artistic legacy of one of the most well-known Black potters, and one of the most innovative and underappreciated enslaved poets, of the nineteenth century.
• April 23: J. Drew Lanham, Ph.D., will talk about African-Americans’ role in natural resources conservation. Raised in Edgefield, Lanham is an author, poet and wildlife biologist who was honored in 2022 with a MacArthur Fellowship (i.e., the “genius grant”) for his work “combining conservation science with personal, historical and cultural narratives of nature.” Alumni Distinguished Professor at Clemson University, he researches songbird ecology. Among his books is the award-winning memoir, “The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature.”
• April 30: Kelvin A. Waites Jr. will share formative experiences that he recorded in his recent memoir, “Favored: From Last to First.” Waites retired as the first African-American Police Chief at the Georgetown Police Department and currently serves as the Community Engagement Director for the City of Myrtle Beach.
“Shared Traditions” concludes with three intriguing programs in May led by significant scholars and authors with expertise in African diasporic anthropology, Civil Rights history and African-American genealogy.
• May 7: Gillian Richards-Greaves, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Anthropology at Coastal Carolina University, will discuss her research into shared traditions between Africa and South Carolina’s Gullah people.
• May 14: Millicent E. Brown, Ph. D., will talk about her personal role at the center of the struggle to end racial segregation in South Carolina’s public school system, drawn from her memoir, “Another Sojourner Looking for Truth.”
• May 21: Closing out the series . Kameelah L. Martin, Ph. D., Professor of African American Studies at the College of Charleston, will discuss the process of tracing African-American genealogies and recording family histories.