The following grants were awarded by SC Humanities in fiscal year 2019 (November 1, 2018 – October 31, 2019).
Major Grants
Sponsoring Organization: Morris Center for Lowcountry Heritage
Project Title: Beyond the Oaks: Untold Stories of Lowcountry Plantations
Project Director: Kayleigh Vaughn
Awarded: $5,000; Cost-share: $18,785
The Morris Center for Lowcountry Heritage will create and install their original 2019 – 2020 exhibit titled “Beyond the Oaks: Untold Stories of Lowcountry Plantations,” which will urge visitors to think critically about the various perspectives of plantation life in the Lowcountry of South Carolina and their lasting impact. The exhibit will be on display from May 4, 2019 – April 25, 2020. They also plan to offer a series of programs and lectures during the time the exhibit is on display and to offer docent-guided tours of the exhibit for a nominal fee.
Sponsoring Organization: Santa Elena Foundation
Project Title: Lost Century Shipwreck Symposium and Scholars Conference
Project Director: Chris Allen
Awarded: $6,000; Cost-share: $11,270
The Santa Elena Foundation will present an educational symposium on “Shipwrecks of America’s Lost Century” in Beaufort from April 5 – 6, 2019. The symposium will include lectures, video presentations, discussions, and Q&A periods covering European activity on America’s southeast coast during the 16th century, including the discovery of ten Spanish and French active shipwreck archaeology projects. A full-scale, functioning replica of the Santa Maria will be in Beaufort during the conference.
Sponsoring Organization: Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, College of Charleston
Project Title: Katrina Andry: Discussing Gentrification in Charleston
Project Director: Bryan Granger
Awarded: $5,000; Cost-share: $24,060
The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston will present an exhibit of work by Katrina Andry, a multi-disciplinary artist who focuses on printmaking, from August 23 – December 7, 2019. The exhibit will explore the social construction of stereotypes associated with African Americans and gentrification in the Charleston community. Collateral events such as educational workshops, panel discussions, and other programs will take place during the exhibit’s tenure and will be designed to spur discussion about problems facing the Charleston area.
Sponsoring Organization: The Poetry Society of South Carolina
Project Title: Poetry at McLeod
Project Director: Katherine Williams
Awarded: $6,600; Cost-share: $22,450
The Poetry Society of South Carolina, in partnership with James Island Arts and the Charleston County Parks & Recreation Commission, will present a four-part poetry series at McLeod Plantation Historic Site from April – October 2019. The four featured African American poets will present perspectives on the experience and legacy of enslavement fundamental to James Island history and culture. Each reading will be followed by a Q&A and a reception, and a free writing workshop at James Island Town Hall will take place the next day. The featured poets are Delana Dameron, Roger Reeves, Tyree Daye, and Glenis Redmond. They expect 25-50 people to attend each program.
Sponsoring Organization: University of South Carolina
Project Title: The Barnwell Archaeological Research Project
Project Director: Dr. Kimberly Cavanagh
Awarded: $5,000; Cost-share: $8,987
The University of South Carolina Beaufort will help coordinate an archival research and archaeology project about the Barnwell Site tabby structure on Hilton Head Island. The goals of the project are to 1) determine the age and use of the tabby ruins, which have never been fully researched or understood before and 2) develop an educational outreach program based on the site by hosting public outreach events and developing instructional materials to educate visitors to the site. Excavations will take place at the site from January – May 2019, and Dr. Eric Plaag will conduct historical and archival research about the site. Public programs will include student field trips to the site to observe the excavations; a Public Outreach Day on April 13, 2019 in partnership with SC Archaeological Public Outreach Division and SC Department of Natural Resources; and the development of interpretive signage to display at the site.
Sponsoring Organization: Gibbes Museum of Art
Project Title: Rauschenberg in Charleston
Project Director: Sara Arnold
Awarded: $6,400; Cost-share: $41,200
The Gibbes Museum of Art requests grant funds to support the presentation of the exhibit Rauschenberg + Charleston from September 6, 2019 – January 5, 2020. The exhibit will present iconic American artist Robert Rauschenberg’s Charleston photographs from 1980 alongside examples of these images re-contextualized by the artist in later works. The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue featuring new scholarship on this body of work and Rauschenberg’s relationship to Charleston.
Sponsoring Organization: Historic Columbia
Project Title: Connecting Communities Through History – SC Statehouse Monuments
Project Director: John Sherrer
Awarded: $7,946; Cost-share: $16,250
Historic Columbia will implement a new phase of their Connecting Communities through History project that will document and provide access to the history of the monuments on the grounds of the SC State House. Project scholars will create an inventory with a database of resources and narratives about each monument. That research will form the basis for public programming including a web-based tour on the Historic Columbia website; a series of guided tours led by scholars and Historic Columbia staff that will take place four times per month from September – December 2019; and a series of at least four roundtable discussions that explore the past and future of these monuments in January and February 2020. The web-based tours will be maintained indefinitely, and the guided tours will continue to be offered in the future based on interest.
Sponsoring Organization: Oasis Total Development
Project Title: Information Wanted
Project Director: Pamela Bailey
Awarded: $8,000; Cost-share: $392,000
Information Wanted is a multi-faceted documentary project about local and inter-state migration of American-born enslaved people from the Pee Dee region of South Carolina. The project will also include the creation of an interactive website and outreach components including facilitated community discussion panels, film screenings, and the creation of a discussion guide. The expected completion date is June 2020. The expectation is that the 90-minue documentary will air on public television.
Sponsoring Organization: Women’s Rights and Empowerment Network
Project Title: Columbia City of Women
Project Director: Megan Plassmeyer
Awarded: $2,000; Cost-share: $14,000
The Women’s Rights and Empowerment Network will present the “Columbia City of Women” project that will recognize notable women from the Midlands through maps, websites, tours, and facilitated community dialogue. With the support of grant funds, they anticipate developing a community engagement strategy, developing a discussion guide, facilitating 8 listening sessions in diverse areas of Columbia, recording several stories of Columbia women whose names will be added to the map, and presenting three educational programs in the community to recognize these first women identified.
Sponsoring Organization: Center for Civil Rights History and Research, University of South Carolina
Project Title: Justice for All: South Carolina and the American Civil Rights Movement (Traveling Exhibit)
Project Director: Bobby Donaldson
Awarded: $8,000; Cost-share: $60,496
The Center for Civil Rights History and Research at the University of South Carolina will create a traveling exhibit based on the archival exhibit “Justice for All: South Carolina and the American Civil Rights Movement” that was on display at the Hollings Special Collections Library from February – August 2019. The traveling exhibit will include interpretive panels; video, audio, and interactive elements; reproductions and images of items in University collections; artifacts; and supplemental K-12 teaching resources. They anticipate the exhibit to travel for two years, reaching at least eight local museums and public libraries around the state.
Sponsoring Organization: Spartanburg Philharmonic
Project Title: Discovering the Banjo
Project Director: Dr. Peter B. Kay
Awarded: $7,000; Cost-share: $116,360
The Spartanburg Philharmonic will present a series of outreach programs, including film screenings and a teaching artist residency, to accompany two performances by noted banjo performers Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn that are part of their regular season and their Bluegrass Spartanburg program. Throughout the month of January 2020, the Spartanburg Philharmonic will partner with the Spartanburg County Public Library and the Carolina Music Museum in Greenville to present two free public screenings of the film “Throw Down Your Heart,” a feature-length documentary that shares Fleck’s journey through Africa to trace the banjo’s origins. The screenings will include introductions by humanities scholars and moderated discussions. Additionally, there will be two outreach programs to students: a teaching artist residency at Cleveland Academy of Leadership in Spartanburg and an essay contest and mini masterclass for students with the Young Appalachian Musicians (YAM) program in Pickens County. The two public performances are scheduled for January 31 and February 1, 2020.
Sponsoring Organization: Costal Carolina University
Project Title: Gullah Geechee Community Day
Project Director: Alli Crandell
Awarded: $8,000 Cost-share: $8,400
Coastal Carolina University in partnership with the City of Conway will present Gullah Geechee Community Day on March 7, 2020. The cultural heritage event will include free programs across the city such as presentations, vendors, and cultural performances. There will be several programming themes: Healthy and Historic Cooking Demonstrations, Property Rights and Activism Programming, History and Culture Project Presentations, and a History Harvest to gather local community stories and artifacts. The Gullah Geechee Community Day has been scheduled to coincide with the last day of the second annual International Gullah Geechee and African Diaspora conference at Coastal. The goal of the project is to foster a dialogue between community members, organizations, and initiatives as to how to preserve and perpetuate Gullah Geechee culture and communities in the region.
Sponsoring Organization: Blythewood Historical Society and Museum
Project Title: Exhibits, Phase II
Project Director: Staci Richey
Awarded: $4,000; Cost-share: $4,000
The Blythewood Historical Society and Museum will implement the second phase of a major overhaul of the museum. They will create exhibits covering topics of Blythewood history, such as commerce, education, religion, medicine, transportation, and agriculture. They expect the new exhibits to be installed by May 2020, and they will host a grand reopening at that time. The exhibits will consist of panels, displays, and possibly some interactive components, like a touch screen.
Sponsoring Organization: The ETV Endowment of South Carolina
Project Title: Gullah Roots: Back to Sierra Leone
Project Director: Betsy Newman
Awarded: $8,000 Cost-share: $83,537
South Carolina Educational Television will create a multi-platform project titled Gullah Roots: Back to Sierra Leone that will include a 30-minute broadcast program, an interactive website, and a collection of assets for teachers and students. Gullah Roots: Back to Sierra Leone will follow thirty members of the South Carolina Gullah community as they travel to Sierra Leone on a cultural heritage journey. The trip to Sierra Leone will take place in December 2019 – January 2020, and three project personnel from SCETV will travel with the members of the SC Gullah community to film their interactions and experiences. The half-hour documentary will be scheduled for broadcast on SCETV in 2020 and will be offered nationally to PBS stations through APT or NETA.
Sponsoring Organization: Clemson Humanities Hub
Project Title: Preservation Across the Disciplines, 2019-2020 Clemson Humanities Hub
Project Director: Lee Morrissey
Awarded: $6,000; Cost-share: $12,097
The Clemson Humanities Hub will present a series of programs during the 2019-2020 academic year that focus on the theme “Preservation” from a variety of angles, including cultural preservation, textual preservation, biological preservation, preservation of history and the arts, and more. Speakers will include authors John Lane, Drew Lanham, Matthew Desmond (Pulitzer Prize Winner), Nikky Finney, and Christina Sharpe; Joy Bevins, Curator of the International African American Museum in Charleston; David Houston, former Curatorial Director of the Chrystal Bridges Museum in Arkansas; possibly Russel Townsend of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee; and possibly Gordon Hunter, editor of the American Literary Review. Events in the series will take place both on campus and around Pickens County through strategic partnerships with groups like Keowee Key and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.
Sponsoring Organization: SC Archives and History Foundation
Project Title: “To preserve us from utter ruine”: The Revolution of 1719
Project Director: Patrick McCawley
Awarded: $5,370; Cost-share: $6,782.50
The SC Department of Archives will present an original exhibit titled “To preserve us from utter ruine”: The Revolution of 1719 from December 2019 through December 2020. December 2019 is the 300th anniversary of this little-known revolution that overthrew proprietary rule and made South Carolina a British royal colony. The exhibit will include manuscript acts of the period, period maps, pamphlets, and documents of the revolutionary convention to tell the story of this revolution and its impact on the state in an accessible way. They will also launch a virtual exhibit in February 2020, and a grand opening featuring the humanities scholar will take place in December.
Sponsoring Organization: Penn Center, Inc.
Project Title: Penn Center’s Heritage Days Celebration and Symposium: Reaching Back and Looking Forward: Black Judges and Lawyers Fighting for Civil Rights and Social Justice
Project Director: Victoria Smalls
Awarded: $5,000
Cost-share: $8,000
Penn Center will host its 37th Heritage Days Celebration on November 7 – 9, 2019. On Friday, November 8, they will present a special educational symposium titled “Reaching Back and Looking Forward: Black Judges and Lawyers Fighting for Civil Rights and Social Justice.” The symposium will include three one-hour panel sessions about how black judges and lawyers brought about change in civil rights and social justice for African Americans. Topics for the sessions include the impact of three HBCU law schools; the contributions of various individuals who changed the landscape; and some of the most challenging issues of today that organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center address. Potential featured speakers include Danielle Holley-Walker, Judge Elaine Mercia O’Neal, Brian Hicks, Maureen Costello, Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Judge Joseph McDomick; Ernest “Chip” Finney; and I.S. Leevy Johnson. There is a registration fee of $25/person for the symposium.
Mini and Planning Grants
Sponsoring Organization: Ballet Spartanburg
Project Title: African Dance Community Outreach Class
Project Director: Susan Woodham
Awarded: $1,868; cost-share: $1,885
Ballet Spartanburg will offer free weekly African dance classes open to the community from January 1 – June 25, 2019 at the Center for Dance Education at the Chapman Cultural Center. The classes will be led by African dance instructor Angela Alderson, who will also provide cultural context about the history, origin, and traditional uses of the dance. An African drummer will provide music for each class. This opportunity will be widely promoted through social media, website, fliers around the community, and e-blast to Spartanburg School Districts.
Sponsoring Organization: University of South Carolina Beaufort
Project Title: Reconstructing Freedom: African American History Month at USCB
Project Director: Najmah Thomas
Awarded: $2,000; cost-share: $2,000
The University of South Carolina Beaufort will present programming promoting cross-cultural awareness on campus and in the community during February 2019. Proposed programs include an Opening Ceremony with a Reconstruction Era art exhibit; a documentary about the Orangeburg Massacre with a discussion led by scholar Jack Bass; panel discussions on the topic of “Reconstructing Freedom”; and more.
Sponsoring Organization: Annex Dance Company
Project Title: Moments Captured
Project Director: Kristin Alexander
Awarded: $1,000; cost-share: $2,487
“Moments Captured” will be an interdisciplinary creative performance in response to the exhibit Southbound: Photographs of and about the New South that is currently on display at Waterfront Gallery and at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston. The event will be a two-hour long performance including dance, music, spoken-word poetry, and dialogue between the audience and the performers. It is scheduled for February 3, 2019.
Sponsoring Organization: Greenville County Library System
Project Title: Rhythms and Rhymes: A Music and Poetry Series
Project Director: Mary Frances Shelato
Awarded: $775; cost-share: $2,851
The Greenville County Library will present a series of three public programs based on poetry and music in April 2019 (National Poetry Month). The first program will feature local musical group Valentine Wolfe performing original music featuring the poetry of Emily Dickinson. The second program will feature local poet Martha Mims with the Greenville Jazz Collective in a program emphasizing the interplay between the music of poetry and the language of music. Finally, Dr. John Akers will present a program about Carl Sandburg’s love of the Spanish classical guitar.
Sponsoring Organization: Southern Guitar Festival
Project Title: East Meets West: Guitar Education in America and Abroad
Project Director: Marina Alexandra
Awarded: $1,000; cost-share: $2,300
The Southern Guitar Festival will present two public lecture-performances at the 2019 event on Saturday, June 8 in Columbia. One presentation will feature composer Tariel Iberi from the Republic of Georgia speaking about the history of Georgian music and its folk origins. A second presentation will feature the Beijing Guitar Duo speaking about the history of “Music Education in China.” Both programs will be free and open to the public.
Sponsoring Organization: SC Archives and History Foundation
Project Title: South Carolina and the American Revolution
Project Director: Donna Foster
Awarded: $1,000; Cost-share: $6,435
The SC Archives and History Foundation will present a symposium on the American Revolution, and specifically on the role of South Carolina in the war, on Saturday, October 5, 2019. The one-day program will include presentations by authors, researchers, and professors intermixed with opportunities for discussion and one-to-one interaction. Featured presenters include Peggy Pickett, John Beakes, Dr. James Piecuch, Dr. Andrew O’Shaughnessy, and John Buchanan. Registration for the conference is $50 early, $65 regular, and $25 student.
Sponsoring Organization: Coastal Carolina University
Project Title: Museum Programming for the Visually Impaired in South Carolina
Project Director: Carolyn Dillian and M. Katie Clary
Awarded: $2,000; Cost-share: $2,000
Coastal Carolina University in partnership with Horry County Museum will create an accessible museum exhibit for individuals with visual and sensory impairments. The exhibit will highlight physical objects from South Carolina prehistory and history of the Myrtle Beach area through 3-D printed artifacts that can be touched and interpretive text in audio and braille formats. Coastal Carolina University students will assist with the scanning, printing, and exhibit narration, and the exhibit creation will coincide with the SC Federation of Museums annual conference in Conway on March 20-22, 2019, so that a large number of museum professionals can see the program in progress. The grand opening of the exhibit will be April 30, and it will be open to the public through August 15, 2019.
Sponsoring Organization: University of South Carolina – Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders
Project Title: Play On Words: An Aphasic Drama Group
Project Director: Dirk Den Ouden
Awarded: $1,200; Cost-share: $2,000
The University of South Carolina will host a drama class for people in the Columbia area suffering from aphasia, a disorder of language caused by brain damage (often from a stroke). They propose that participation in a community performance can help boost self-confidence and perhaps improve language abilities for people suffering from this condition. The drama group will meet weekly from January – May 2019, with the program culminating in a performance of an original piece generated by the group. The performance will be followed by a discussion of the role of artistic performance in quality of life of people with disabilities, particularly from the perspective of art theory and art criticism.
Sponsoring Organization: Chapman Cultural Center
Project Title: A Mosaic Portrait of Spartanburg
Project Director: Erik Kocher
Awarded: $1,000; Cost-share: $9,115
The Chapman Cultural Center will present an interactive artistic project that will culminate in an exhibit titled “A Mosaic Portrait of Spartanburg.” The Project Director and two artists-in-residence (Marsia Adesman and Ambrin Ling) will employ a variety of ways to engage with Spartanburg County residents and find out how they experience and understand the concept of “home” in their everyday lives. The question will be posed via social media outlets, during open studio hours, and during excursions into neighborhoods and at community events. The artists will create paintings documenting some of the responses about “home,” and the discussions and process will be documented to create a video defining the outcomes of the project. The exhibit and video will premiere in June 2019 at the Chapman Cultural Center.
Sponsoring Organization: Community Foundation of the Lowcountry
Project Title: Fa Da Chillin Reconstruction Youth Choir
Project Director: Victoria A. Smalls
Awarded: $2,000; Cost-share: $4,600
The Community Foundation of the Lowcountry will act as the sponsoring organization for an interdisciplinary project that will train youth from moderate to low-income neighborhoods in Northern Beaufort County to learn about the Reconstruction Era and relay this knowledge to their peers and community through artistic and historical interpretations of music, movement, and spoken word. The “Fa Da Chillin Reconstruction Youth Choir” will be made up of approximately 20 diverse students, ages 12 – 18, who will be selected through an audition process in March – April 2019. The selected choir members will be trained through educational workshops with scholars and professionals about Reconstruction Era history, music history, voice performance, and more. They will then perform in the community at events such as the Gullah Festival, Juneteenth Celebration, MOJA Arts Festival, etc., as well as at churches and schools through May 2020.
Sponsoring Organization: South Carolina Archaeology Public Outreach Division
Project Title: Public Outreach Days at the Barnwell Site
Project Director: E. Shofner
Awarded: $1,000; Cost-share: $2,568
The Barnwell Site is an active archaeology site in Beaufort County on Hilton Head Island. The ongoing Barnwell Archaeological Research Project is a partnership between several organizations, including the SC Archaeology Public Outreach Division (SCAPOD) and the University of South Carolina Beaufort. SCAPOD will coordinate the public outreach components of the effort, including visits from school groups (approximately 200 students invited) and a Public Outreach Day for the general public on Saturday, April 13, 2019 that will include scholarly talks and tours.
Sponsoring Organization: Chhondeshi
Project Title: Bongotsov 2019: The Rhythm of Compassion
Project Director: Sourav Banerjee
Awarded: $1,200; Cost-share: $11,355
Chhondeshi is a Bengali cultural research group located in Irmo, SC whose mission is to share the literature, history, and music of Bengal through multi-cultural interactions. They will present the one-day public cultural festival “Bongotsov: The Rhythm of Compassion” on June 1 at the University of South Carolina. The event will go from 11:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m. and will include three main sections: a panel discussion and research presentations; song and dance performances; and an event with new music and dance composition and a competition. The event is free and open to the public.
Sponsoring Organization: Juneteenth Rock Hill Inc.
Project Title: Juneteenth Rock Hill Celebration
Project Director: Tamika Poag
Outright: $250; Cost-share: $22,455.70
Juneteenth Rock Hill Inc. will present their Juneteenth Rock Hill event on June 21 – 22, 2019. The event will start on Friday evening with a Food Truck Friday event with performances and vendors. On Saturday, June 22, the FreedomFest event is held on the grounds of Friendship College and Mt. Prospect Baptist Church and will include vendors, talent showcase, children’s games, and a storyteller. Newsletters that outline the history of Juneteenth are distributed throughout the event. The Juneteenth programming is free and open to the public.
Sponsoring Organization: University of South Carolina
Project Title: USCB & SCETV’s By The River: Season 2 Author Honorariums
Project Director: Dr. Caroline E. Sawyer
Awarded: $2,000; Cost-share: $9,980
USC Beaufort and SCETV partner to create the interview-style show By the River that airs on ETVHD on Thursdays at 8:00 p.m. The show is largely produced by USC Beaufort Communication Studies students. They are preparing to film the second season of the show, which will feature authors from the Southeast and end with a Lowcountry Poet’s corner. Confirmed authors include Ron Rash, George Singleton, Nikki Finney, Lisa Anne Cullen, and Nathalie Dupree.
Sponsoring Organization: Colleton County Historical and Preservation Society
Project Title: What’s in the Basement
Project Director: Sarah E. Miller
Awarded: $1,750; Cost-share: $3,700
The Colleton County Historical and Preservation Society proposes creating a series of small rotating exhibits that will be curated from historic materials that are now stored in the basement of the Bedon-Lucas House. Some of these artifacts have never been displayed. One proposed theme for a mini exhibit is “Dining through the Decades,” featuring dishware. They anticipate each exhibit will be on display for two months, and they hope to have at least two exhibits (possibly three) on display in 2019.
Sponsoring Organization: Greenville Wordsmiths
Project Title: The Open Bus: A Drop-In Workshop Series
Project Director: Adrienne Burris
Awarded: $1,560; Cost-share: $1,980
The “Open Bus” is a monthly drop-in writing workshop for children sponsored by Greenville Wordsmiths. It will take place from August 2019 – May 2020 in a school bus that has been converted into a classroom called “the Wordmobile.” Each month, three or four workshops featuring different facilitators and writing forms will reach approximately 12 students per workshop. Monthly themes will include playwriting, humor writing and sketch comedy, songwriting, poetry in the digital age, writing a thriller, and food writing.
Sponsoring Organization: Wofford College
Project Title: Quilted Stories
Project Director: Dr. Amy Telligman
Awarded: $1,500; Cost-share: $3,780
Wofford College will present a quilt show in February and March 2020 in their Center for the Arts. “Quilted Stories” will feature quilts provided by faculty and staff (whether they are made by faculty/staff or are owned by faculty/staff and have historic or personal significance) and will be curated by noted quilt researcher and author, Laurel Horton. Horton will also help create a catalog for publication and will moderate a panel discussion with community partners on March 19, 2020.
Sponsoring Organization: Columbia Film Society – Nickelodeon Theatre
Project Title: The Rainbow Reel: Celebrating 30 Years of SC Pride
Project Director: Omme-Salma Rahemtullah
Awarded: $1,500; Cost-share: $2,000
The Nickelodeon Theatre will partner with South Carolina Pride to present a series of three films in September 2019 that will showcase the best in queer filmmaking over the past 30 years. The three featured films for “The Rainbow Reel” program are Paris is Burning (September 4), Brokeback Mountain (September 11), and Moonlight (September 18). Scholar-led community discussions will follow each film screening. The event will recognize the 30th anniversary of SC Pride as well as the 40th anniversary of The Nick.
Sponsoring Organization: Rose Hill Plantation State Historic Site
Project Title: Pop-Up Exhibit: Black Citizenship in the Age of Jim Crow
Project Director: Nathan Johnson
Awarded: $1,250; Cost-share: $1,350
Rose Hill Plantation State Historic Site in Union County will present the pop-up exhibit “Black Citizenship in the Age of Jim Crow” from August 31 – November 29, 2019. The exhibit was developed by the New York Historical Society with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and consists of eight text panels, along with lesson plans. Staff from the South Carolina State Park Service will develop an additional panel specific to Rose Hill Plantation that will also be displayed. After the two months on display at Rose Hill Plantation, the exhibit will be on display for a month at the Union County Tourism office. Two public programs will be presented in September 2019, a movie screening and a living history event.
Sponsoring Organization: Friends of the Kaminski House Museum
Project Title: Family Fun and Literacy Day at the Kaminski House Museum
Project Director: Kim Leatherwood
Awarded: $800; Cost-share: $3,000
The Kaminski House Museum in Georgetown will present their annual “Family Fun and Literacy Day” on Saturday, October 26. The event includes storytelling, readings, games, crafts, music, healthy snacks, and a pumpkin patch. Each participating child leaves with a book. The event is geared to children 12 and under.
Sponsoring Organization: South Carolina Writers Association
Project Title: South Carolina Writers Association Retreat
Project Director: Dr. Kasie Whitener
Awarded: $1,500; Cost-share: $31,275
The South Carolina Writers Association will present their 2019 retreat in Beaufort, SC. The event will take place October 31 – November 3, 2019 in conjunction with the Pat Conroy Literary Festival. There will be five faculty members: Jon Pineda (poet, memoirist, novelist); Judy Goldman (poet, memoirist, novelist); Dana Ridenour (crime fiction); Megan Mayhew Bergman (journalist, essayist); and Jason Ryan (nonfiction). A variety of workshops and special events will be offered over the weekend. The registration fee for the conference is $250 for members and $325 for non-members.
Sponsoring Organization: Pat Conroy Literary Center
Project Title: Pat Conroy Children’s Book Fair
Project Director: Maura Connelly
Awarded: $1,600; Cost-share: $1,770
The Pat Conroy Literary Center will host their second annual Children’s Book Fair on Saturday, October 12 in Beaufort at the Santa Elena History Center. The Fair will offer workshops for children ages 4-12, readings and book signings. Featured authors include Lisa Anne Cullen, Rebecca Chamberlain, Susan Diamond Riley, Chelsea Rowe, Michael Bassett, Miho Kinnas, Helen Wilbur, and Marjory Wentworth. The workshops will include “Write Your Garden,” “Telling Stories Through Pictures,” “Find Your Lost Treasure,” “Haiku Tanka, Linked Haiku, and Halibu Prose,” and “Illustration in Picture Books.” A unique feature will be a display of banned books in the jail cell at the Santa Elena History Center, and Marjory Wentworth will lead a discussion on banned books. The bookmobile from the Beaufort County Library will be on site, and the goal is to have every child leave the fair with a library card and a book, either borrowed from the library or purchased/signed.
Sponsoring Organization: Actors’ Theatre of South Carolina
Project Title: Shakespeare for All Project – Clarence Felder’s American MacBeth play & Seminars
Project Director: Chris Weatherhead
Awarded: $1,000; Cost-share: $11,628
The Actors Theatre of South Carolina will present three public seminars associated with their production of an updated version of Shakespeare’s MacBeth. Actor and scholar Clarence Felder has adapted MacBeth to be more accessible to the modern audience, updating the language itself and changing the setting to 1699 in the Lowcountry of South Carolina during the reign of pirates and privateers. The play will be performed from October 24-November 2 in Charleston, and a professionally-shot DVD of the live performance will be made. Three public seminars featuring a screening of the DVD and a panel discussion of humanities scholars will take place in Charleston (November 2 after the last performance of the play and November 14 at Charleston County Public Library) and St. Matthews (November 17 at the Calhoun County Library). The play is ticketed, but the three symposiums are free and open to the public, and the film of the play will be made available on YouTube.
Sponsoring Organization: Katie and Irwin Kahn Jewish Community Center
Project Title: Columbia Jewish Film Festival
Project Director: Joshua Edwards and Patty Tucker
Awarded: $1,000; Cost-share: $5,300
The Columbia Jewish Film Festival will take place October 20 – November 11, 2019 at various venues around Columbia. It is the 19th annual event. SC Humanities will support the screening of the film The Latter Day Jew on Tuesday, October 29. The Latter Day Jew tells the story of comedian H. Alan Scott, a gay ex-Mormon, who converts to Judaism and embarks on a religious journey that leads to his bar mitzvah in his 30s. The film illuminates how spiritual and cultural identity develops. The event will include a talk-back after the screening featuring the director Aliza Rosen and H. Alan Scott, both of whom will be traveling from California.
Sponsoring Organization: The Gibbes Museum of Art
Project Title: Art & Social Justice: The Legacy of the Freedom Riders
Project Director: Lasley Steever
Awarded: $1,000; Cost-share: $8,055
The Gibbes Museum of Art will present the exhibit SUN + LIGHT by South Carolina artist Charles Williams from October 11, 2019 – February 2, 2020. SUN + LIGHT juxtaposes the artist’s contemporary personal encounters with the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. As part of the collateral programming offered with the exhibit, they will host a special event November 20 – 21 about the Freedom Riders and the Civil Rights Movement. On Wednesday, November 20, there will be a panel discussion featuring Williams with Ray Arsenault (Professor of Southern History) and Freedom Riders Glenda Gather Davis and Dr. Bernard LaFayette. On Thursday, November 21, the Gibbes will screen the film Freedom Riders.
Sponsoring Organization: Greenville Jewish Federation
Project Title: Who Will Write Our History
Project Director: Amy Hammer
Awarded: $1,500; Cost-share: $16,050
The Greenville Jewish Federation will present a screening of the film Who Will Write Our History (2018) at Furman University on November 17, 2019. Who Will Write Our History tells the story of Emmanuel Ringelblum and the Oyneg Shabes Archive, a secret archive of writing, photographs, and posters preserved in the Warsaw Ghetto so that Jewish people could tell their own story in their own words. A post-screening discussion will feature the Executive Producer of the film, Nancy Spielberg, and the Director of the Film, Roberta Grossman.
Sponsoring Organization: University of South Carolina Upstate
Project Title: American Qur’an Art Exhibition and Public Lectures
Project Director: Dr. Carol Loar
Awarded: $2,000; Cost-share: $4,450
The University of South Carolina Upstate will present two public lectures and an exhibit to illustrate positive creative responses to Muslim presence in contemporary American society. The exhibit is titled American Qur’an and will display prints by artist Sandow Birk that depict verses from the Qur’an in the context of everyday American life. It will be on display from November 1 – December 6, 2019. Additionally, Birk will give a public presentation on USC Upstate’s campus on November 12 (tentative date). Humanities scholar David Damrel will give a lecture on “Muslim Arts in America” at the Spartanburg County Public Library on November 1.
Sponsoring Organization: Chesterfield County Public Library
Project Title: Life in the American South: A Sweet Tea Commentary
Project Director: Michael Kaltwang
Awarded: $1,200; Cost-share: $1,200
The Chesterfield County Public Library will sponsor a 90-minute interactive performance on “Life in the American South: A Sweet Tea Commentary.” Storyteller and performer Tim Lowry will appear at the Cheraw meeting space Kevin Lear on Main on March 19, 2020 for this family-friendly event which will cover Southern traditions, including burial customs, food, superstitions, wedding etiquette and more. The fee will be $5 per person for the event, which includes food.
Fast Track Literary Grants
Sponsoring Organization: York County Library
Project Title: York County Library Patchwork Tales 2019
Project Director: Luanne James
Awarded: $3,000; cost-share: $13,000
The York County Library will present their annual storytelling festival on March 14-16, 2019. The event will feature three nationally-recognized storytellers and a puppet troupe: Bobby Norfolk, Connie Regan-Blake, Laurelyn Dossett, and the Frey Seal Puppets.
Sponsoring Organization: Clemson University
Project Title: The Clemson Literary Festival
Project Director: John Pursley
Awarded: $3,000; cost-share: $3,000
Clemson University will present the 2019 Clemson Literary Festival on April 10 – 12, 2019. The scheduled speakers for 2019 include Headliner Tyehimba Jess (Pulitzer Prize winning poet), Chen Chen, Cynthia Cruz, Matthew Cooperman, Ashley M. Jones, Julia Elliott, Sarah Domet, Laura Leigh Morris, Alan Rossi, and Sarah Blackman. This town and gown event primarily takes place in venues in downtown Clemson in order to attract an audience beyond the University. The program is largely coordinated by a specially-selected team of ten Student Directors, and the event includes a Young Writer’s Workshop program that reaches approximately 100 high school students.
Sponsoring Organization: Hub City Writers Project
Project Title: Delicious Reads 2019
Project Director: Anne Waters
Awarded: $1,550; Cost-share: $4,600
Hub City Writers Project will present the second year of their “Delicious Reads” event, which will bring twenty authors together with the public in a ticketed “author-in-the-round” event at the Marriott hotel. Books will be sold, and delicious desserts will be available. In 2019, they will expand the event by having five of the authors stay in Spartanburg for an additional day to do five school visits. The participating schools are Spartanburg High School, Carver Middle School, McCracken Middle School, Broome High School, and Dorman High School. The event will take place on March 17 – 18, 2019.
Sponsoring Organization: South Carolina Academy of Authors
Project Title: South Carolina Academy of Authors Induction Weekend 2019
Project Director: Ray McManus
Awarded: $1,000; Cost-share: $5,100
The South Carolina Academy of Authors’ annual Induction Weekend programming will take place April 26-28 in Columbia honoring Elise Blackwell, Walter Edgar, Kathleen Parker and the late Starkey Flythe, Jr. Events include “An Evening with Starkey” reading and reception on Friday, April 26; the induction ceremony and dinner on Saturday, April 27 at Capstone; and a brunch honoring fellowship and student prize-winners on Sunday, April 28. The induction ceremony/dinner is ticketed at $55/individual or $100/couple. The brunch is ticketed at $15/person.
Sponsoring Organization: The Lowcountry Writing Project
Project Title: 2019 Invitational Summer Institute
Project Director: Lauren Rule Maxwell
Awarded: $2,200; Cost-share: $26,485
The Lowcountry Writing Project, located at The Citadel, proposes will host their 2019 Invitational Summer Institute (ISI) for Lowcountry teachers, particularly those serving historically underserved schools in downtown Charleston, from June 10 – 28. The institute will provide in-depth, ongoing, research-based learning opportunities related to writing and writing instruction, which generally receives less support than other subjects. The three-week course will serve 15 teachers, and one week will serve 35 elementary and middle school students from the target schools in a Young Writers Camp. The Young Writers Camp will serve as a practicum experience in which the ISI teachers will put strategies and techniques that they learned in the first two weeks to the test. The Young Writers Camp is free.
Sponsoring Organization: City of Charleston Office of Cultural Affairs
Project Title: 2019 Free Verse Festival
Project Director: Scott Watson
Awarded: $2,750; Cost-share: $3,000
The 2019 Free Verse Festival will be the third annual offering of this all-poetry literary festival. A wide variety of events will take place October 13 – 20, 2019 at a variety of venues in downtown Charleston and West Ashley. The three focus areas for the festival are poetry as public art, workshops and events for students and educators, and poetry at night. Some tentative example programs include a “Poetry Buffet” where chefs will read poetry and poets will cook food; “Poetry and Jazz”; poetry displayed on napkins, buildings, and sidewalks; and “Typewriter Poetry” stops.
Sponsoring Organization: Spartanburg Community College (SCC) Foundation
Project Title: 2019 Wonders of Writing (WOW) Symposium Public Reading and Reception
Project Director: Jenny Williams
Awarded: $2,300; Cost-share: $3,361
Spartanburg Community College will present their sixth Wonders of Writing Symposium, scheduled to take place on September 11-12, 2019. The event will feature two South Carolina authors, George Singleton and Scott Gould, in a public reading and reception on Thursday, September 12 at 7:00 p.m. The featured authors will also interact with students and faculty on the first day of the symposium.
Sponsoring Organization: Friends of the Charleston County Public Library
Project Title: Black Ink: A Charleston African American Book Festival
Project Director: Stephen Hoffius
Awarded: $3,000; Cost-share: $22,250
Friends of the Charleston County Public Library will host Black Ink: A Charleston African American Book Festival on October 4 – 5, 2019, featuring keynote speaker Nikki Giovanni. Additionally, the event will include approximately 60 authors in discussions and book signings, vendor tables, and workshops. In 2019, the event will be aligned with the MOJA Arts Festival (a celebration of African American and Caribbean arts) through the City of Charleston.
Sponsoring Organization: ChristmasVille Rock Hill
Project Title: ChristmasVille Visiting Author Workshops
Project Director: Martin Lane
Awarded: $2,250; Cost-share: $4,754
The ChristmasVille Rock Hill festival is a major annual festival celebrating its 14th anniversary in 2019. They will offer a series of workshops with featured author Annette Laing on Thursday, December 5; Friday, December 6; and Saturday, December 7.
Sponsoring Organization: Williamsburg Technical College Library
Project Title: One Book, One College, One Community
Project Director: La-Dine Williams Gamble
Awarded: $2,522; Cost-share: $2,820
Williamsburg Technical College will host a community-wide reading initiative titled “One Book, One College, One Community,” featuring the book The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. The community read will include three activities: a public debate on October 28, a community event where participants will present creative original pieces based on the book on October 30, and a public finale event with a speaker on November 11. They will purchase 200 copies of the book to distribute to participants.
Sponsoring Organization: Southern Wesleyan University
Project Title: SWU Literary Festival: South Carolina Real and Imagined
Project Director: Dr. Jonathan Sircy
Awarded: $500; Cost-share: $500
Southern Wesleyan University will host a literary festival on February 21, 2020 titled “South Carolina Real and Imagined” that will feature jury-selected student writers from high schools and universities as well as talks by two published writers, novelist Mark Sibley-Jones and poet Chad Chisholm. There will also be creative writing workshops and an open mic session.
Sponsoring Organization: York County Library
Project Title: YCL Community Reads Program of Kindness
Project Director: Luanne James
Awarded: $3,000; Cost-share: $8,204
York County Library is debuting a version of a community-wide read that has a kindness theme and a goal to give back to the community through a “pay it forward” model of thoughtful acts. Four different books with a kindness theme have been selected for four different age groups. Younger children will receive the kindness-themed picture book Thank You, Omu! by Oge Mora; upper elementary students will receive the book Restart by Gordon Korman; high school and young adult readers will receive the book Genesis Begins Again by Alicia Williams; and adult patrons will read The One-In-A-Million Boy by Monica Wood. 100 copies of each book will be handed out at the beginning of the program, which will take place in January – February 2020. A variety of events will take place, including book club meetings, presentations, author visits, and events based on the concept of paying kindness forward.
For more information about the Grants Program or any of SC Humanities’ funded projects, please contact Theresa (T.J.) Wallace, the Assistant Director, at 803-771-2477.
