The Stone Soup Storytelling Institute will present a series of six collaborative program sessions about the American Revolution. Each event will include a storyteller presenting a story or oral history from the American Revolution, a scholar presentation about the topic, and a moderated audience discussion. The first program will take place on Sunday, January 21, 2024, and events will continue through December 2024. SC Humanities supported this program series with a Major Grant.
The mission of the Stone Soup Storytelling Institute is to promote and to nurture storytellers and the traditional performance art of storytelling. Founded n 1985, the organization sponsors the annual Stone Soup Storytelling Festival every April in Woodruff, SC. They also host their LISTEN! event series, which combines in person and virtual viewing opportunities and focuses on a single topic, and the 2024 theme will be the American Revolution.
The “LISTEN: Revolutionary Stories” series program topics are “The Seeds of Revolution” (January 2024), “Revolutionary Women” (March 2024), “Not Just the Colonists” (May 2024), “In this Land” (August 2024), “Independence: A Scary Prospect” (October 2024), and “A Revolutionary Christmas” (December 2024). Each program will offer both an in-person and virtual livestream option. The in-person programs will be free; the livestream option costs $10 per program. The livestream videos are also kept for archival purposes.
Upcoming programs include:
Sunday, January 21, 2024 | 3:00 – 6:00 PM
LISTEN! The Seeds of Revolution|
134 S. Main Street, Woodruff SC 29388
DESCRIPTION: Historian Dr. Melissa Walker and storytellers Brett Bradshaw and Ray Christian will share some complex and nuanced realities and struggles of the people who lived in the colonies during the time leading up to the American Revolution. In-Person and Virtual.
Sunday, March 24, 2024 | 3:00 – 6:00 PM
LISTEN! Revolutionary Women
134 S. Main Street, Woodruff SC 29388
Historian Dr. Melissa Walker and storyteller Julie Bradshaw will share historic narrative and stories with us about the various roles, both ordinary and heroic, that women took on during the American Revolution. In-Person and Virtual.
Sunday, May 19, 2024 | 3:00 – 6:00 p.m.
LISTEN! Not Just the Colonists
134 S. Main Street, Woodruff SC 29388
DESCRIPTION: Conventional teaching of the history of the American Revolution is framed in terms of a binary conflict: the colonists versus the British Empire. More subtle discussions of the Revolution include the analysis of the war in light of the longstanding animosities between the British and the French. A more refined understanding of this period of history involves the realization that many of the participants in conflicts and in society were neither British, nor French, nor colonists. The native indigenous peoples of North America had many roles to play in the story of the Revolution. This session will explore those roles and stories.
Reserve your free ticket here: https://stonesoupsc.dm.networkforgood.com/forms/live-ticket-may-19-2024-not-just-the-colonists-listen-event.
Details about how to access the virtual livestream and reservations will be posted soon, as well as more information about the May, August, October, and December programs.
More information about the Stone Soup Storytelling Institute and their progams can be found on their website at https://www.stonesoupsc.org/ or their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/StoneSoupStorytelling.
The mission of SC Humanities is to enrich the cultural and intellectual lives of all South Carolinians. Established in 1973, this 501(c)3 organization is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors comprised of community leaders from throughout the state. It presents and supports literary initiatives, lectures, exhibits, festivals, publications, oral history projects, videos, and other humanities-based experiences that directly or indirectly reach more than 250,000 citizens annually. South Carolina Humanities receives funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities as well as corporate, foundation and individual donors. The National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom.
