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. Historian Dr. Alice Taylor-Colbert 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.
Sunday, August 11, 2024 | 3:00 – 4:30 p.m.
LISTEN! In this Land
134 S. Main Street, Woodruff SC 29388
DESCRIPTION: Dr. Damon Fordham and storyteller Ray Christian will tell the stories of rural people at the time of the American Revolution. Modern life is disconnected from the land in many ways. When we look back to the lives and experiences of people who fought in the Revolution, we cannot properly understand their world views unless we understand the world in which they lived. Their world was closely connected to the land through farming, hunting, trading, and trapping. By exploring this connection, we can better understand their world, and how they saw their role in it.
In-person and virtual tickets are available. This event is free and open to the public, thanks to generous support from SC Humanities.
Reserve tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/listen-revolutionary-stories-in-this-land-tickets-949042921927?
Sunday, October 20, 2024 | 3:00 – 4:30 p.m. (**Rescheduled from October 13 due to clean-up from Hurricane Helene)
LISTEN! Independence: A Scary Prospect
134 S. Main Street, Woodruff SC 29388
DESCRIPTION: Dr. Damon Fordham and storyteller Lona Bartlett will share some of the common superstitions at the time of the American Revolution.We can learn a lot about the beliefs and cultures of people living during the Revolution by learning about their fears – those based in this world, as well as those of an otherworldly nature. This session will explore scary stories, folk tales, and superstitions of people during the time of the Revolution.
In-person and virtual tickets are available.
Reserve tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/listen-revolutionary-stories-independence-a-scary-prospect-tickets-949049892777?
Sunday, December 22, 2024 | 3:00 – 4:30 p.m.
LISTEN! A Revolutionary Christmas
134 S. Main Street, Woodruff SC 29388
DESCRIPTION: Scholar and storyteller Tim Lowry will share holiday traditions and stories from the time of the American Revolution. In a time before Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, before Santa Claus wore red, before the widespread popularity of the Christmas Tree, and before department stores or the “Black Friday” shopping mayhem, how did colonists celebrate their religious holidays? Did the war change how people celebrated? What would we recognize? What would be foreign to us? This session will explore holiday events, traditions, and stories during the Revolution. In-person and virtual tickets are available.
Reserve tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/listen-revolutionary-stories-a-revolutionary-christmas-tickets-949057525607?irclickid=RBXV1qSsGxyPTYK1HJ10nT8EUkCVY6TTh0ZpS00&sharedid=237721&irpid=123201&utm_source=impact&utm_medium=ebaf&utm_campaign=afsp_ceal_pmk_fpp_0_us_0_0_bau_0&utm_term=123201&utm_content=1818731__237721&irgwc=1
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.
