Middleton Place Foundation will present an engaging program about Black Women in History as part of their ongoing annual Distinguished Speakers Series. The virtual conversation will take place on Tuesday, March 30 at 6:30 p.m. via Zoom. SC Humanities helped support this program with a Mini Grant.
Featured speakers for “Ukweli: Black Women in History” include poet and author Mr. Horace Mungin and Dr. Karen Meadows, an adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte whose research interests include social justice and school reform. Mr. Osei Chandler will moderate and guide the audience through the presentation, including a Question and Answer period. They will discuss the importance of black women on the struggle for emancipation and equality. Mr. Mungin will read a group of poems about African American women to set the landscape for the lecture.
Horace Mungin is a poet and author from the Black Arts Movement of the 1960’s Much of his work is characteristic of the wealth of literary concepts created by the newly emboldened African American poets and writers of the Black Power period. Mungin is also founder of Black Forum Magazine, a national poetry publication now enshrined in an exhibition on the Black Arts Movement at the National Museum for African American History and Culture. His book, Or Does It Explode, was a first finalist for the 2017 Phillis Wheatley Award in fiction. Mungin is a serial reader at the Sundown Poetry Series at Charleston, SC’s Piccolo Spoleto Festival, making his sixth appearance in May 2018. He has also made five appearances at the Moja Arts Festival, also in Charleston and appears at colleges, literary events, cultural centers and churches. Horace Mungin is Creator of the Ukweli program.
Dr. Karen Meadows is a high School Counselor and adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Dr. Meadows earned her PhD at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in Education Leadership and cultural Studies along with her graduate and undergraduate degrees from North Carolina A&T State University. Dr. Meadows currently serves on the University of North Carolina at Greensboro School of Education Advisory Board. She is author of the book Pedagogy of Survival: The Narratives of Millicent E. Brown and Josephine Boyd Bradley. Her research and teaching interests include social justice, school reform and personal empowerment. Some of Dr. Meadows’ most rewarding work has been at a school in South Africa where she trained and informed teachers on responsive strategies. Dr. Meadows is a trainer, educational presenter, and consultant with the mission to empower all students to reach their highest potential, think critically and to pay it forward.
Osei Terry Chandler is a retired educator; he was the Director of the Educational Opportunity Center at Trident Technical College. Osei continues to produce and host the Roots Musik Karmau for South Carolina Public Radio. This Caribbean oriented music program has been broadcasting since April, 1979. Osei Chandler was recently inducted into the Lowcountry Music Hall of Fame. Because of his various involvements and commitments Osei has been called a “community activist”. He co – founded the still active Ebony City Soccer Club – “The Li’l Peles”, and he is co- founder of the Charleston Remembrance Program (an annual commemoration to the African ancestors who perished during the Middle Passage). Osei Terry Chandler holds a bachelor of Arts degree from MacMurray College and Master’s Degree from Webster University.
The program is free and open to the public. Pre-registration is required. Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_lcikttsyRuugiAVOKZ7ixg
A National Historic Landmark, home to the oldest landscaped gardens in America and an enduring, vibrant, and essential part of the Charleston and American experience, Middleton Place is owned and operated by the Middleton Place Foundation. The Foundation, a 501(c)(3) educational trust established in 1974, uses historic preservation, documented research, and interpretation as a force for education, understanding, and positive change. Learn more: https://www.middletonplace.org/.
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 21-member Board of Directors comprised of community leaders from throughout the state. It presents and/or 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.
