SC Humanities Awards $80,000 in Grants

The South Carolina Humanities Board of Directors awarded a total amount of $80,570 in grants to 7 cultural organizations after a September 27, 2024 Board Meeting in Columbia.

The awards were selected through a competitive application and review process and are made possible by SC Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Matching community support for the 7 awarded projects totaled: $338,393.

A list of awarded grants is provided below:

Sponsoring Organization: Lincolnville Preservation and Historical Society
Project Title: “COMBEE: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom during the Civil War” Book Talk with Dr. Edda Fields-Black
Project Director: Dr. Pernessa Seele
Awarded: $5,770; Cost-share: $11,543
The Lincolnville Preservation and Historical Society will host a book talk with author Dr. Edda Fields-Black on her book COMBEE: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom During the Civil War. The event will take place on December 14, 2024 and will also include presentations by the Mayor of Lincolnville, the National Park Service, and Reverend Kenneth Hodges, who was instrumental in the creation of the Harriet Tubman monument in Beaufort. The event will be free and open to the public.

Sponsoring Organization: Richland Library
Project Title: Richland Library Read Freely Fest
Project Director: Lee Snelgrove
Awarded: $15,000; Cost-share: $120,000
Richland Library will present a free, three-day book festival on March 28 – 30, 2025. The Read Freely Fest will feature 13 – 20 authors, vendors, activities for youth, and other entertainment. Three of the headliners are confirmed: Patti Callahan Henry, Brendan Slocumb, and DéLana Dameron. Additional national and local authors from a variety of genres will be invited to participate. The event will take place at the Richland Library Main Branch downtown, and 1,000 people are expected to participate.

Sponsoring Organization: Business & Professional Women (Breakfast Chapter)
Project Title: Miss Perry Will Speak: A Century of Business & Professional Women of South Carolina
Project Director: Tracy A. Regan
Awarded: $14,800; Cost-share: $31,750
Business and Professional Women’s Spartanburg Chapter is creating a 30-minute documentary titled “Miss Perry Will Speak: A Century of Business & Professional Women of South Carolina” about the history of the 104-year-old organization, looking at its impact and how the role of women in the workforce has changed over the last century. The documentary will include interviews with legacy members and explorations of the hidden contributions of women to South Carolina history. The documentary is expected to premiere during Women’s History Month with a special event and panel discussion at Spartanburg Community College on March 6, 2025. The documentary will be screened at USC Upstate, as well as several other venues around the state; it will also be offered to SCETV for broadcast.

Sponsoring Organization: The Charleston Literary Festival, Inc.
Project Title: Building Community Through Award-Winning Storytelling at Charleston Literary Festival
Project Director: Sarah Moriarty
Awarded: $15,000; Cost-share: $91,000
The 2024 Charleston Literary Festival will take place November 1 – 10, 2024 at the historic Dock Street Theatre and will present more than 35 sessions. Featured authors for 2024 include Ilyon Woo, Nikki Giovanni, Eddie S. Glaude, Marie Arana, James Shapiro, Charan Ranganath, Jayne Anne Phillips, Paul Murray, Claire Messud, Attica Locke, Lottie Hazell, Emmeline Clein, and Catherine Lacey. SC Humanities grant funds would specifically support the festival’s “strategic access initiatives,” including the third annual Charleston READS! community session. The 2024 Charleston READS! book is Master Slave Husband Wife by Ilyon Woo, which won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for biography. Other access initiatives include discounted tickets for students, a young writers award, an adult fellowship prize, and a digital access initiative to offer live-streamed events and edited videos of sessions on YouTube for free.

Sponsoring Organization: Four Holes Indian Organization
Project Title: Preserving the Native South: The Edisto Natchez-Kusso Tribe of South Carolina Tribal Archive Project
Project Director: Kit Kelly
Awarded: $15,000; Cost-share: $15,000
The Edisto Natchez-Kusso Tribe of South Carolina requests grant funds to support the creation of an official archive of the Tribe’s historical, archaeological, and cultural records and to share these materials with Tribal members and the general public through exhibits, an opening ceremony, and a series of lectures. The Edisto Natchez-Kusso Tribe has a new headquarters building in Ridgeville, and their project has five main objectives: 1) identify and organize the records that the Tribe currently maintains, 2) identify and gather archival materials from other historical societies and state/national archives, 3) create and maintain a space for the Tribal archive, 4) perform research on the gathered materials, artifacts, and records, and 5) promote public awareness of the Tribe’s history and culture in South Carolina. They anticipate the opening ceremony of the archive to take place in September 2025, with public events and lectures to follow.

Sponsoring Organization: Radio Diaries, Inc.
Project Title: Woodard and Welles: The Story of the Blinded G.I.
Project Director: Katharine Allen
Awarded: $6,000; Cost-share: $24,100
Radio Diaries is a public radio documentary series and podcast. They are creating an episode for their ongoing series The Audio History Project on “Woodward and Welles: The Story of the Blinded G.I.,” which will examine the 1946 beating and blinding of veteran Isaac Woodard in Aiken County and its impact on the Civil Rights movement. The audio documentary will be 15- 30 minutes in length and will air on NPR as well as being an episode on the Radio Diaries podcast. It is expected to premiere in February or March 2025. Radio Diaries also plans to host three public “multimedia live events,” featuring audio, photos, live interviews with story subjects, and music: one in New York and two in South Carolina. Potential South Carolina host locations are the South Carolina State Museum and the Museum of the Reconstruction Era.

Sponsoring Organization: DAWNING
Project Title: “The Choir”
Project Director: Raul Roman
Awarded: $9,000; Cost-share: $45,000
“The Choir” will be a 20-30 minute documentary about the past, present, and future potential of a provincial choir in Santa Clara, Cuba, examining themes of memory, art, and hope. DAWNING will use grant funds to support costs associated with making an initial trailer and script, including two trips to Cuba for four key project personnel for filming. The documentary will include first-person narratives of choir members, scenes of daily life in Santa Clara, performances by the choir, and animations about visualizing the future. This pre-production phase will take place from November 2024 – May 2025. Ultimately, the final documentary will likely air on SCETV and will have public screenings in Spartanburg and around South Carolina.

For more information about any of these grant-supported projects, please contact T.J. Wallace at 803-771-2477.