South Carolina State University will present a four-part poetry series entitled “Words Across the Water.” The series brings together poets and writers from across the Anglophone African Diaspora in order to explore intersections of metaphor, style, and themes. SC Humanities supported this programming with a Fast Track Literary Grant.
This series provides a discursive space for poets, writers, thinkers and attendees from different geographies throughout the diaspora to explore connections in and through their work. It will also create a collaborative space where students, young writers and the general public may be able to meet and discuss humanities-based ideas with more seasoned authors.
The first event, on the theme of Identity and Personhood, will feature nationally and internationally noted poets, editors, and academicians, Lauren K. Alleyne of James Madison University and Kwame Dawes of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The program will be moderated by Dr. Frank Martin, the Museum’s director. The event will begin at 5:00 pm on January 21st, 2021 and will be streamed live on Zoom and the Museum’s Facebook page. All members of the general public are invited; please pre-register using this link.
The second event, on the theme of Home and Notions of Belonging, will feature St. Lucian poet and educator, John Robert Lee, and Khadijah Ibrahim, British poet, playwright and activist. The program will be moderated by Dr. Simon Lewis, Professor of English and Speaker of the Faculty Senate at the College of Charleston. This second program explores ideas concerning home and notions of belonging as experienced, understood and expressed within works by both Lee and Ibrahim, and will also undertake to discuss these ideas as represented in imagery by other poets from across the Anglophone African diaspora. The event will begin at 5:00 pm on February 25th, 2021 and will be streamed live on Zoom and the Museum’s Facebook page. All members of the general public are invited; please pre-register using this link.
The third event, on the theme of Love and Loving, will feature nationally and internationally noted poets, editors, and academicians, Shauna Morgan of the University of Kentucky, and Kerry Baharanyi. The program will be moderated by Dr. Zanice Bond, of Tuskegee University. The event will begin at 5:00 pm on March 25th, 2021 and will be streamed live on Zoom and the Department of Social Sciences and I. P. Stanback Museum’s Facebook pages. All members of the general public are invited; please pre-register using this link.
This fourth program explores ideas concerning use of Sound and Song: harmonies and similarities across the diaspora, the transmission and survival of sound motifs, the transformative character of song and sound, the role of individual and cultural memory and evocation of shared experiences across the diaspora. Through an examination of the works of both presenters, a discussion of the impact of tone, rhythm, word choice and even the employment of silence will be examined to assess how song and sound shape their works. The event will begin at 5:00 pm on April 22nd 2021 and will be streamed live on Zoom and The I. P. Stanback Museum & Planetarium’s and Social Sciences’ Facebook pages. All members of the general public are invited; please pre-register using this link.
For more information contact Dr. Alison Mc Letchie at amcletch@scsu.edu or the Program Coordinator of The I. P. Stanback Museum, Mr. Davion Petty at dpetty@scsu.edu.
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
Photo by Afonso Lima from FreeImages
