Charleston Area Branch of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History
Founders of Black History Month
Location: Riley Center for Sustainable Communities | 176 Lockwood Avenue | Charleston, SC 29403
Online: Zoom Code 861 9531 5995
Topic: Celebration of Black Resistance – Jazz and Poetry
Mar 22 at 5 PM Septima Clark Auditorium Conversation with Patricia Williams Dockery, about her new play, Septima, now at Pure Theater. Panel moderated by Theater professors Nakeisha Daniels and Gary Marshall.
Tuesday, March 21 5:30-7:00 PM
Septima Clark Memorial Auditorium (ECTR 118)
The Center for the Study of Slavery in Charleston invites students, faculty, staff, and members of the community to attend a public conversation about repatriation of artifacts, archives, race, and justice. The conversation will feature the story of Tamara Lanier, whose fight against Harvard University for images of her enslaved ancestors Renty and Delia has been covered by numerous national and international media outlets including the New York Times, Boston Globe, Guardian, and Democracy Now! The event is free and open to the public.
Tamara Lanier gives voice to her enslaved ancestors whose naked or partially clothed photographs were forcibly taken in 1850 outside Columbia, SC for a Harvard scientist, Louis Agassiz, who supported racist theories of polygenesis. Lanier’s case foregrounds the need for legislation that protects the cultural property of descendants of chattel slavery in the United States. All are invited to witness Lanier’s inspiring story about the importance of her family’s history and its relevance to national discussions about slavery and reconciliation.
If you have questions about the lecture, please contact Mary Jo Fairchild at fairchildmj@cofc.edu.
Charleston Branch members are invited to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the Colour of Music Festival founded in Charleston SC by Lee Pringle, the Artistic Director. Over the four days the festival presents a diverse classical repertoire of baroque, classical and 20th century music featuring classically trained musicians of African descent. ASALH members are invited to a reception celebrating the tenth anniversary and honoring Lonnie Hamilton III, musician, educator, community leader who was the first African American to serve on the Charleston County Council.
The reception will be held on Saturday, February 4 at 6pm prior to the festival finale. Information will be provided on the branch website.
The Colour of Music Festival, Inc. presents a diverse classical repertoire of baroque, classical and 20th-century music at the highest of musical standards to diverse audiences nationally. The festival has presented in Atlanta, Georgia; Charleston and Columbia, South Carolina; Nashville, Tennessee; Houston; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Richmond, Virginia; Washington, D.C.; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Sacramento, California.
Few classical music enthusiasts are aware of the tremendous contributions of Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges, an African-French composer whose opera and classical masterpieces equaled or far exceeded those of his 18th-century contemporaries. Although his compositions are highly recognized overseas, they have gathered little notice in the United States. Today there are thousands of celebrated and prodigiously talented classical principals, composers and performers of African descent throughout the world. Yet, their opportunities to grace concert stages of major American orchestras are rare to non-existent. The Colour of Music Festival’s mission is reversing this trend.
Since 2013, the Colour of Music Festival offers a musical kaleidoscope highlighting the impact and historical significance of black classical composers and performers on American and world culture. The Colour of Music Festival began with performances at various venues throughout historic Charleston, South Carolina and has grown to debut in cities across the country with artists from across the globe.
Assembling acclaimed black chamber ensemble players and artists to form the Colour of Music Orchestra, the Festival showcases some of the top black classical musicians in the United States, trained at some of the most prestigious music schools, conservatories and universities in the world.
Griots of Cotton, Indigo, & Clay debuts the permanent collection of the Acres of Ancestry Initiative/Black Agrarian Fund, an evolution of the advocacy efforts of the Black Belt Justice Center. Curated by Torreah “Cookie” Washington, and featuring over 100 pieces of artwork commissioned from Black fiber artists in the South Carolina Lowcountry, the Black Belt South, and the African Diaspora at large, this vast array of textile art portrays the power of the Black imagination to extend beyond colonial frameworks, centering narratives of self-sustained land ownership and spirit-cultural reclamation.
Inspired by the movement for restoration of eco-cultural traditional practices, Griots of Cotton, Indigo, & Clay showcases the rich tradition of fiber art as material culture and tells the untold stories of struggle and resilience rooted in black ecocultural traditions and textile arts. The artworks of over four dozen seasoned artisans will be on view, including works by the artists of The Return of the Bees Collective. The collected artworks examine the ideals of racial pride, social power, identity, and the importance of land, heritage, and culture.
States exhibiting artist and curator Cookie Washington, “Black fiber artisans uphold the charge of griots, weaving together narratives of resistance into tactile expressions of land memory and visions for the future.” This traveling exhibition explores the innovations of eco-cultural techniques in appliqué, basket-weaving, collage, indigo, and painting, celebrating an ecosystem of over 50 master fiber artists, ceramicists, sweetgrass preservers, and blacksmiths.
This exhibition is generously supported by the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, Estelle Colored Glass, Lady Farmer, the Kalliopeia Foundation, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, and the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee.
The installation will be on view Thursdays through Sundays from noon to 5pm starting January 17 and closing February 27, 2022 at City Gallery.
William H. Johnson painted his Fighters for Freedom series in the mid-1940s as a tribute to African American activists, scientists, teachers, and performers as well as international heads of state working to bring peace to the world. He celebrated their accomplishments even as he acknowledged the realities of racism, violence, and oppression they faced and overcame. Some of his Fighters—Harriet Tubman, George Washington Carver, Marian Anderson, and Mahatma Gandhi—are familiar historical figures; others are less well-known individuals whose determination and sacrifice have been eclipsed over time. Drawn entirely from the collection of more than 1,000 works by Johnson given to the Smithsonian American Art Museum by the Harmon Foundation in 1967, this exhibition is the first-ever presentation of this series in Johnson’s home state of South Carolina.
Fighters for Freedom: William H. Johnson Picturing Justice is organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum with generous support from Art Bridges, Faye and Robert Davidson, and the Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation.
The presentation of this exhibition at the Gibbes is made possible through the generous support of the Wayne and Carolyn Jones Charitable Foundation, with additional support from Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina, Jane Smith Turner Foundation, Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, South Carolina Arts Commission, and the Gibbes Women’s Council.
Dyani White Hawk’s work illuminates the lived experiences of Native Peoples. With her video, photography, and works in other media, she aims to use the language of visual art to bring light to the deep chasm between our understanding of history and the truth. Her work weaves together forms from the canon of Western art along with the visual languages and traditions of Native people. In doing so, her work spotlights Native women, whose strength and fortitude through centuries of colonization have helped their peoples’ languages and cultures to survive.
On view in Hear Her, White Hawk’s video installation LISTEN presents a series of Native women speaking the language of their people. Each film takes place on the land of each participant’s nation, and viewers hear the respective languages without translation. As such, White Hawk puts a focus not only on the resonance of each speaker, but she also reveals society’s collective ignorance of the people, culture, and language of those native to the land on which we live. Chapter 1 of LISTEN features eight videos and White Hawk plans to continue the series to include 24 videos. The Halsey Institute commissioned White Hawk to create a video to honor the Catawba Nation, located in South Carolina.
White Hawk’s photography installation I Am Your Relative confronts the gross stereotypes and distorted caricatures that dehumanize and commodify Native women. This installation, along with LISTEN, helps White Hawk shine a light on the misrepresentation of Native Peoples while reinforcing the fact that we are all connected as human beings.
Dyani White Hawk: Hear Her is sponsored in part by South Carolina Humanities, a not-for-profit organization; inspiring, engaging and enriching South Carolinians with programs on literature, history, culture and heritage. This exhibition is also supported by the Center for Sustainable Development at the College of Charleston, which provides students with the opportunities and resources to engage in our community sustainably.
Opening Saturday: “Deep Blue: An Indigo Exhibition” features eleven indigo artists from across the Lowcountry and beyond, including Kibibi Ajanku, Kristy Bishop, Arianne King Comer, Kelly Fort, Dale Fort, Ifé Franklin, Caroline Harper, Heather Powers, Marion Scott Readett, Pam Shanley, and Mary Young, Each artist individually explores their connections to the historically significant plant, sharing works of art that summon stories and encourage introspection. Programming will accompany this show throughout its run, including a streaming of the documentary film “Blue Alchemy: Stories of Indigo” by Mary Lance, off-site excursions to a local indigo farm, shibori classes, outdoor indigo workshops, and more. This show runs March 6-April 16 in the East Gallery at Public Works Art Center, and the official reception will be Thursday, March 18 from 6pm-8:30pm. *There will be a virtual offering of this exhibition in the way of a professional video presentation. Stay tuned!*
Charleston Area Branch of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History 