Lesibu is a septuagenarian, who was born into segregation in St. George, South Carolina. She spent her early childhood sheltered from the “Jim Crow Laws” with her two brothers on the family Heirs property located in Dorchester County. In this presentation, she will present her oral history work tracing back over 100 years of the Allen-Stevens Heirs property, the work she is doing to preserve her preservation work, and share excerpts from her family’s oral history work. She will conclude with a Q+A with workshop participants.

Length: 75 minutes

This is a creative writing and publishing workshop in which Dr. Stephane Dunn will lead participants through exercises on how to bring stories from our community to life. Dr. Ifetayo Ojelade will talk about the steps of learning about our ancestors’ narratives and how we can construct collaborative projects and publications around those narratives.

Length: 75 minutes

This workshop focuses on the role Gullah Geechee women have played in community mobilization and social justice movements particularly in the Sea Islands of South Carolina. Prior to the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, many African Americans who could not read were denied the right to vote. To qualify to vote, they were subjected to poll taxes and literacy tests. Septima Poinsette Clark and Ella Baker’s advocacy surrounding voting helped to prepare millions of African Americans to exercise their right to vote. By designing an adult education program grounded in critical literacy, and arming teachers to implement a grassroots reading program (Sea Island Citizenship Schools), they brought about significant social change. Collectively, Clark and Baker’s efforts led to voters’ rights empowerment and greater community and Civil Rights engagement. Findings indicate that the model for literacy education utilized by Clark and Baker helped mobilize African American voters. By creating a curriculum that reflected the needs and backgrounds of adult learners, this critical literacy model addressed pressing social issues in an environment where students and teachers learned from each other and helped change their communities. What are the modern implications of their work in Gullah Geechee communities? This research has implications for all learners who seek ways to make education transformative for today’s world.

Length: 75 minutes

Length: all day minutes

Length: all day minutes

Christina Sharpe’s In the Wake: On Blackness and Being examines the ways black being and black bodies have been continually oppressed in the aftermath of American chattel slavery, what she calls being left behind or caught up in the wake. Her analysis can be used to illuminate groups that were specifically produced as a result of the process of enslavement, those like the Gullah Geechee of the South Carolina Lowcountry. Particularly, her work offers a way to explain why the Gullah Geechee’s literary tradition, while present, is virtually invisible, relatively ignored, and excluded by the American literary tradition evidenced by the lack of critical conversation of published texts representative of the language, citizens, and cultural identity of the Gullah-Geechee. While the Gullah-Geechee have thrived despite being a product of the wake, certain aspects of the culture have not had the opportunity to become as completely visible as others. The literary tradition of the Gullah-Geechee is one such aspect.

Length: 30 minutes

The Gullah Geechee know survival. Now is the time to know their stories. This presentation presents an overview of Black/African American-centered cultural and heritage preservation models, exploring how best practices might inform a collaborative model of Gullah Geechee cultural preservation – led by the culture, stewarded by the culture, and sustained by the culture. Using examples from previous projects, I examine how oral histories, participatory community mapping, placemaking efforts, and digital archives can support the preservation and celebration of the Gullah Geechee culture. In addition, I will explore how the establishment of collaborative, community-led efforts can promote empowerment and cohesiveness in the wake of competing pressures that threaten the survival of the Gullah Geechee, such as gentrification, appropriation, and displacement.

Length: 30 minutes