2025 Schedule

The schedule is subject to change.

Saturday, February 22, 2025

Conway Visitors Center

TimeEvent
10 a.m. – 4 p.m.Vendor Market

Town Green

TimeEvent
10 a.m. – 4 p.m.Indigo Dyeing with Adrianne King Comer
10 a.m. – 4 p.m.Food Vendors and Artisan Market

Horry County Museum Auditorium

805 Main St.

TimeEvent
10 a.m.Opening Remarks
10:30 – 11:30 a.m.State of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor
Djuanna Brockington, Interim Director of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor
11:45 a.m. – 1 p.m.African Food Legacies in the Americas
Dr. Judith Carney

Dr. Carney’s lecture will draw attention to the significance of the African Continent’s food crops as a crucial underpinning of the Transatlantic commerce in human beings, the slave ships as a means of conveying African crops to the Americas, and the enslaved as active participants in establishing African food staples.
2:55 p.m.Song “No Cursin”
Blackout Taedoe, Gullah Geechee Hip-Hop Artist
3 – 4 p.m.PRAISE by Any Means Necessary: The Power of the Tambourine in Gullah Geechee Worship
Veronica Gerald, CCU Professor Emeritus
Rev. Richard Williams, Jr., Senior Pastor of Mt. Vernon Missionary Baptist Church

Horry County Museum Classroom

805 Main St., second floor

TimeEvent
11:30 – 12:15 p.m.Roots of Resilience: Empowering Rural African American Communities through Pollinator Conservation and Community Gardens
Crystal Anderson, Independent Producer
12:30 – 1:15 p.m.Waiting in Segregated Spaces
Shyanne Bellamy, The Athenaeum Press at Coastal Carolina University
1:30 – 2:15 p.m.Atlantic Beach’s Reconstruction and Revitalization Through Resilience
Jaye Divine


Conway Library Classroom

801 Main St., second floor

TimeEvent
11:30 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.Friendfield Plantation’s African American Community, 1819-1870
Lynn Hanson, Steven Sims, Ian Fanning

Among the former rice plantations that once subdivided the land known today as Hobcaw Barony, Friendfield is the most well-known, largely due to public tours hosted by the Belle W. Baruch Foundation.  But the names of the enslaved people who labored on this specific plantation have been unknown until the last several months. By analyzing the data in pre-civil war plantation inventories, tax accounts, Freedmen’s Bureau contracts, and the 1870 U.S. Census for Friendfield Plantation on the Waccamaw River, we have produced a catalog of enslaved names, charted the demographic changes in the community, and identified individual residents who remained on the property up to 50 years.
1:30 – 2:15 p.m.Reconstructing Our Agricultural Practices and Food System: Back to our Roots
Dr. Florence Anoruo
2:15 – 2:30 p.m.Journey of a Young Gullah Geechee Gardner
Jordan Floyd, 7-year-old Gardener and Conway native


The Hut, First United Methodist Church

1001 5th Avenue (at corner of 5th and Main)

TimeEvent
10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Little Room/Narthex
Stepping into My Shoes:  Abolition and Music as Resistance to Invisibility in Afro-Puerto Rican Identity
Dr. Anthony Sanchez

This interactive installation will focus on how Afro-Puerto-Ricans artistically re-defined themselves through music, in opposition to colonialism and marginalization.
12 – 4 p.m.
Sanctuary/Big Room
Gullah Geechee CREATE Artist Showcase, SC Sea Grant Consortium

Fellowship Hall, First United Methodist Church

1101 5th Ave.

TimeEvent
10 a.m. – 4 p.m.Gullah Arts and Crafts workshops

Horry County Library Administrative Building

1008 5th Ave.

TimeEvent
11:45 a.m. – 1 p.m. GGCHC Community Resiliency and Visioning Listening Session
Erica Xavier-Beauvoir, Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Resiliency Manager
Angel Parsons, Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Program Director
1:15 – 2:45 p.m. Saamaka Rice Processing Demonstration
IGGAD 2025 Surinamese Delegation

Bryan House, Horry County Historical Society

606 Main St.

TimeEvent
11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.The Black Pearl: A Reading
CCU’s Theatre Department

Black Pearl, written by Cynthia Grace Robinson and directed by Cezar Williams is a story of love and loss set in Atlantic Beach, SC. The student cast from CCU’s department of theatre will read from this play made possible with the support of Nancy and Billie Cave.
1 – 2 p.m.Gullah Herbal Tea Tasting

Join Gullah Geechee Herbalist, Jacque Williams for a taste of Gullah herbal knowledge and delicious teas.
2 – 2:45 p.m.Poetry Reading – Strength in Your Care
Heddie J. Simmons, Gullah Geechee Poet

Heddie J provides an uplifting and inspiring experience for caregivers through poetry that celebrates their resilience, compassion, and the transformative power embracing their authentic selves.