Gullah / Geechee News & Events – Fall 2009
September 13, 2009
What’s happening on the Gullah / Geechee national calendar!? Please check back often as we continue to add events.
Got an event? Submit by email HERE
Listed by state, alphabetically
Boston
“TALES FROM THE LAND OF GULLAH”
September 19 – December 31, 2009
Families are immersed in the world of the Gullah people who lived on isolated islands off the coast of Georgia and South Carolina from their days as slaves in the 18th and 19th centuries until today. Many common nursery rhymes, popular sayings and children’s songs like Michael Row Your Boat Ashore come from the Gullah people. Children will participate in the daily life and rituals of a Gullah family from the 1950s before bridges and high speed boat travel united the islands with the mainland. Children will play Gullah games, learn to tell Gullah time, go fish netting with a Gullah fisherman, cook a Gullah meal, and much more as they learn about this special culture.
Boston Childrens Museum
California
African American Life on the Gullah/Geechee Coast: Photographs by Greg Day, 1970-1977
Fowler Museum at UCLA - September 20, 2009 to January 3, 2010
In the 1970s, photographer Greg Day lived in the African American basket-making communities along the Gullah/Geechee Coast, documenting a way of life on the verge of change. Casting for shrimp with nets made as they are still made in Africa, making sweet grass baskets, scraping bristles off a freshly slaughtered hog, dancing at a juke joint on a Saturday night—these rural pastimes would soon be displaced by suburban sprawl, hastened by the destruction of Hurricane Hugo in 1989.
Designated by Congress in 2006, the Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor extends from Wilmington, North Carolina through coastal South Carolina and Georgia to Jacksonville, Florida. It is home to one of America’s most unique cultures, a tradition first shaped by captive Africans brought to the southern United States from West Africa and continued in later generations by their descendents. Today many African Americans, including First Lady Michelle Obama, trace their ancestry to this region. Once identified with the Creole language spoken by African Americans in the region, today the term Gullah refers to a whole range of customs and beliefs, cuisine, domestic architecture, and arts, including the sweetgrass baskets in the exhibition Grass Roots: African Origins of an American Art, opening October 4.
310/825-4288
Grass Roots: African Origins of an American Art
Fowler Museum at UCLA - October 4, 2009 to January 10, 2010
In Grass Roots: African Origins of an American Art humble yet exquisitely crafted coiled baskets demonstrate one of the enduring contributions of African peoples and cultures to American life. Featuring more than two hundred objects including a myriad of baskets made in the American South and Africa, African sculptures, watercolors from the Charleston Renaissance, historic photographs, and videos of basket makers in South Carolina’s Gullah/Geechee region demonstrating their techniques and telling their stories, the exhibition shows how a simple farm tool once used for processing rice has become a highly collectible work of art and an important symbol of African-American identity.
310/825-4288
Illinois
“GODS GONNA TROUBLE THE WATER” Narrated by Ruby Dee, this 1998 documentary recounts the history of the Gullah people, who emigrated from West Africa to the Sea Islands off the coastline of Georgia and South Carolina, and were later taken as slaves. 57 mins. Sunday, October 11
DuSable Museum of African American History 740 E. 56th Pl. Chicago, IL 60637 773-947-0600 dusablemuseum.org
September 24 – October 4, 2009
2009 marks Charleston’s 26th annual MOJA Arts Festival: A Celebration of African-American and Caribbean Arts. Selected as one of the Southeast Tourism Society’s Top 20 events for many different years, the 2009 MOJA Arts Festival promises an exciting line-up of events with a rich variety of traditional favorites.
The MOJA Arts Festival is a multi-disciplinary festival produced and directed by the City of Charleston Office of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the MOJA Planning Committee, a community arts and cultural group and the MOJA Advisory Board, a group of civic leaders who assist with fundraising and advocacy. MOJA, a Swahili word meaning “One,” is the appropriate name for this festival celebration of harmony amongst all people in our community. The Festival highlights the many African-American & Caribbean contributions to western and world cultures.
MOJA’s wide range of events include visual arts, classical music, dance, gospel, jazz, poetry, R&B music, storytelling, theatre, children’s activities, traditional crafts, ethnic food, and much, much more.
Works by nationally renowned artist Jonathan Green will be the centerpiece of the 2009 MOJA Art Festival Invitational Exhibit at the City Gallery at Waterfront Park. Jonathan Green and Protégés features 25 of Green’s original paintings along with two-dimensional and three-dimensional works by four young rising stars of the visual arts world that Green mentors: Jean Dornevil, Ryenier Llanes, Willie Leftwich and Juan Diaz.
Jonathan Green is a prodigious artist with a great vision. His works never fail to inspire people of all ages and from all walks of life with his unique depictions of the beauty of Gullah culture.
MOJA FESTIVAL
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Avery Research Center for African American Culture
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Gullah Cooking And Living Program
September 16, Hilton Head
“Gullah Cooking and Living” program with Daufuskie Island native and cookbook author, Sallie Ann Robinson, at the Coastal Discovery Museum at Honey Horn, 3 p.m. Cooking demonstration, tasting and refreshments. Reservations required. (843) 689-6767 ext. 223.
Coastal Discovery Museum – Hilton Head Island
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The Gullah Experience: Celebrating Our Lowcountry Heritage
Through September 19
Walter Greer Gallery at the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina
“The Gullah Experience: Celebrating Our Lowcountry Heritage,” an exhibit of 80 pieces created by a dozen well-known regional artists, is on display in the Walter Greer Gallery at the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina. Free admission. 14 Shelter Cove Lane. (843) 842-2787.
Located in the heart of Hilton Head Island, the award winning regional Arts Center of Coastal Carolina is a remarkable showcase for professional performing and visual arts, as well as cultural festivals and educational outreach. And proof that life on our legendary white sand shores is so much more than a day at the beach.
Arts Center of Coastal Carolina
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Low Country Joe’s Gullah! Gullah! Ghost Tour! – Hilton Head / Daufuskie Island
(call for dates)
Join us for an enchanting evening cruise by boat to your mind bending tour on an island full of true-to-life tales of voodoo, haints, witches, root doctors, ghosts, cemeteries, massacre, murder and mayhem all told by Low Country Joe himself!
• Secret Gullah Cemeteries!
• An Undertaker’s House Eaten By A Bird!
• Speaking in Tongues & Indian Chanting!
• Decaying Haunted Houses!
Low Country Joe’s
1-888-GHOST-123 (44678-123)
HeyJoe@LowCountryJoes.com