GOOD NEWS: History Fair to return July 7 to Magnolia Gardens

Along the Ashley River at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens, outside Charleston, S.C.

Staff reports  |  Want to explore local history and meet the people who promote and preserve it? If so, come to the 6^thannual History Fair on July 7 at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens.

The free fair is features well-known organizations in education, religion, social services, the arts and tourism, including the planned International African American Museum at Gadsden’s Wharf where nearly 40 percent of the captured West Africans brought to Charleston first stepped on American soil.

From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., you’ll have an opportunity to meet representatives of 34 historic groups. The event is designed for amateur and serious historians and children who want to touch the past.  Some highlights:

• Storyteller Kitty Wilson-Evans, who portrays an 18th century enslaved worker named Kessie, will be in the History Room at the Main House.
• Master brick maker Rick Owens will demonstrate early brick-making techniques near the Peacock Café.
• “Inalienable Rights: Living History Through the Eyes of the Enslaved,” will be staged at the cabins once occupied by Magnolia’s enslaved workers. This presentation isan outreach of the Slave Dwelling Project founded by Joseph McGill, Magnolia’s history consultant. Living History includes a blacksmith, cooking and chair-making demonstrations and storytellers.

On the night of July 6, you also can join McGill for a sleepover in the former slave cabins at Magnolia. Sit around the camp fire as he discusses the need to preserve extant slave dwellings. To register for the sleepover contact McGill at mailto:slavedwellingproject@gmail.com. Deadline to register is June 29. The sleepover is limited to 35 people.

The History Fair will also be a time to show appreciation for South Carolina’s public and private school teachers and college and university faculty. Magnolia will offer free garden admission on July 7 to teachers and their immediate family. Valid identification is required.

While the fair is free, guests who purchase the $20 general admission to the gardens will have access to a storyteller, brick maker and a living history program.

• For more information and a list of the presenters, go to magnoliaplantation.com.

In other Good News:

Coming soon:  Artist, designer, and environmentalist Maya Lin will serve as the Gibbes Museum of Art’s 2018 distinguished lecture speaker on Nov. 7 in Charleston Music Hall.  You might know her best through her first work, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.  Lin interprets the natural world through science, history, politics and culture by “creating a remarkable and highly acclaimed body of work in art and architecture,” the museum said.  “Following her early success, Lin designed seminal artworks such as the groundbreaking four-acre earthwork for the Storm King Art Center in New York and the 11-acre A Fold in the Field for Gibbs Farm in New Zealand.”

New editor.  Congratulations to Sam Spence, a longtime staffer at the Charleston City Paper who has become its new editor.  Most recently, he’s served as the paper’s web editor.  He’s also worked in politics and is a graduate of the College of Charleston.  Good luck (and have fun)!

New book.  Hats off to former Post and Courier reporter Sybil Fix who has a new book, The Girl from Borgo.  It’s a “memoir of growing up in Cetona, Italy, and of seeking home and wholeness at the intersection of two places and two cultural identities.”  The book is available in a number of online locations, including Amazon.

New park: The City of North Charleston will open Waylyn Park, its newest city park, 5 p.m. June 19 in the Dorchester-Waylyn neighborhood, 2678 Olympia Street.  The park includes a playground, picnic area, and a multi-use open basketball court.  “ “Instead of a dilapidated home and a vacant lot, the neighborhood now has a walkable gathering place and recreation area for the families of the Dorchester-Waylyn neighborhood to enjoy,” said North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey.  “Waylyn Park is a wonderful addition to a dynamic, traditional neighborhood.”

Beard Fellow.  Congrats to Ann Marshall of High Wire Distilling Co. in Charleston who will participate in the James Beard Foundation’s Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership program in September.  She is one of 20 fellows who will take part in the five-day program at Babson College to provide women culinary entrepreneurs with tools to grow their careers and businesses.