IN THIS ISSUE of Charleston Currents #11.13 | Feb. 4, 2019
FOCUS: New literary and art collection features S.C. writers, artists
COMMENTARY, Brack: A community’s soul depends on a robust editorial page
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Titan Termite & Pest Control
GOOD NEWS: Ports Authority celebrates new headquarters in Mount Pleasant
FEEDBACK: Tell us what you think
MYSTERY PHOTO: This should look familiar
S.C. ENCYCLOPEDIA: Vertamae Grosvenor
CALENDAR: Local author Scott to sign big book on MacArthur Wednesday
FOCUS: New literary and art collection features S.C. writers, artists
Editor’s Note: Editor Carol Bass, who lives iduring winter months on Edisto Island, offers an outstanding and fascinating array of poems, paintings, prose and photographs in a new collection, “Ripple Effect: Water Stories.” It includes some of South Carolina’s best writers and artists, such as Jim Harrison, Ben Moise, Josephine Humphreys, Ron Rash and our own Marjory Wentworth.
Bass, who grew up along the Edisto River, described the collection in the preface: “This book, filled with writing and art, was born from my love of a river and my hopes that through art, poetry and love we will grow to understand that rivers are our very own selves. All rivers of the world are connected to each other just like we are connected to every other person on earth.”
To celebrate the publication of the book, Bass gave us permission to share a piece by Florida poet Lola Haskins, who has published widely and is honorary chancellor of the Florida State Poets Association.
Oklawaha
By Lola Haskins | republished with permission
each stroke parts the pollen
that closes behind me i rest
my dripping paddle on my knees
and as the river sloshes against
my hull i wonder why
i ever wanted anything but this
*
palms and tupelo lift
their candles
to light
water lines
mark the cypresses
under which
tall lilies swoop
so gracefully they’ve no need
to bloom
overhead indigo fox grapes dangle
all tiny tang and pit from a confusion
of overhanging moss
near shore pickerelweed
backdrops water lettuce
and the yellow fists of spatterdock
its leaves unashamedly splayed
my kayak lurches
stills
something huge
something thousands of years
is sheltering under me
- Have a comment? Send to: editor@charlestoncurrents.com
BRACK: A community’s soul depends on a robust editorial page
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Pick up a newspaper in many towns in South Carolina and you’re likely to find something missing: a robust editorial page.
Over the last few years, editorial pages have been dying as big media organizations with an eye to profit made cut after cut, relegating many pages of opinion to shadows of their former selves. Blame it on greed. Blame it on the rise of social media or Internet competition. But one thing is clear – a reduction in opinion is not a good thing for communities that want to remain vibrant.
“A newspaper without a good editorial voice is a newspaper with a fairly weak soul,” said Ferrel Guillory, a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill media professor and former Raleigh editorial writer.
“Newspapers don’t demand that people agree with them, but are a principal instrument in setting a community’s agenda,” he said. “And so when you lose that voice, you lose part of its identity, part of the soul of a community.”
You don’t have to agree with what’s said on an editorial page. What some writer professes might make you spit up your morning coffee. But that’s what a good community newspaper is supposed to do – to challenge readers to think and give them information that they can use to make informed decisions about their town, county, state and nation.
Newspaper editorial pages are just as important to democracy as bills, votes and public meetings. A good local newspaper with a thoughtful, sometimes cantankerous, editorial binds a community. Without a good editorial and watchdog voice, communities drift, relying too often on big personalities, chambers of commerce or something else for leadership. Throw a newspaper into the mix and you have a calming and vigorous voice that can spearhead change for the good.
“The community and newspaper depend on each other,” Guillory said. “The community has important decisions to make. An editorial page helps the community come to grips with the big issues facing them. And part of the way we do that in a democracy is debate.”
Unfortunately across America, local newspapers are dying. A new study by UNC-CH shows more than one in five newspapers have closed in the last 15 years. In South Carolina, Allendale County has no newspaper. In neighboring Georgia, 28 of 159 counties have no newspaper. Across the country, nearly half of 3,143 counties have just one newspaper, usually a small weekly.
But just as alarming are “ghost” newspapers that are shells of what they were. Compare The State in Columbia or the Greenville News in Greenville, both vibrant and thick newspapers 20 years ago, to today’s product, now owned by big corporations. Despite good journalism still coming from local reporters at those papers, the daily newspaper feels flimsy. Their editorial voices have dimmed.
“The newspaper industry has, largely, put a gun to its own head with many decisions it has made,” notes editorial writer Richard Whiting of the Greenwood Index-Journal. “Corporate ownership launched the big decline.”
He said he understands how many newspapers cut editorial staff to save money and tried to fill the void with national syndicated columnists and more attention to letters from readers. But ultimately, that is an abdication of responsibility by organizations that are supposed to “be a beacon of knowledge and to attempt to steer where the community is going.”
Sam Spence, editor of the alternative Charleston City Paper, observed that social media seems to chill some traditional media outlets. “Afraid to be lumped in with the red-hot, quick-fire reactions on social media, you rarely see much insightful opinion from [establishment] media anymore. Sure, some papers may use the institutional weight of their masthead to urge action on an issue, but rarely on anything novel that you haven’t seen consensus crystalize in the few days prior.”
Our country, still mired in division most recently evidenced in the longest-ever shutdown of the federal government, is desperately seeking unity. Editorial voices from newspapers are a vital component to help people vent, share ideas and find common ground. But for editorial voices to do their jobs to be a glue for communities, media owners have to stop killing them off.
Disclosure: Brack’s weekly column is carried by several newspapers, including the Index-Journal and City Paper. Have a comment? Send to: editor@charlestoncurrents.com
SPOTLIGHT: Titan Termite & Pest Control
Today’s issue is brought to you for free thanks to the generosity of our underwriters. This week’s spotlight is on a longtime supporter, Titan Termite & Pest Control. Headquartered in Charleston, Titan Termite & Pest Control is a full service residential, commercial and industrial pest control company serving South Carolina. It is a third-generation, family-owned company known for outstanding customer service. Each associate is dedicated to the customer and exhibits integrity and respect.
Titan’s pest professionals can assist your commercial or residential location with general pest control, termite inspections, termite control, flea control, bed bug extermination, ant control and more. Titan Termite and Pest Control continues to set high standards so that its customers receive the best possible service. Titan’s technicians are knowledgeable of the latest in pest control techniques, which enables the company to customize effective treatment plans for every situation.
- Free estimate: 888-794-5603.
- Contact Titan online.
- To meet all of our underwriters, click here.
GOOD NEWS: Ports Authority celebrates new headquarters in Mount Pleasant
Staff reports | The S.C. Ports Authority last week celebrated the dedication of a new 80,000-square-foot headquarters building at the Wando Welch Terminal.
“The port’s new headquarters offers a single, modern campus for employees with direct access to our biggest operating terminal, the Wando Welch,” said SCPA president and CEO Jim Newsome. “The building design provides a open floor plan to support cross-functional internal communications, allowing our team to better collaborate and serve the needs of our customers and stakeholders.”
The building consolidates approximately 160 employees working from multiple office locations in the Charleston area. The building design features a glass atrium in the lobby extending up all four floors and a terrazzo floor pattern depicting the Charleston peninsula and waterways. Artwork throughout the building is provided by local artists.
The headquarters also includes an on-site fitness center and ¾ mile walking trail surrounding the building campus, on-site primary care and occupational health services provided by MUSC Health, a cafeteria and sit-to-stand desks in all employee workstations and offices.
The building’s numerous sustainability benefits include an energy monitoring system to optimize usage, low-flow plumbing fixtures, high performance glazing on the windows and external sun shades, a high-efficiency HVAC system and components, and high-efficiency LED lighting.
In other Good News:
Airport bonds. The Charleston County Aviation Authority has successfully placed $64.7 million in new bonds, the net proceeds of which will be used to support a 3,000-space parking garage that will cost $88 million, according to a press release.
Red Dress Sunday. February may offer the start of a new local tradition — a Sunday in February at multiple houses of worship in the area in which congregations are encouraged to wear red to bring attention to heart disease. They’ll also learn about risk factors, ways to live a heart-healthy lifestyle and more. More.
Big grant. Tri-County Cradle to Career Collaborative has received $150,000 from StriveTogether, a national nonprofit working to bring communities together around data to make decisions and improve results for children. According to a press release, TCCC will use the grant funds – in partnership with Father to Father Inc., Metanoia and Trident United Way – to ensure that the region’s students are ready for kindergarten by aligning organizations, individuals and resources and committing to a shared vision.
Pay equity. Women leaders at the Statehouse are pushing measures to require pay equity at the workplace, according to Lindsay Street in our sister publication, Statehouse Report.
Gun reform. Lawmakers are trying again for some gun reform in South Carolina as a Columbia legislators is pushing an assault weapons ban while Charleston Democratic Sen. Marlon Kimpson again is pushing to close the “Charleston loophole,” Statehouse Report says.
FEEDBACK: Tell us what you think
We’d love to get your impact in one or more ways:
Send us a letter: We love hearing from readers. Comments are limited to 250 words or less. Please include your name and contact information. Send your letters to: editor@charlestoncurrents.com. | Read our feedback policy.
Tell us what you love about the Lowcountry. Send a short comment – 100 words to 150 words – that describes something you really enjoy about the Lowcountry. It can be big or small. It can be a place, a thing or something you see. It might the bakery where you get a morning croissant or a business or government entity doing a good job. We’ll highlight your entry in a coming issue of Charleston Currents. We look forward to hearing from you.
MYSTERY: This should look familiar
This building should look familiar to people in Charleston, but where and what is it? Send your guess to: editor@charlestoncurrents.com. And don’t forget to include your name and the town in which you live.
Our previous Mystery Photo
Our previous mystery, “Lowcountry-style building might be tough to identify, was sent in by reader Frank Bouknight of Summerville. And boy, was it tough. One person guessed it was a clubhouse. Another guessed something else. But only Cheryl Smithem of Summerville got it right, correctly identifying the building as being part of the Cummins Memorial Theological Seminary.
“I’ve seen this building all my life,” she wrote us. She shared that the seminary “was founded and formed in 1876 by the Rev. Peter Fayssoux Stevens. The purpose of the school was to train and educate freemen who were former slaves and sons of former slaves for the ministry of the Reformed Episcopal Church in the South. Through the succession of many leaders, the school became formally charted as a seminary in 1939 and changed its name to the Cummins Memorial Theological Seminary.”
Good work Frank and Cheryl!
- Send us a mystery: If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!) Send it along to editor@charlestoncurrents.com.
HISTORY: Vertamae Grosvenor
S.C. Encyclopedia | Grosvenor was born to Frank and Clara Smart on April 4, 1938, in Fairfax, Allendale County. When she was ten, her family moved from the South Carolina Lowcountry, where Grosvenor spoke Gullah, to Philadelphia. By that time, she had developed an interest in food and cooking. After high school, Grosvenor went to Paris and traveled throughout Europe. She has been married twice and has two daughters.
A woman with varied interests, Grosvenor is best known as a writer and culinary anthropologist. During her travels abroad, she became interested in the African diaspora and how African foods and recipes traveled and changed as a result of it. Her first book, Vibration Cooking; or, The Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl, was published in 1970. It is a unique combination of recipes, reminiscences, and stories from family and friends. It shows Grosvenor’s strong devotion to these people as well as her growing interest in Afro-Atlantic foodways and culinary history. This interest has been further developed in Vertamae Cooks in the Americas’ Family Kitchen (1996) and Vertamae Cooks Again (1999), and in her cooking series, Seasonings, for public radio and Americas’ Family Kitchen on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).
Grosvenor’s other interests have led her in several directions. She has written for such varied publications as Ebony, the New York Times, the Village Voice, Essence, Life, and the Washington Post. In 1972 she published a history of black servitude in the United States and England, Thursdays and Every Other Sunday Off: A Domestic Rap. She has also been an editor for Elan Magazine and served on the Literary Task Force for the South Carolina Arts Commission. She has lectured throughout the Americas, catered celebrity affairs, and been a guest on many television shows. She has acted on Broadway and in the movies Daughters of the Dust and Beloved. She is perhaps best known, however, as a regular contributor to National Public Radio (where she has been a commentator on All Things Considered ) and PBS.
Throughout her career, Grosvenor has continued her loving explorations of lowcountry culture. She was a writer in residence for the Penn Center on St. Helena Island and worked on the National Geographic Explorer documentary, “Gullah.” She won an Emmy for “Growing Up Gullah,” a story for the Washington, D.C., program, Capitol Edition. She has combined her love of theater and cooking in the folk opera, Nyam, which is Gullah for “eat.” She died in 2018.
— Excerpted from an entry by Kathy A. Campbell. This entry may not have been updated since 2006. To read more about this or 2,000 other entries about South Carolina, check out The South Carolina Encyclopedia, published in 2006 by USC Press. (Information used by permission.)
CALENDAR: Local author Scott to sign big book on MacArthur Wednesday
Staff reports | Mount Pleasant native James M. Scott will share stories and answer questions about his new book on legendary Gen. Douglas MacArthur and the World War II battle for Manila 6:30 p.m. Feb. 6 at the Main Library on Calhoun Street in downtown Charleston.
Rampage: MacArthur, Yamashita, and the Battle of Manila, published last year, has been named a best book of 2018. It has garnered top reviews:
- “Rampage is a horrifyingly unforgettable book… Reminds us once again that man’s inhumanity to man belies the notion of human progress. The massacres in Manila that [Scott] so painstakingly details take their place among the 20th century’s most monstrous and lurid crimes.” — New York Journal of Books
- “Powerful narrative history… impossible to put down.” — Los Angeles Times
- “Remarkable… Establishes [Scott] as one of America’s preeminent WWII historians.” — Dallas Morning News
Scott also wrote the 2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist Target Tokyo, The War Below and Attack on the Liberty. More info.
Also on the Calendar:
Gullah Geechee events: There are several area events where people can learn more about the area’s Gullah Geechee roots as they commemorate Black History Month:
Charleston’s Gullah Geechee Historymakers: 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., Feb. 4, West Ashley Regional Library, Charleston. Learn about the Gullah Geechee men and women who have left a mark on the Charleston area.
Tracing your Gullah roots: 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., Feb. 16, Mount Pleasant Regional Library, Mount Pleasant. Join a special workshop to learn about Gullah Geechee stories.
Gullah Day: 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., Georgetown County Library, Georgetown. This event is a free morning screening of “The Language You Cry In,” a documentary about the Gullah Geechee story.
Events at the Gaillard. Check out these awesome coming events at the Charleston Gaillard Center, 95 Calhoun St., Charleston:
Feb. 5, 7:30 p.m.: Shanghai Opera Symphony Orchestra.
Feb. 19, 7 p.m.: Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella.
Feb. 22, 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.: Magic School Bus: Lost in the Solar System
Veeck talk: 11:30 a.m., Feb. 7, Halls Chophouse, 434 King St., Charleston. Mike Veeck, a popular owner of the Charleston RiverDogs who spearheads stellar and fun baseball promotions, will be guest speaker at the Small Business Lunch series. Tickets are $32 for a three-course meal. Reserve a seat.
Second Amendment symposium: 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., Feb. 8, Charleston Music Hall, Charleston. Duke University law professors Joseph Blocher and Darrell A.H. Miller will kick off a symposium at 8:45 a.m. that examines the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in a new and positive light. The conference, which includes other law professors, attorneys and a state representative, is hosted by the Charleston Law Review of the Charleston School of Law and the Riley Institute at Furman University. After the keynote address, the symposium will continue with three panel discussions. The symposium is free and open to the public, but registration is required.
The Curious Gardener: 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Feb. 10, Yeamans Hall Club, Hanahan. Anna Pavord, a well-known English writer on gardening, will be featured speaker at a lunch with the Charleston Horticultural Society. Spaces are limited. Tickets are $145 per person and include reception, signing of her book (The Curious Gardener), silent auction and her presentation. More: 843.570.9922.
Outside Agitator talk, signing: 5 p.m., Feb. 15, Blue Bicycle Books, 420 King St., Charleston. Author Adam Parker and his subject, Cleveland Sellers Jr., will offer a public book talk and signing for the recently published book, “Outside Agitator: The Civil Rights Struggle of Cleveland Sellers Jr.”
Southeastern Wildlife Exposition: Feb. 15 to Feb. 17, downtown Charleston. This grand, annual three-day festival focuses on what people across the region love about wildlife and nature. SEWE has an incredible lineup of events – from fine art exhibits, conservation education, sporting demonstrations and parties. Learn more.
Women, Wine & Shoes: 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., Feb. 21, Hotel Bennett, downtown Charleston. This fun annual benefit for Florence Crittenton Programs of South Carolina will feature designer shopping, wine tasting, great food and a fashion show. Tickets are $175 per person and seating is limited. Learn more.
Commissioning of USS Charleston: 10 a.m., March 2, Columbus Street Terminal. Charleston. A commissioning ceremony for the new USS Charleston (LCS 18), an Independence-class littoral combat ship, requires anyone who wishes to attend to register this month and soon through the Navy League of Charleston. In late January or early February, the Navy will send an letter to those who registered online with further instructions. Then the Navy will send invitation tickets to successful registrants. If you can’t attend, you can watch online here. More info.
Early morning bird walks at Caw Caw: 8:30 a.m. every Wednesday and Saturday, Caw Caw Interpretive Center, Ravenel. You can learn about habitats and birds, butterflies and other organisms in this two-hour session. Registration not required, but participants are to be 15 and up. $10 per person or free to Gold Pass holders. More: http://www.CharlestonCountyParks.com.
AREA FARMERS MARKETS
SATURDAYS: Johns Island Farmers Market operates each Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. year-round with more than 50 local farmers and vendors, food trucks, music and more. The market is located on the campus of Charleston Collegiate School, 2024 Academy Road, Johns Island.
- If you have an event to list on our calendar, please send it to feedback@charlestoncurrents.com for consideration. The calendar is updated weekly on Mondays.
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Charleston Currents offers insightful community comment and good news on events each week. It cuts through the information clutter to offer the best of what’s happening locally.
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Charleston Currents is provided to you weekly by:
- Editor and publisher: Andy Brack, 843.670.3996
- Contributing editor, common good, Fred Palm
- Contributing editor, money: Kyra Morris
- Contributing editor, Palmetto Poem: Marjory Wentworth
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