Charleston Currents #13.08 | Dec. 21, 2020
THE SHOTS HEARD AROUND THE WORLD. This Charleston nurse at MUSC was one of many to receive a new vaccine against COVID-19 last week as thousands of doses were distributed to frontline health care workers across the state. Health officials caution, however, that residents need to continue to wear masks, be socially-distanced and take other precautions as the virus continues to rage across the state. Just in the last three days, South Carolina has reported 9,150 new cases of the virus and 80 deaths. Since the pandemic began, more than 253,000 people have contracted the disease that has killed 4,566 state residents. Photo via MUSC.
FOCUS: The buzz over a local holly
COMMENTARY, Brack: We need more inspirational leaders like William Winter
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Charleston Gaillard Center
NEWS BRIEFS: Zucker to keynote MLK event
FEEDBACK: Send us your thoughts
MYSTERY PHOTO: Good tidings
CALENDAR: Free parking in downtown Charleston
EDITOR’S NOTE: We’re taking off next week in honor of the holidays. We wish you the happiest of holidays and look forward to sharing more news and information with you when this horrible year is gone. Good riddance, 2020!
The buzz over a local holly
By Toni Reale, republished with permission | The yaupon holly is North America’s only plant source of caffeine that grows from the coast of Virginia to Florida and parts of Texas.
According to a professor of food chemistry at Texas A&M University on NPR, the leaves of this plant have approximately the same amount of caffeine as green or black tea. Theobromine, another stimulant found in yaupon, is an alkaloid that is chemically related to caffeine.
Reale
Researchers at the University of Navarro found that the combination of theobromine and caffeine as a drink can result in a smoother experience when consumed. Caffeine and theobromine naturally occur in cacao, which is why the consumption of chocolate can lead to an enhanced mood without the jitters. That’s why yaupon holly can be the base of the perfect caffeinated beverage for those who may be sensitive to caffeine, according to a journal article in Frontiers in Pharmacology.
A study done by Texas A&M University scientists found yaupon consumption reduces inflammation and can serve as a chemopreventive, which is a natural way to reduce the risk of cancer or delay its development. Additionally, yaupon contains saponins, a compound known for boosting immunity, lowering cholesterol, aiding in weight regulation, and so much more.
Learn about the Lowcountry’s yaupon
The yaupon holly, an unassuming native evergreen, grows in dense thickets in the maritime forests of the Lowcountry. The size of the plant varies greatly, based on soil conditions and sunlight availability. It can be 4- to 25-feet tall and up to 15-feet wide.
You’ve seen this shrub before. It can be easily identified in the wild by its leaf shape that is fatter in the middle than at the ends. It also has rounded serrated edges that grow in an alternating pattern up the stem. This holly’s almost-impenetrable form of growth provides vital habitats and food for small mammals and birds. The yaupon holly also helps to stabilize eroding landscapes — something of particular importance in the era of escalating climate change and rising seas.
At this time of year, the female yaupon teems with bright red berry-like fruits called drupes. These native bushes grow so prolifically, a hiker would be hard pressed to pass one by without noticing. While it’s the most fitting locally grown greenery to add to holiday arrangements, this plant also has immense health benefits that are making a resurgence in the health and wellness industry.
Why yaupon might not be in your pantry
Yaupon has it all: a buzz without jitters and a long list of splendid health benefits. So why isn’t the tea in everyones’ cabinets? The answer starts with its misleading scientific name: Ilex vomitori. With a name like that, why would anyone choose yaupon over herbal tea or yerba mate?
Yaupon’s species name has historical ties to Native American tribes consuming so much of the “black drink” during ceremonies that they would vomit. Not to worry today: Yaupon is as much of an emetic as coffee or soda, which means the threat of throwing up after consuming it is a non-issue (unless you drink gallons and gallons of it.)
Yaupon’s scientific name, along with significant competition with the annual $203 million yerba mate trade, has significantly impacted this native grown plant’s marketability. Participants in a blind taste test led by a University of Florida undergraduate research student found that even frequent yerba mate drinkers overwhelmingly preferred yaupon tea to mate.
Lowcountry company pushes benefits of yaupon tea, more
Charleston botanist April Punsalan founded Yahola which is a yaupon and herbal tea company. She is passionate about the health benefits of yaupon as well as what developing a new market for this holly would mean for the Lowcountry. She says she sees an opportunity for farmers and landowners to create a new revenue stream with this easily cultivated or foraged product, all the while protecting land from development. Punsalan says she hopes the resurgence of yaupon tea will create a healthier and more prosperous Lowcountry.
The folks at Yahola harvest the yaupon leaves locally to create herbal blends that are for sale on the company’s website. She also offers an online foraging class that encourages students to get outside and harvest medicinal and edible plants locally.
This article was first published in our sister publication, the Charleston City Paper. Toni Reale is the owner of Roadside Blooms, a unique flower and plant shop in Park Circle in North Charleston. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@charlestoncurrents.com
We need more inspirational leaders like William Winter
Winter, center, at a Mississippi church service. Images courtesy of the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Andy Brack’s most recent column focuses on why Gov. Henry McMaster’s leadership during the pandemic is a train wreck. Today, however, we believe it’s also important to remember the inspiring life of William F. Winter, a former Mississippi governor who died Friday at 97 after 75 years of public service, as outlined in this 2016 commentary. He would have engaged the pandemic head-on, without timidity.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Whenever there’s a letter or card in the mail from Mississippi, it’s bound to be inspirational. And it’s bound to be from a guy you might not have heard of but should know more about.
Meet former Mississippi Gov. William F. Winter, a public sector healer whose decency, goodness and vision for a better South gently motivates people to be kinder and more accepting of each other.
Winter, a Jackson lawyer who held the top political office in Mississippi from 1980 to 1984, is still known for pushing public education reform in his home state for the first time in years, including the establishment of public kindergartens. Since serving as governor, he has gained a national reputation for encouraging racial reconciliation and his unrelenting support for public education.
At age 93, Winter continues to inspire, often sending words of encouragement after meetings or encounters. In May 1995, for example, Winter sent a letter stirring me to continue to develop what became a regional think tank. He wrote, “You have laid out an intriguing and ambitious program which, if fully implemented, could transform the politics of the South in the right way. Right now we are seeing a transformation in the wrong direction.”
A trim figure drawn to charcoal suits, white shirts and maroon ties, Winter might remind you of a hardscrabble farmer. Whenever you encounter him, he exudes a curiosity about life and what you’re doing to make it better.
This curiosity was in no better display than in October 1995 in Washington, D.C., after lunch in the U.S. Senate dining room. That day, hundreds of thousands of African Americans met on the National Mall for the Million Man March. One of the largest demonstrations in history, many white leaders seemed intimidated. Not Winter. As I headed back to the office, I asked what he was going to do during the afternoon. He pointed toward the mall and said something like, “I’m going to head down here to listen.”
That’s the kind of guy he is — always probing, questioning, looking for ways to move his state and the region forward.
Winter
One of Winter’s protégés, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, told us he most admired Winter’s persistence and resilience in working for progress in Mississippi.
“Despite two defeats for governor, he wouldn’t give up and ran a third time, even when many suggested he couldn’t win,” said Mabus, who served as Mississippi’s governor from 1988 to 1992. “Governor Winter demonstrated the same commitment in pressing ahead with education reform in the 1982 special session, despite previous defeats. He never gives up. Still doesn’t.”
Ferrel Guillory, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who runs a program on public life, got to know Winter after he served as governor.
“He carved out an exemplary life-after-the-governorship role as a progressive ‘conscience of the South,’ traveling widely to inspire leaders, serving on key boards and commissions, speaking on the persistent need for closing racial and economic gaps, and urging Southerners to persist in advancing public education,” Guillory said.
“Governor Winter has demonstrated the high art of public leadership, acting with integrity and with deep human concern for his fellow citizens, regardless of their station in life. He exemplifies what it means to be an engaged citizen, combining practicality and vision. And I am honored to have him as a friend.”
So are the hundreds of others who continue to be inspired by his goodness. In May after we had breakfast in Jackson, he sent these kind words:
“We have to find the political will and concern to support more investment in public education and the cultural activities that lift us out of our suspicion of change and our preoccupation with clinging to the myths of the past. We have such a rich heritage in this region that can make for a greatly enriched quality of life for everybody if we will just listen to the best angels of our nation, instead of those base instincts that bring out our negativism and fears.”
We all have people in our lives who inspire us — parents, teachers, coaches, ministers and public figures. We need more like William Winter.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Charleston Currents, and publisher of the Charleston City Paper. Have a comment? Send to: editor@charlestoncurrents.com.
Charleston Gaillard Center
Charleston Gaillard Center provides the Lowcountry with a world-class performance hall, elegant venue space and vibrant educational opportunities that inspire dynamic community throughout the area through the power of the performing arts. The Center’s vision is to enrich the diverse community of Charleston with artistic and cultural experiences that are accessible and unique, and to serve as an educational resource for generations to come.
Did you know that the Charleston Gaillard Center is a 501c3 non-profit that works with over 25,000 students each year from the tri-county area? Promoting education is one of the core values of the Charleston Gaillard Center and an integral part of our mission. By broadening the reach of arts-education in the Lowcountry the Gaillard Center encourages learning through the arts and serves as a powerful tool for student achievement and personal development while providing people of all ages with the opportunity to cultivate and grow their talents and appreciation for the arts. To learn more about our education initiative, click here: www.gaillardcenter.org/outreach.
For more information, click the links below:
- Buy tickets and see our great events
- Become a member today
- Plan your event at the Charleston Gaillard Center
- Learn about our education and community programs
- Contact the Gaillard Center.
- To meet all of our underwriters, click here.
Zucker to keynote MLK event
Staff reports | Charleston philanthropist and business leader Anita Zucker will offer keynote remarks next month at the MLK Annual Business and Professional Summit, the capstone event of a 10-day yearly tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg is honorary chair.
Zucker
The event, which will be before a limited audience of 50 in a socially-distanced format at 7:30 a.m. Jan 19, will be held at the Charleston Area Convention and Visitors Bureau’s Camden Room at 375 Meeting Street in Charleston. The event, which routinely draws hundreds to an annual breakfast in non-pandemic times, also will be offered virtually.
Virtual attendance of the 2021 MLK Annual Business and Professional Summit will be complimentary. Registration information will be available in early January at ywcagc.org.
Zucker, who currently serves as chair and chief executive officer of The InterTech Group, Inc., is an advocate for education and a passionate philanthropist. The recipient of the 2019 Ernst & Young Lifetime Achievement Award, 2019 James L. Fisher Distinguished Service Award, and 2018 Ellis Island Medal of Honor, among many other honors, she has served on boards throughout South Carolina and beyond.
The 49th annual Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration is one of Charleston’s longest running events, predating Spoleto Festival USA and other well-known local events. The annual celebration was founded by YWCA Greater Charleston and first held in January 1972—one of the first such tributes to King in the nation. The MLK Business and Professional Breakfast was added in January 2000 in partnership with former Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley, Jr. and the city of Charleston. Today the celebration is the largest tribute to King in South Carolina, attracting thousands of celebrants each year.
- More information: ywcagc.org/mlk.
In other news:
Watch the heavens on Dec. 21. Tonight’s winter solstice will feature something that only happens only once every 20 years — Jupiter and Saturn will be in conjunction, meaning they appear close in the sky. Tonight’s conjunction reportedly will be the closest since 1623. The two planets reportedly are going to appear so close in the sky that you may not be able to distinguish that they are two without binoculars. It’s definitely worth checking out. Learn more here.
Cunningham gives last floor speech. U.S. Rep. Joe Cunningham, D-Charleston, cracked open a cold one during his farewell speech to the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday. In a final speech urging bipartisanship, Cunningham raised a beer as his parting shot in Congress. Read more.
Big new scholarship fund. Hats off to Charleston businessman Ben Navarro and his wife Kathy for funding a $10,000 college scholarship for up to 500 students by 2024. The $5 million annual investment in the Meeting Street Scholarship Fund seeks to open the door for Charleston County School District students with strong academic records and financial need to attend college. The scholarship will fill the funding gap that prevents many under-resourced students from pursuing and attaining a college degree. Scholarship recipients will be awarded up to $10,000 per year, for a total of $40,000 over four years, to pay for tuition at South Carolina’s leading colleges and universities. But according to a press release, the Navarros’ hope is that, over time, many more students will achieve the academic results needed to qualify for the scholarship.
Osborne
New president. Welcome Nick Osborne, new president and CEO of the Lowcountry Food Bank. Osborne, selected after a national search, will lead the local fight against hunger in 10 coastal counties of the Palmetto State. With more than 30 years of professional nonprofit experience, he most recently served as vice president of International Programs and Operations at CARE USA, where he served in executive leadership roles for two decades. “Nick Osborne is the right person to lead the Lowcountry Food Bank into the future. His depth of humanitarian experience and proven ability to drive results are critical to the future success of the LCFB,” said retiring Food Bank president Pat Walker.
Dunn to retire. Susan Dunn, longtime legal director of the ACLU of South Carolina who has more than four decades of service as a civil rights lawyer, will retire at the end of May, according to a press release. “Thanks to Susan, the ACLU of South Carolina has been at the forefront of the most important civil liberties fights of our time, ensuring access to the ballot, protecting LGBTQ equality and reproductive rights, and ending the criminalization of poverty, to name just a few,” said Frank Knaack, executive director of the ACLU of South Carolina. “Susan has made South Carolina a more just and equitable place for all.”
Moratorium efforts to continue. State lawmakers are expected to renew efforts to ban offshore oil and gas exploration as well as seismic testing, according to this article in Statehouse Report. Read more about efforts by state and nonprofit officials.
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Good tidings
Here’s a tranquil evening holiday scene, but what and where is it? Send to editor@charlestoncurrents.com. And don’t forget to include your name and the town in which you live.
Our previous Mystery Photo
Our Dec. 14 photo, “Interesting Lowcountry plant,” shows yaupon holly, described in this week’s Focus by Toni Reale. Several readers — but none from Charleston County — correctly identified the plant, including George Graf of Palmyra, Va.; Jay Altman of Columbia; Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas; Don Clark, both of Hartsville; and Marnie Huger of Richmond, Va. Happy holidays all!
Peel shared that while most sources agree that yaupon is the continent’s only native source of caffeine, “the crowd-sourced Wikipedia article here, the yaupon holly “is only one of two known plants endemic to North America that produce caffeine. The other is Ilex Cassine, commonly known as dahoon holly.”
He also shared a little bit on why holly is often used to decorate during the holidays: “In Christianity, holly was adopted as a symbol of Christ’s crown of thorns; the crimson berries a symbol of his blood; and the evergreen leaves a metaphor for life after death. The tradition of ‘decking the halls with boughs of holly’ at Christmas continues today.”
- 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.
Free parking in downtown Charleston
From now until New Year’s Day, the city is providing two hours of free parking downtown with this year’s Holiday Magic in Historic Charleston parking voucher.
Free parking is available at eight Charleston parking garages. To find out where, download the voucher.
Also on the calendar:
Essential Farm Goods Market: 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. Dec. 22, Moultrie Middle School, Mount Pleasant. Find lots of vendors in this socially-distanced holiday market
Sunday Brunch Farmers Market: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., every Sunday, Charleston Pour House, 1977 Maybank Highway, James Island. While the market is discouraging people from spending too much time hanging out during the market, everyone is invited to shop their local vendors.
Two exhibits in one: Through Dec. 31, City of North Charleston’s Park Circle Gallery. North Charleston photographer Dawnita Hall’s exhibit, Signs of Life, is a series of nine metallic print photographs of found signs and lettering. More: DawnitaHall.com. Painter Susan Irish of Charleston offers a series of abstract impressionist, mixed-media paintings with color palettes and compositions inspired by nature In her exhibit, I See You in My Garden. Free. More: SusanIrishArtist.com. The gallery is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesdays to Fridays, and noon to 4 p.m. on Saturdays.
Holiday Festival of Lights: Through Dec. 31, 2020. The annual event, now in its 31st year, opens Nov. 13 and will offer a dazzling array of displays and about 2 million lights at James Island County Park. The festival will be open every evening nightly from 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. You can take a heartwarming cruise along the three-mile display of glimmering lights with your closest companions. The driving tour features over 700 light displays, most of which were created in-house by park staff. For details, visit HolidayFestivalofLights.com.
Charleston Restaurant Week: Jan. 7 to Jan. 17. Charleston Restaurant Week — a period when diners can get special deals at restaurants all over town — is scheduled to return on Jan 7 for 10 days.This culinary dream, executed by Explore Charleston, is one of the most highly anticipated culinary events in the Charleston area,” according to the visitors’ bureau website. “It is an opportunity to enjoy the world-renowned cuisine of the Lowcountry as participating restaurants offer prix fixe lunch and dinner menus.” More than a dozen area restaurants are participating so far. More are expected.
- If you have any online events, drop us a line (editor@charlestoncurrents.com) and make sure to put “Online event” in the subject line. Similarly, if you’ve got cool ideas for stuff to do while in isolation at home, send them our way.
- ORDER NOW: Copies are in Lowcountry-area bookstores now, but if you can’t swing by, you can order a copy online today.
As more people stay home to deal with the coronavirus crisis, people are looking for things to do. You can find some fun things to do online in our calendar section below, but let us also encourage you to FORWARD your issue of Charleston Currents to your friends and encourage them to subscribe. It’s got a great price, as you know: Free! We hope they’ll enjoy our coverage.
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