Charleston Currents – Andy Brack

Articles by: Andy Brack

PHOTO: Soulful sounds of learning

Seventh-grade piano students from Charleston County School of the Arts sat in to play jazz classics during a special Sunday evening gig at The Mezz, Charleston’s downtown jazz bar. The students, taught by keyboard player (and drummer in this photo) Joe Clarke, get a feel for live playing, which expands classroom learning in countless ways. In this photo, a student is performing with Clarke and bassist Roman Pekar and saxophone player Kevin Patton. Photo by Andy Brack.

by Andy Brack · 10/03/2016 · Comments are Disabled · Photos

BRACK: Yes, love is progress and hate is expensive

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | If you’re relatively new to the state or under age 50, you may not know the story of Esau Jenkins.

But you should. And now, the world knows more about this incredible Johns Island civil rights leader thanks to a permanent exhibit in the new Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture that opened Saturday. The exhibit displays Jenkins motto — “Love is Progress, Hate is Expensive” — on the back panels of a Volkswagen microbus that ferried people on the sea islands to work, school and the voting polls.

by Andy Brack · 09/26/2016 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views

GOOD NEWS: Top student app-developers will split $10,000 in prizes

Staff reports | Some $10,000 in awards and scholarships are available to area students from middle school to graduate school in the Charleston Defense Contractors Association’s 6th annual Mobile App Competition. Applications and associated videos are due by midnight Nov. 21, 2016. More on the application process. Also in this brief: Update on flood maps, Anna Wypych’s first show and Autumn on the Ashley.

by Andy Brack · 09/26/2016 · Comments are Disabled · Good news, News briefs

PHOTO: Soothing scene

Enjoy the vibrant, soothing colors in this marsh scene taken south of Charleston off U.S. Highway 17. Photo by Andy Brack.

by Andy Brack · 09/26/2016 · Comments are Disabled · Photos

BRACK: Charleston needs a better logo

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Charleston, a world-class city in many respects, is missing one important thing: a logo that looks like more than a smudge.

You’ve seen it, a black and white monstrosity of an old-school design that has been reproduced so many times that it looks like a bad copy of something that you have no idea what the original was. There’s some palmetto fronds crossed at the bottom of some kind of building and the Carolopolis seal in front of it. There’s no telling what’s on top of the whole thing — a bird or a genie’s lamp or Lord knows what. Below the smudge is thin cursive script that reads, “City of Charleston.”

Is this really the best that a city that welcomes millions of visitors a year can do? A city that is busting at the seams with too many new hotels? A city where history intersects with charm? Folks, we can do better.

by Andy Brack · 09/19/2016 · 1 comment · Andy Brack, Views

BRACK: High court should keep holding state accountable on education

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Boy, the S.C. legislature’s lawyers have some gall.

In a state where public education has been underfunded by about $4 billion since 2010, lawyers for the General Assembly and Gov. Nikki Haley essentially say they’ve done enough to comply with a state Supreme Court order to do more for poor school districts.

Yeah, right. More than two decades ago, a handful of poor school districts brought suit against the state seeking more equitable education funding. Referred to as the Abbeville case, the lawsuit wound its way through a too-slow judicial process until late 2015 when the state Supreme Court finally ordered the General Assembly and school districts come up with a way to pay for the state’s failure to provide adequate public education opportunities, especially in poor, rural districts. The court said it would provide oversight on the case until the state got its act together.

by Andy Brack · 09/12/2016 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views

MYSTERY: Marsh scene

Marsh scenes do something magical to calm your soul. Have you ever seen this view? If so, where is it? Send your best guess to: editor@charlestoncurrents.com — and make sure to include the name of the town in which you live.

by Andy Brack · 09/12/2016 · Comments are Disabled · Mystery Photo, Photos

Depression-era photographer Marion Post Wolcott snapped this image in 1939 of tomato pickers on their lunch break in a field near Homestead, Fla. Charleston County once was home to a huge truck farming industry, which included tomatoes that were shipped to northern markets. Photo from the Library of Congress.

FOCUS: Toward a more truthful — and useful — Charleston history

By Charlie Smith, Special to Charleston Currents | When the Charleston County Planning Commission’s subcommittee on historic preservation announced last year that consultants had been hired to conduct the 2016 update of the Historic Resources Survey, I was initially very excited that we would finally be addressing some of our past failures to protect important historic sites and buildings throughout Charleston County.

Realizing that we did not have endless funds with which to work, we began to narrow the scope to a task that was feasible given our limited resources. I was initially not happy at all with the 1940-1975 time frame chosen for the limited study.

Charleston has a deeply-rooted complicity at every level in the atrocious politics of skin color …

by Andy Brack · 09/05/2016 · 1 comment · Focus, Good news

BRACK: Political cockfighting starts over next year’s budget

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Political positioning has already started for next year’s state budget, not that you should be surprised.

The culprits are two big numbers causing some confusion before the debate even begins.

Last month, the state Board of Economic Advisors projected South Carolina lawmakers would have about $440 million in new revenues for the 2017-18 budget. It’s not the $1.2 billion they had to craft the current budget, but it’s not small potatoes either. The lower number — which would have been a dream come true during the Great Recession a few years ago — reflects a slowing economy, perhaps. But it’s important to note this: The economy is still growing.

by Andy Brack · 09/05/2016 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views

Former U.S. Sen. Fritz Hollings at a 2008 event at the University of South Carolina.

BRACK: Enjoying Fritz Hollings’ colorful language again

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | More than a decade after South Carolina’s Fritz Hollings left the United States Senate, people still talk about how he would talk about things.

Whenever Hollings took the floor of the Senate to make a speech, staffers would often stop their day-to-day business and watch on the Senate’s internal television network to listen to what he would say.

“That’s like delivering lettuce by way of a rabbit,” Hollings could be heard when discussing something dysfunctional about government spending.

by Andy Brack · 08/29/2016 · 3 comments · Andy Brack, Views